The Two-Americas Gambit Might Help Donald Trump Deal With the One China

Far be it from me to suggest how President-elect Trump should handle the uproar over his taking a phone call from the president of Free China. But here’s what happened when, in the early 1980s, a crisis erupted between two rising powers — Communist China and the Wall Street Journal.It occurred at the start of the Reagan administration, and, as journalistic flaps go, it was a doozy.It was precipitated by a friendly message from Taiwan to Reagan, who had campaigned on, among other things, the notion that President Jimmy Carter had abandoned Free China.Yet when Taiwan sent a message that it looked forward to better relations, the Reagan administration reacted coolly. The Washington Post accused the Taiwanese of trying to cause trouble between America and the communist mainland.Just starting as an editorial writer for the Journal, I tapped out a quick squib. It referred to “Red China” and called Reagan’s coolness to “Free China” a “bad business” — “every bit as shortsighted” as Secretary of State Dulles’s long-ago refusal to “shake hands with Chou En-lai.”It happened that the paper’s then-editor, Robert Bartley, was out of town. His famed deputy, George Melloan, cocked an eyebrow at my draft, marked it up, and stuck it in the paper under the headline, “Invertebrate Diplomacy.” The Journal printed two and a half million copies.The next morning there was a Telex on my desk from the editor of the Journal’s Asian edition, Robert Keatley, saying the editorial was a terrible mistake. When Bartley walked in, I handed the Telex to him, he read it, and disappeared into his office, saying, “I agree with Keatley.”When I stepped out for an early lunch, I encountered in the lobby the vice chairman of Dow Jones, Don Macdonald. He told me he’d just come from Washington to pick up visas to China for the entire board of directors, which was due to have its next meeting in Beijing.It was no longer sure whether the meeting would survive, he told me. I apologized. He told me not to worry about it. The next morning, the People’s Daily in communist China had a front-page editorial attacking the Journal. It ran under the headline “Invertebrate Journalism.”The Chinese editorial was signed by the Xinhua bureau chief in Washington, Peng Di. So I wrote Mr. Peng a letter suggesting that the next time he was in New York, he stop by the Journal. We could have lunch, I suggested.Two years passed.Then, one day about 11 a.m., the phone rang in my office and the caller announced in a Chinese accent, “This is Peng Di.” It took me a moment to remember, and then I exclaimed, “Oh, yes, Mr. Peng, how are you? Nice to hear from you.”“I received your letter,” he said, “and would be very happy to accept your invitation.” So I asked him what date he had in mind. “How about 12:15 today?” he said, adding that his wife was with him.I put him on hold and got Bob Bartley on the blower. He said he would book a private dining room at the Downtown Association, and the four of us went off for what turned out to be a memorable lunch. Mr. and Mrs. Peng maintained a convivial air until the main course.Suddenly, Mr. Peng turned grave and announced the Xinhua was extremely unhappy with our editorial. “It’s time,” he rumbled, “for the Wall Street Journal to recognize that there are not two Chinas, there is only one China.”Mrs. Peng, who understood that Bob Bartley was my superior officer, pointedly looked to him for a reply. He dealt with this by announcing that I would speak for the Journal. Bartley had a wonderful way of putting his aides on the spot.“On behalf of the Wall Street Journal,” I finally said, “I am prepared to offer a deal. The Journal is prepared to acknowledge there is only one China, but we have a condition . . .”“What is that?” Mrs. Peng inquired.“On the condition,” I said, “that Xinhua acknowledge that there are two Americas.”Mr. Peng was drinking a glass of water at the time and spewed it back into his glass.“One America,” I continued, “thinks the one China is the China ruled by the Communist Party in Beijing. The other America thinks the one China is the China ruled by Legislative Yuan that sits on Taiwan.”Mrs. Peng glared at me and then turned to Bartley – who, as I recall it, was smiling broadly – and inquired: “Mr. Bartley, are you telling us that the Wall Street Journal is part of that other America?”“Yep,” was all that was said by Bartley, who knew how to back even a blundering reporter. We sat there in silence for about two minutes and then resumed a cheerful lunch, after which we put the Pengs in a taxi. And neither Bartley nor I ever heard from them again.Dow Jones’ board did make its visit to Beijing. The then-chairman, Warren Phillips, tells me he doesn’t recall the details. But the way I heard the story is that in an interview, a leading Chinese communist bluntly expressed his displeasure over the editorial.Mr. Phillips, himself a former foreign correspondent, was said to have replied: “I would like to quote your late premier, Chou En-lai – ‘When judging your adversaries, look five years forward and five years back.”Which strikes me as good advice still – to the communist Chinese mandarins at Beijing, to the Free Chinese government on Taiwan, and to the President-elect of America, Donald Trump.

The Two-Americas Gambit Might Help Donald Trump Deal With the One China

The Two-Americas Gambit Might Help Donald Trump Deal With the One China

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