World: Teng’s Great Leap Outward

Shortly after the U.S. announced its rapprochement with the People’s Republic of China last December after nearly 30 years of bone-deep hostility, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance declared: “A new era is upon us.” But the idea of “a new era” is a hard one to grasp, and despite acres of newsprint, miles of film footage and endless commentaries, nothing is likely to drive home the reality of it all more effectively than the tableau that is to unfold this week: a diminutive (barely 5 ft.), elderly (74 years) Chinese gentleman alighting from a white Boeing 707 at an airport near Washington and plunging into a hectic, week-long visit to the U.S.

The visit of China’s spry, shrewd Vice Premier Teng Hsiao-p’ing is the stunning climax of the Great Leap Outward that he conceived, planned and executed for China after decades of xenophobic isolation. It marks the first official visit to the U.S. by a top-level Chinese leader since the Communist takeover in 1949. Nearly five years ago, when he was China’s Deputy Premier, Teng flew to New York to address the U.N. General Assembly, but he was not an official visitor; Washington and Peking did not have full diplomatic relations. This time Teng rates the complete ceremonial treatment. He is to spend at least five hours with President Carter during three sessions at the White House. He meets tout Washington in a dizzying three-day whirl of breakfasts and banquets, sightseeing tours and working lunches. He then embarks on a four-day cross-country fiesta that offers him additional fetes, factory tours, press conferences and even barbecue and wild West shows—plus an unequaled public forum for airing China’s views.

Both Teng and Jimmy Carter stand to gain from the state visit. Both hope that their summit talks will enhance their political prestige at home, shore up support for the normalization of relations between the U.S. and China, and pacify domestic critics of the two countries’ dramatic new directions in foreign policy.

But the visit also holds potentially grave risks. Moscow’s Americanologists are geared up to scrutinize every public statement—every toast, every press conference comment, every offhand remark —by Teng for evidence of an anti-Soviet thrust to his visit. In an interview with Time Inc. Editor in Chief Hedley Donovan four days before embarking on his U.S. journey, Teng was openly, explicitly anti-Soviet, going so far as to urge a U.S.China alliance against Moscow (see following story). Publication of the interview on the day Teng is to sit down for his first talk with President Carter could confirm the Soviets’ worst suspicions.

Some Soviet officials have warned that if the Teng visit proves to be an extravaganza of bearbaiting, they may further delay a strategic arms limitation treaty or scuttle it altogether. At the very least, high-level Soviet officials deplore the possibility of what some call a “love feast” between the U.S. and the Chinese.

For the Carter Administration, the diplomatic challenge is to balance what Moscow is certain to see as the inherently anti-Soviet nature of the visit. Thus, Carter was careful to note in his State of the Union message that the new U.S. relationship with China “is not directed against the interests of any other country,” and that he would like “to welcome President Brezhnev to our country in the near future.” U.S. officials are hoping that Teng, having aimed a heavy salvo at Moscow in his TIME interview, will hold his fire while on American soil. As one State Department observer put it: “Teng’s too smart to abuse hospitality.”

That hospitality promised to be lavish, as Washington, Atlanta, Houston and Seattle geared up to entertain Teng. Other locales were considered and rejected, largely because of the potential for bad weather: Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Des Moines, Kansas City and Cincinnati, as well as cities in Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi and Tennessee. Said one scheduler: “We wanted diversity and national representation. But we also wanted to be able to get him in and out of places.”

In Washington, where Kings, Prime Ministers and Presidents are routinely received with equanimity bordering on boredom, Teng’s arrival provoked the keenest excitement. Not since Nikita Khrushchev flew in from Moscow to take a crack at detente 20 years ago has a state visit aroused so much exhilaration and frenzied agitation. As 160 hand-sewn red-and-gold Chinese flags blossomed atop lampposts along the route of Teng’s motorcade, a White House task force labored to provide a memorable reception for Teng and his entourage of 75 (key members: Foreign Affairs Minister Huang Hua, Vice Premier Fang Yi and Foreign Trade Minister Li Chiang).

The Administration seemed determined to return the hospitality Peking has shown to a stream of American visitors over the past seven years: Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (eight trips), Vance, National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Energy Secretary James Schlesinger.

Thus, on the day following Teng’s arrival, the Vice Premier was to be given full honors on the south lawn of the White House: a 19-gun salute ringing out from cannon on the ellipse, national anthems played by the Marine Band, honor guards from the five uniformed services. Among the battle flags the servicemen were to carry on their standards: pennants commemorating U.S. combat against the Chinese in the Korean War. Carter faced a protocol problem of his own in his welcoming speech. Should he mention China’s Premier and Party Chairman Hua Kuo-feng? His advisers said yes, that prudence dictated some acknowledgment of the head of government left behind in China.

The first of the three Teng-Carter summit meetings was to be held around the burnished mahogany table in the Cabinet Room of the White House. Vice President Walter Mondale, Vance, Brzezinski and Ambassador-designate to China Leonard Woodcock were scheduled to join Carter. According to U.S. officials who have drafted an agenda, the first major subject was to be a general review of global issues. The talk is virtually certain to focus on China’s obsession: Soviet activity around the world. Other likely topics include such crisis situations as Viet Nam’s rout of the Chinese-supported regime in Cambodia, the Shah’s departure from Iran, tensions in southern Africa.

U.S. officials were certain that Teng and his aides would go on at length about the Soviets’ “hegemonist intentions.” Said a Government analyst who has heard Teng’s presentations several times: “They’ve been doing that to us for six years.” Another State Department expert predicted that no matter how muted Teng might prove in his public statements, in private he would stress that the primary object of his trip was to persuade the U.S. to take a tougher stance toward the Soviet Union. That, said the expert, would take precedence even over Teng’s search for help in modernizing China.

Since Africa is an area in which both the U.S. and China have sometimes shared a common interest, Carter was expected to explain how the U.S. attempt to implement the Anglo-American plan for Rhodesia has bogged down. The President may even indirectly solicit Teng’s ideas about how China might help to counter Soviet expansionism on the African continent. In addition, Carter was likely to feel Teng out for any discernible shift from the traditional Chinese call for unilateral U.S. withdrawal from South Korea.

High on the summit agenda was a discussion of how to improve trade relations, specifically a way to resolve the problem of frozen assets held by both sides. A longer-range possibility is that the U.S. might grant most-favored-nation status to China. Until now, the highly restrictive emigration policies practiced by both China and the U.S.S.R. have prevented those countries from benefiting from M.F.N. status, under the terms of the 1973 Jackson-Vanik Amendment. Lately, however, Peking has sharply upped the number of emigration permits granted Chinese citizens seeking to join-relatives in the U.S., from about 25 per month in 1978 to about 2,000 in the first weeks of 1979. As a result, it seemed probable that M.F.N. status would be discussed further with China later this year, after visits to Peking on related trade matters by Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal and Commerce Secretary Juanita Kreps. Once China gained M.F.N. status, tariffs could be cut by as much as 200%.

Though the M.F.N. issue will not be fully resolved during Teng’s visit, a U.S.Chinese agreement on cooperation in science and technology was expected to be signed by Teng and Carter at a midweek ceremony at the White House. The agreement provides for an exchange of scientists and agriculture specialists. Chinese and American officials are also working on an agreement that would establish U.S. consulates in cities like Shanghai, Chinese missions in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

Sprinkled among the talks on substantive issues will be numerous diversions, and the White House task force charged with entertainment for Teng and Co. has been under heavy siege. Soon after the President announced Teng’s visit earlier this month, a fierce scramble began for invitations to the Jan. 29 state dinner. Carter was sharply criticized for his decision to invite Nixon, although he explained he did so on the ground that the disgraced ex-President had pioneered U.S. rapprochement with China. But by issuing the invitation, Carter managed to discourage Teng from his desire to visit Nixon at San Clemente. A quarrel also developed in the White House over whether to invite Ted Kennedy. Though the Senator had long been an advocate of normalization of relations with China, some of Carter’s advisers were loath to let their chief share the glory with a potential rival for the presidency. They were decisively overridden by Vance, who insisted that Kennedy be seated among the 130 invited guests, who included Mondale, Kissinger, congressional leaders, Harvard Sinologist John Fairbank, Writer Theodore White, United Auto Workers President Douglas Fraser.

White House staffers could scarcely attend to preparations for the summit meetings, so besieged were they by calls from would-be banqueters. “People will kill for a ticket to the state dinner,” declared one amused businessman. Sighed a senior White House official: “If we invited everyone who claims an undeniable right to come, we’d have to hold the damn thing in the Capital Center”—a reference to Washington’s 19,000-seat sports arena.

Crowning the Teng festivities in Washington this week is a gala entertainment at the Kennedy Center for the Vice Premier and 600 selected guests, including Washington’s Government and business elite. They will view the ballet Rodeo and excerpts from the Broadway musical Eubie and hear John Denver sing his country songs. One Washington wag suggested that Teng would probably prefer a show performed exclusively by Russian defectors: Dancers Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov and ex-Moscow Philharmonic Conductor Kiril Kondra-shin, for example.

Teng’s determination to modernize China’s backward industry by the year 2000 led him to request tours of the advanced technology production lines for which U.S. industry is celebrated. During a 24-hr, swing through Georgia, he will visit the Ford Motor Co.’s assembly plant near Atlanta. His tour guide: Henry Ford II. Dinner that night at the mansion of Georgia Governor George Busbee will feature spinach soufflé, thinly sliced veal and vanilla mousse—all foods especially selected for eaters unskilled in the use of a knife and fork.

Tengs next stop, Houston, was scheduled because of his expressed interest in space and oil technology. At the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, astronauts plan to tuck Teng into the cramped cockpit of a space shuttle training ship and take him through a simulated flight through space. The next day he will tour plants manufacturing the oil-drilling equipment China needs if the country is to utilize more fully its substantial oil reserves. When he tours the Hughes Tool Co. in Houston, Teng will be shown tungsten carbide oil-drill bits costing as much as $12,000 apiece. The Chinese bits now being made in Shanghai are similar to models manufactured in Texas 40 years ago. At a rodeo and barbecue, Teng will be presented with a cowboy hat.

When Teng is taken through a Boeing plant near Seattle, company officials hope to avoid a repetition of the mishap that occurred earlier this month. A Chinese advance delegation came upon a gleaming new 747, destined for Taiwan, with the Republic of China’s flag emblazoned on its tail. Flustered, the delegation chief lifted a finger in rebuke and declared, “One China!”

Nearly 1,000 press and TV reporters from all over the world will cover Teng at one point or another during his trip, in addition to the 29 Chinese newsmen in his own party. Chinese cameramen will film the Vice Premier’s activities for a half-hour broadcast each night, beamed by earth satellite to television viewers throughout China. In addition to getting some priceless exposure back home, Teng surely figures that by displaying the high U.S. standard of living and advanced technology on TV he can win considerable support for his modernization programs. His admiration for things American has already brought Charlie Chaplin films, Coca-Cola and a host of U.S. technicians to China.

Also traveling with Teng will be a battalion of security men. Though the U.S. Secret Service refuses to give out the number of agents assigned to Teng, its security effort will be among the largest in history. Vacations have been canceled and agents have been ordered to the cities Teng will visit in order to beef up regular details. C-141 cargo planes will fly two armored limousines around the country for Teng and his aides. The planes will carry additional agents, weapons, medical equipment and special communications gear as well.

Washington police have prepared for expected demonstrators by erecting storm fences around Lafayette Park, which is across from the White House and adjacent to Blair House, where Teng will stay. Demonstrations will be limited to restricted areas. Police and Secret Service agents will be armed with pistols, shotguns and machine guns, a show of force primarily intended to ward off pro-Taiwan groups that have objected to Carter’s rupture of ties with the island in favor of the People’s Republic. The Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative youth group, announced it would demonstrate and distribute thousands of wall posters denouncing China’s human rights record.

American Maoists are also angry with Teng, charging that he has betrayed the late Chairman’s principles by abandoning egalitarianism and cozying up to capitalism. Last week five American Maoist radicals splattered the Chinese embassy in Washington with paint and smashed its foyer windows. Shortly after police caught the five, another group of American radicals began parading in front of the embassy, chanting “Long live Mao” and handing out literature calling Teng “that sawed-off revisionist.”

Teng is used to epithets. As he pointed out in his interview with Hedley Donovan, Soviet Party Chief Leonid Brezhnev characterizes him as “the worst Chinese.” To the Kremlin, Teng’s policies are anathema, particularly his warmth to ward the U.S. Last week Pravda ridiculed Washington for forming “a mutual admiration society” with Peking. “You think you are using the Chinese,” a senior Soviet official warned TIME Moscow Bureau Chief Bruce Nelan. “But look out, they are craftier than you.” Another Soviet bureaucrat, reflecting on his country’s military assistance to China in the 1950s, said, “You sell them two airplanes, and two years later they have an airplane factory.”

Essentially, what troubles the Kremlin most is Teng’s determination to turn to the West for the arms China needs to modernize its defenses against the U.S.S.R.’s overwhelmingly superior military might. Peking has expressed particular interest in antitank and antiaircraft weapons, which could be interpreted as a sign of concern over the elite Soviet troops arrayed across China’s borders; only last week U.S. Defense Secretary Harold Brown noted that the Soviets have stationed “as much as a quarter of their ground and tactical air forces in the vicinity of China.” As seen from Moscow, however, China’s formidable standing army of 3 million to 6 million men makes it a grave potential menace if it is supplied with almost any modern arms. Nor does it comfort Moscow—or Washington, either—to know that Peking is already producing materiel ranging from copies of the Soviet AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle to trigger elements for hydrogen bombs.

This winter Brezhnev wrote to the leaders of West Germany, France, Italy and Britain, warning that detente would suffer if they sold arms to China. Thus far only British Prime Minister James Callaghan has chosen to ignore Brezhnev completely; Paris and Rome are hesitant to make substantial arms sales to Peking, while Bonn has refused to sell anything at all. Next month London is expected to confirm the sale to Peking of such sophisticated weapons as 70 Harrier vertical ” takeoff jet fighters, short-range air-to-air and infantry antitank missiles, and Scorpion armored vehicles.

In an effort to placate the Kremlin, Carter wrote Brezhnev two weeks ago that the U.S. had no plans to sell arms to China. But the President said he would not stand in the way of Western European arms sales to Peking, news that surely displeased Brezhnev.

Moscow’s dismay over the growing links between Washington and Peking is going to be a longtime problem for U.S. policymakers, and could cancel out any gains that might result from Teng’s visit. Vance argued two weeks ago that the Carter-Teng summit will “increase the chances of maintaining a stable equilibrium among the U.S., Japan, China and the Soviet Union.” But Soviet officials do not see it that way, and as Teng touched down in Washington, the delicate triangular relationship among the U.S., China and the U.S.S.R. was hanging in the balance.