Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, China, Volume II

284. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson) to the Secretary of State¹

[Washington,] July 1, 1955.

SUBJECT

• Exchange of Commissioners Between United States and Communist China for the Purpose of Settling the Prisoner and Student Issues²

The exchange of commissioners with Communist China for the purpose of settling the prisoner and student issues would have a certain appeal and would probably be acceptable to the Communists but on balance, I believe, it would be undesirable for the following reasons:

1. Acceptance by us of a Communist commissioner to inquire into the status of Chinese students in this country would, it seems to me, be inconsistent with our position that the Chinese Nationalist Government is the only legitimate Chinese government and accredited representative and protector of Chinese Nationals and Chinese interests abroad. It is for this reason that we have gone to some lengths to maintain this thesis and have resisted the idea of accepting a “protecting power” to represent Peiping’s interests in this country. We are making a major effort to prevent overseas Chinese from giving allegiance to the Peiping regime by stressing that the Chinese government on Taiwan is the sole appropriate representative of Chinese Nationals and Chinese interests abroad. For us even by implication to acknowledge the right of the Chinese Communist regime to claim the allegiance of or extend protection to Chinese Nationals in this country, would, in my opinion, tend to impair morale on Taiwan and elsewhere in the Far East and appreciably weaken the position of the Chinese Nationalists Government.

2. There is danger that the move would be widely construed as the first step toward the establishment of regular diplomatic relations. Commissioners traditionally have had a representative and quasi diplomatic status of sorts and the term carries a connotation which could be misleading.

3. The great majority of the Chinese students in this country reject the Chinese Communist regime and would resent being subjected to inquiries by or on behalf of a Chinese Communist commissioner in this country who presumed to represent them or to claim the right to protect them.

I suggest as alternatives that we either upgrade our negotiators who have been carrying on the prisoner conversations at Geneva, as suggested by Mr. Phleger, or that accredited Red Cross officials be designated to arrange the release of the Americans held in Communist China and to satisfy themselves that Chinese students in this country are not maltreated as charged and are free to return to the Chinese mainland if they wish.

1. Source: Department of State, FE Files: Lot 56 D 679, Communist China. Secret. The source text is an unsigned carbon copy.
2. The suggestion for an exchange of commissioners was apparently made by Secretary Dulles; see Documents 273 and 274. An unfinished draft paper by Dulles, dated June 27, apparently not sent, stated that an impasse had been reached for the moment on the problem of the Americans in China, suggested that “the time may have come to deal with this matter directly by ourselves sending a representative to Communist China to look into the situation and try to bring about the return [of the Americans], while at the same time we offer to allow a representative of the Chinese Communists to come to this country to check on the freedom to return of the Chinese students”, and declared that this “would not involve any elements of recognition.” (Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Wang–Johnson Talks)