279. Editorial Note
On August 22 the Department of State issued a press release which stated, in part, that the Secretary of State had determined “that it may prove consistent with the foreign policy of the United States that there be travel by a limited number of American news representatives to the mainland of China in order to permit direct reporting by them to the American people about conditions in the area under Chinese Communist control.” Twenty-four newsgathering organizations had indicated an interest in stationing a correspondent in China on a resident basis for 6 months or longer. The Department of State accepted “that this number comes within the intent of the Secretary’s determination” and was prepared to issue a passport authorizing travel to mainland China, on an experimental basis, to one correspondent from each of the newsgathering organizations. The passports would be validated for a period of 7 months and the correspondents involved were warned that those traveling to mainland China “do so knowing that they face abnormal personal risks due to the failure of the Chinese Communist regime to treat American citizens in accordance with the accepted code of civilized nations.” The United States would not, it was emphasized, “accord reciprocal visas to Chinese bearing passports issued by the Chinese Communist regime.” The release concluded with the statement that, generally speaking, “it is still not consistent with United States policy, or lawful, that there be travel by Americans to areas of China now under Communist control.” The press release included a list of the 24 organizations authorized to send correspondents to China. (Department of State Bulletin, September 9, 1957, pages 420–421) The press release had been approved by the President on August 21. (Memorandum from Dulles to Eisenhower, August 21; Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, White House Memoranda)
In a discussion of the press release on August 20 by the Secretary and senior advisers from L, P, FE, and SCA, Dulles observed that the climate of opinion conditioning the United States approach to China was changing, and he anticipated that policy would have to change with it:
“The Secretary then noted that no one in Congress has supported our past policy regarding the travel of correspondents to Communist China. He also suggested the time is approaching when we must treat Communist China on the same basis we treat the Soviet Union. We have nearly reached this situation with regard to trade. Even when the US did not recognize the USSR, he noted, the US permitted travel to and trade with the Soviet Union. The difference in the case of Communist China, however, is that American citizens are being held in prison there and the Communist Chinese regime has refused to renounce the use of force, particularly with regard to [Page 585] Taiwan.” (Memorandum of conversation, prepared by Donald R. Toussaint of S/S, August 21; Department of State, Central Files, 993.6211/8–2157)
On August 26 the People’s Republic of China responded to the United States announcement. In an article in the People’s Daily, the Department of State decision to permit a limited number of American correspondents to travel to China was rejected as “completely unacceptable.” The newspaper charged that the decision had discourteously ignored the principle of reciprocity in ruling out the granting of visas to Chinese correspondents. (The People’s Daily article of August 26 is quoted from and analyzed in the New York Times, August 26, 1957.)