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Reagan's legacy in Sino-U.S. relations

By Edward Lanfranco

Beijing, China, Jun. 11 (UPI) -- Once the emotions of the moment surrounding the final farewell to Ronald Wilson Reagan subside, students of diplomatic history will debate whether America's fortieth president qualified as a great world leader.

While many lionize him for his role in bringing down the evil empire of the former Soviet Union, his stewardship of America's relations with the People's Republic of China, now a rising power, must also be examined.

In China, Reagan is remembered with reticence and ambivalence.

It took more than 12 hours after China's state-run media had flashed the news of the president's death for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to publicly respond, issuing a terse statement of condolence to the United States government and Reagan family Sunday evening.

There was no mention of his contribution to Sino-U.S. relations.

In all fairness to the Chinese government, the news came in shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday morning. However official pronouncements on Reagan and his legacy since then have remained largely muted.

At Foreign Ministry press briefings this week, United Press International asked spokesman Liu Jianchao how China assessed Reagan's overall contribution to the bilateral relationship.

The spokesman's response on Tuesday was bland and brief: "During his presidency, Mr. Reagan made efforts to promote the improvement and development of China-U.S. relations."

He noted, "China and the U.S. issued a communiqué on August 17, 1982 which set forth the principles for the solution of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan."

"In his capacity as U.S. president, Mr. Reagan's state visit to China in 1984 enhanced exchanges and cooperation between our two countries in various fields," Liu added.

UPI also asked the spokesman to explain the importance of the August 17 communiqué, the last of three documents signed between the executive branch of the U.S. government and Chinese leaders.

Liu Jianchao said, "As one of the three guiding communiqués for China-U.S. relations, the communiqué of August 17 issued 22 years ago remains very important to the development of China-U.S. relations today. We hope this communiqué will be earnestly observed."

China considers the three joint communiqués to underpin ties with the United States, but refuses to recognize the validity of the Taiwan Relations Act established by Congress in 1979.

The August 17 communiqué was the result of a demand made in October 1981 by Deng Xiaoping that the United States set a definite timetable for the end of arms sales to Taiwan, or face the prospect of downgraded diplomatic ties.

Deng was testing to see how far fissures in the Reagan administration between conservative and moderate Republicans, as well as between the White House and State Department over the issue of China, could be exploited.

After intense negotiations, the August 17 communiqué linked a continued diminution of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, both in quantity and quality, to a peaceful situation across the Taiwan Straits.

As in all good compromises, neither side completely got what it wanted: China has continued to tolerate periodic American sales to the island; the U.S. is compelled to cap the quality of weapons and progressively reduce the quantity of what it sells.

Reagan's interpretation of the communiqué was that it maintained a balance across the Taiwan Straits and created a stable atmosphere for the United States to maintain good and close unofficial relations with the island.

In addition to the Foreign Ministry's statements on the former president, the flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, People's Daily, carried two editorials on Reagan.

The first, dated June 7, dealt with his relationship to China. One passage stated, "In April 1984, Ronald Reagan, who had just started his second term as president, paid a six-day official visit to China and became the first in-office U.S. president to visit China after the two nations established diplomatic relations."

The editorial had it half right. Reagan was indeed the first president to visit after full normalization of ties, but his trip to Beijing, Xian and Shanghai in April 1984 occurred during his first term in office.

It is worth remembering that China was the first Communist country Reagan ever visited.

The trip was long on symbolism and short on substance for the bilateral relationship. It was an excellent photo opportunity for Reagan in the run up to his reelection in November 1984, and a chance for the president to play one of his strongest roles, that of the Great Communicator.

Reagan's speeches in China emphasized American values of freedom and democracy and highlighted common interests in trade and anti-Soviet strategy. Authorities in Beijing censored the Chinese translation of his addresses at the Great Hall of the People and China Central Television.

The president was able to get his message across uncensored when he spoke at Fudan University in Shanghai; however his address was carried on live television in English without translation. He used the opportunity to communicate directly with the people of China over the heads of its leaders.

The People's Daily editorial described the speech as "encouraging young Chinese never to abandon their dreams."

Vice President Dick Cheney commemorated Reagan's address when he went to Fudan in April 2004 by saying, "Twenty years ago, almost to the day, President Ronald Reagan spoke at this university and expressed the essence of economic and political freedom."

The second People's Daily editorial on June 10 attempted to assess the historical impact of the president, casting him as the quintessential Cold Warrior.

One passage reads: "In his foreign policy, Reagan was a 'perfect and typical Cold War fighter ... he mobilized all resources of America and even of the West as a whole for 'Cold War' against the then Soviet-led socialist camp."

What the editorial left out was that during Reagan's tenure China and the United States worked together closely to deter Soviet aggression in Afghanistan, sharing intelligence and sending arms to the mujahedin.

Moreover, the Reagan administration sold avionics kits to upgrade China's F-8 fighter as well as improve submarine torpedoes and artillery shells.

There are two key points, one bad and one good, to remember about the Reagan legacy with regards to China.

On the downside, his sanguine assessment that the Chinese "weren't really communists" contributed to an unrealistic perception in the United States of China and its political culture which ended on June 4, 1989.

Most importantly however was that despite his staunch anti-communist ideology and moral conviction that Taiwan was a friend and ally deserving of support and recognition, Ronald Reagan did not alter the basic course of full, normalized diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.