CHINA: Cheers in Peking,Trauma in Taiwan

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Japan's embattled Premier Eisaku Sato, who was the first Asian leader to be briefed by the touring Marshall Green, was rudely jostled by the U.S.'s surprises on the Taiwan question. In a rather too-frantic effort to catch up with the American position, his government announced an "understanding" of Peking's claim to Taiwan and promised increased efforts to normalize relations with the Communist regime. That was a diplomatic zag in view of Tokyo's strong economic ties and peace treaty with Taipei, but it was not surprising considering the political bind Sato is in. Japanese public opinion demands a U.S.-style rapprochement with Peking, but the Chinese remain uninterested as long as Tokyo maintains its ties with Taipei.

The result could well be the fall of Sato by the beginning of summer —and possibly an irreparable split in the Liberal Democratic Party, which has governed Japan since the end of the Occupation. Hoping to jog Peking into a more cooperative attitude, some Japanese last week were even considering what they called "the Soviet alternative"—a rapprochement between Tokyo and Moscow. Premier Sato promised to consider a longstanding Soviet proposal for an Asian collective-security arrangement.

Tart Retort. Nowhere, of course, did the communique hit so hard as in Taipei, the city that has been Chiang Kai-shek's "temporary capital" ever since the Nationalist Chinese fled the mainland in 1949. Looking like so many distress signals, red and white banners went up all over Taipei last week with the latest quotations from President Chiang: BE FIRM WITH DIGNITY. BE SELF-RELIANT WITH VIGOR. DO NOT BE DISQUIETED IN TIMES OF ADVERSE CHANGE. In a tart retort to the statement Nixon signed in Shanghai, the Nationalist Foreign Ministry, declared that it would consider "null and void" any agreements on the future of Taiwan reached in Peking. That future, it added in a ritual incantation, would be decided only when "the task of recovering the mainland" is finished.

As the Nationalists see it, the key to their independence is the 1954 Taiwan defense treaty with the U.S., which suggests American guarantees for the regime—and for investors in the island's economy. In fact, if Peking abides by the nonaggression agreement implied in the communique, the treaty is simply irrelevant, since it pledges U.S. aid to Taiwan only in case of "armed attack and Communist subversive activities." Nonetheless, to keep up appearances the Nationalists hope to stall as long as possible the complete withdrawal of the U.S. military presence on Taiwan, now amounting to 8,200 men, most of them assigned to an air transport wing.

Hedged Bets. In that regard, the regime received an unexpectedly firm boost from Green, who arrived in Taipei midway on his tour with declarations that U.S. "commitments" to Taiwan were "as solid as ever." That seemed to confirm what U.S. officials have been saying privately: during the Peking summit the Communists had accepted "gradualist" solutions to the problem of Taiwan.