Winding up Formosa
ARRIVING, contrary to all the author's expecta- tions, in the midst of a new crisis over Formosa, M. Faure's book poses once again the question of our relationS with Communist China. It is timely, rather than novel or profound. Like many books by well-known political figures, it falls below expectation, demonstrating what we all know but too often forget, that Prime Ministers are vouchsafed no special insights. A visit of five weeks, an interview with Chou En-lai and another with President Mao, is hardly a sufficient basis. In fact, the most substantial part of M. 'Faure's book consists of an analysis of the dif- ferent campaigns and crises—San-Fan, Wu-Fan, Cheng-Feng, and the other orgies of deviation, rectification and denunciation—through which Communist China has passed. We shall be wise, he suggests, to resist the temptation to exaggerate their significance or to interpret them too exclu- sively in the light of Western experience. There is certainly discontent in China, but the regime is firm, and so far as Western policy is concerned, we had better accept the fact that it has come to stay. The direction in which all this points is obvious enough. It is time, M. Faure believes, to wind up the Formosa commitment; it is time to abandon fictions and base Western policy on realities. We cannot go on ignoring 'the existence of a people of six hundred million: and if we do so it will be at our own peril. In all this there is nothing we have not heard many times before, and it is safe to say that it is a view which a large majority of people in this country endorse. But it would be unfortunate if some of M. Faure's other com- ments created a false sense of optimism. Many people will agree, for example, that it would be wise to help China 'accomplish her modernisa- tion.' But what reason is there for concluding, as M. Faure concludes, -that modernisation will 'bring her closer to us, economically and politi- cally'? That may be the result; but, in view of M. Faure's frequently repeated warning that there is `no indication of any third way' and that 'China will not diverge from the path of political dictator- ship and collectivist economy,' it may equally not. If the West decides to recognise the new China, it should be on the grounds that a policy based on realities is better than .a policy based on illusions; and if it decides to aid the new China 'to get out of the rut of backwardness,' action should be based on grounds of common humanity; not on calculations of interest, which may misfire.
GEOFFREY BARRACLOUGli
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