The Deal Is Off

Premier Nobusuke Kishi's tricky victory of the Chinese flags (TIME, April 21) did not last long. To make a $196 million barter deal with Red China, he had agreed to a Red Chinese trade mission in Tokyo, which would be allowed to fly Communist China's flag over their headquarters and on their cars. To mollify Nationalist China--which had slapped a protest boycott on Japanese goods--Kishi ruled that Red China's flag would not have diplomatic status in Tokyo, but would get police protection under the laws against damaging private property. Formosa was pacified, but the Communists were not. Last week Radio Peking announced that the deal was off.

"Equating the Chinese flag with ordinary property," it huffed, "is a gross insult to the dignity of the People's Republic of China." Furthermore, said Peking, Premier Kishi was "two-faced" and "a notorious Fascist." In a clear attempt to influence Japan's forthcoming elections, Peking spokesmen crudely threatened that Red China would not revive the barter agreement so long as "the impediment of the Kishi government continued to exist."

At week's end signs were that Peking had overplayed its hand and overindulged its mouth. With elaborate unconcern, Japanese Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama predicted that the Chinese Reds would eventually "calm down" and trade with Japan anyway. And as he headed out into the rain for his annual cherryblossom-viewing party, Nobusuke Kishi ostentatiously shared his umbrella with Nationalist China's beaming Ambassador Shen Chin-ting.

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