Suitor Scorned

Taipei rejects Peking

For decades China's Communist leadership had characterized the rival Nationalist regime in Taiwan as "nothing but a government of treason, civil war and dictatorship." Peking has often refused to rule out the possibility of using force to capture the island. But last week China seized the occasion of the forthcoming 70th anniversary of the fall of the Manchu dynasty to step up a propaganda campaign to woo and win Taiwan. In an unprecedented offer, Peking invited the leaders in Taiwan to "share power" with the Communists in a reunified China.

At first glance, Peking's nine-point proposal seemed to offer solutions to all the hitherto irreconcilable differences between the two regimes, both of which claim to be the legitimate government of China. If Taiwan would agree to be politically integrated with the Communist mainland, Peking vowed that it would not interfere in local Taiwanese affairs, and island residents would be permitted to travel freely on the mainland. Reiterating a remarkable concession that has already become part of the Communists' courtship of Taiwan, Peking promised that the island could keep its own armed forces and maintain its present democratic system. Taipei's Nationalist leaders would be offered posts in Peking.

Few analysts believe the Chinese leaders are really prepared to share even a modicum of power with their historic enemies in Taipei. Still, observers feel that Peking is genuinely interested in starting talks that would serve some important domestic and foreign policy goals. The government dominated by Vice Chairman Deng Xiaoping needs to deflect domestic claims that it is not doing enough for reunification. Peking's offer also seems calculated to convince the Reagan Administration that there is no need to sell advanced jet fighters to Taiwan, an issue so serious to the Chinese that they have warned that it would disrupt relations with Washington. Finally, China may have made its offer because of the failing health of Chiang Ching-kuo, 71, President of the Republic of China. Says Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert at Swarthmore College: "Peking is concerned that after Chiang goes, there's no one of prestige and power on the island who could make such a move toward reunification."

Taipei scornfully dismissed the Chinese offer as propaganda. "The only way to bring about national reunification is to abandon the Communist system," declared James Soong, a spokesman for the Nationalist government. He told TIME Correspondent Ross H. Munro: "We will not negotiate with Communist China, period!" Soong ridiculed Peking's assurances that it would not interfere in Taiwan's local affairs after reunification. "They will become the central government, and we will become the local government. Have you ever heard of a central government that doesn't interfere in local affairs?" Asked how native-born Taiwanese would respond to any opening of negotiations between Taipei and Peking, Kang Ning-hsiang, a popular Taiwanese legislator, replied: "We'd fight, we'd revolt. People in Taiwan aren't interested in having the kind of life they lead on the mainland."

But Taiwan's adamant stand against negotiating with Peking may carry its own risks, including the possibility that its intransigence may weaken its standing with the U.S. Says a Western diplomat in Peking: "The strongest argument for negotiating is that Taiwan is never likely to get a better offer from Peking than the one that it now has. Who knows what the situation will be like in ten years? The U.S. could be preoccupied elsewhere in the world even as Peking has become much stronger and capable of driving a harder bargain."

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