The World: United Nations: Mao on the Threshold

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For all the high ideals in the Charter, the United Nations is a very down-to-earth and pragmatic organization, which for the most part deals with hard political realities rather than with sweet reason or ideal aspirations. The opportunities for inspirational leadership or crusading are exceedingly rare.

SO said U.N. Secretary-General U Thant last week as he prepared to vacate the post he has held since 1961, a job that the U.N.'s first Secretary-General, Trygve Lie, once characterized as "the most impossible in the world." In an ordinary year, the selection of a new Secretary-General would overshadow most other matters on the agenda of the General Assembly. Ten years ago, in fact, that very issue brought the U.N. to the brink of a breakup when the Soviet Union tried to create an unwieldy three-man directorate in order to keep the post from falling into the hands of another activist in the mold of the late Dag Hammarskjold.

Historic Matter. The selection of a new Secretary-General will indeed be an important topic on the agenda, along with such perennial problems as the Middle East and such current troubles as the civil war in Pakistan. But when the 26th session of the General Assembly convenes in New York this week, under the presidency of Indonesia's Adam Malik, the delegates will be preoccupied with an even more historic matter: the admission of Mao Tse-tung's China to the United Nations.

It is now regarded as certain that the Peking government will be admitted this fall, 22 years after the Communist takeover on the mainland. Nor is there any doubt that the Communist government will immediately be granted China's permanent seat on the 15-seat Security Council; that, too, became a virtual certainty when the U.S. went on record last week as supporting such a move. The remaining question is whether, in the weeks to come, the U.S. will be able to prevent the U.N. from altogether expelling Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist Chinese regime.

Important Question. Washington's current policy, as outlined last month by Secretary of State William Rogers, is a one-China, one-Taiwan approach. The U.S. will support the admission of Peking without the expulsion of Taipei from the General Assembly. That stand involves harrowing legal problems. According to the U.N. Charter, the admission and expulsion of members must be recommended to the General Assembly by the Security Council. If Peking is allowed to take over China's Security Council seat, it is certain to oppose any plan to retain Taipei's U.N. membership, since it argues—as does Chiang's regime—that the island is not a separate country but a part of China.