In the Trail off Teng

Tough questions after a whirlwind visit

"No one knows how this American-Chinese venture will end." So remarked the Soviet press agency Tass last week in the wake of Chinese Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-p'ing's nine-day whirlwind tour of the U.S. The Tass observation was certainly valid. The Chinese leader's candor and expansive personality had charmed the American public, and most of the visit's achievements were on that psychological level. But few concrete answers emerged to some of the tough questions raised by Jimmy Carter's policy of normalizing relations with Peking.

The trickiest issue involves the impact normalization may have on U.S.-Soviet relations. Although Teng repeatedly used the U.S. as a forum to invoke the specter of Soviet "hegemony," Administration experts believe that Moscow was not too seriously upset. Teng apparently took care to say nothing that the Russians had not already heard from him. Said one State Department analyst: "Teng had it figured just about right; he knew what would play and what wouldn't." As a result, Moscow only mildly rebuked the U.S. Charged Pravda (inaccurately): "No one [in America] objected to the malicious anti-Soviet insinuations." Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin added his own complaint that Washington had not "refuted" Teng's "outrageous" statements. A more substantial Soviet reaction to Teng's visit could yet come, perhaps in a speech by Kremlin Chief Leonid Brezhnev.

The Administration has been taking great pains to demonstrate its evenhandedness in dealing with Moscow and Peking. Example: as Teng went barnstorming through four U.S. cities, American and Soviet diplomats in Geneva continued negotiating what may be the final details of

SALT II. And even as Teng was on his way home, White House Science Adviser Frank Press was arriving in Moscow. There Press emphasized that the U.S.Chinese agreements on science and technology contained nothing that was not already available to the U.S.S.R. Press also signed an accord setting next year's agenda for the seven-year-old U.S.-U.S.S.R. Joint Commission on Science and Technology. The two nations will work on projects dealing with meteorology, water resources and microbiology.

Also worrisome to the Administration is the mounting tension on the China-Viet

Nam border. Peking has massed about 150,000 troops and 200 planes near the frontier. Last week, in the first such message since normalization, Washington publicly declared that it would be "seriously concerned" over any Chinese attack on Viet Nam. Teng has warned that Hanoi should be "punished" for invading Cambodia and toppling the Pol Pot regime, which was backed by China. The Administration fears that any Chinese punishment could provoke retaliation from the Soviet Union, which last year signed a friendship treaty with Hanoi. Indeed, the U.S.S.R. has already begun assembling a naval task force of about a dozen warships off Viet Nam's coast.

Another question unanswered by Teng's visit: Taiwan's future. Teng repeatedly balked at pledging that Peking would not use force to regain Taiwan. While the Administration claims to be satisfied that Peking will only seek unification peacefully, many lawmakers are not so sure. At Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings last week, New York Republican Jacob Javits said it was absolutely necessary for the U.S. "to lay it on the line very clearly [that it] will not tolerate the use of force to suffocate Taiwan." He and a number of his colleagues want to enact legislation giving Taiwan substantial security guarantees. Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher has warned that Carter will veto any resolution "incompatible with the basic underlying notion of normalization." At week's end, however, Carter stressed that "if we-feel that Taiwan is unnecessarily endangered ... there is certainly nothing to prevent a future President or Congress from going to war, if they choose, to protect the people of Taiwan."

Meanwhile, normalization is continuing. The Foreign Relations Committee last week approved Leonard Woodcock's nomination as the first U.S. ambassador to Communist China. Later this month Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal heads for Peking to negotiate the basic accords that will pave the way for extensive U.S.-Chinese economic and commercial exchanges. And possibly this year Carter will repay Teng's visit. The Chinese leader has promised "a warm welcome and reception."

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