Phony War

The rapprochement between Tokyo and Peking two weeks ago was greeted in Taipei with a show of splendid in dignation. It meant, thundered the China News, nothing less than a return to a state of war between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. In recognizing the government on mainland China, the argument went, Japan had to break diplomatic ties with Tai wan and abrogate their 1952 peace trea ty, leaving relations between the two countries right back where they were before that year -- in a state of war.

It was of course a phony war, even though some Japanese diplomats re ceived threatening telephone calls, Taipei students burned a portrait of Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka, and in one city, protesting doctors symbolical ly burned Japanese pharmaceuticals.

The Taiwan Foreign Ministry prudently concluded that the abrogation of the peace treaty did not automatically restore the state of war, but merely left Taiwan free to act as it chose. The Japanese ambassador in Taipei and Taiwan's man in Tokyo continued to fly their national flags. Consulates still issued visas, but now called them "travel permits." While both sides will eventually withdraw representatives (the Japanese estimate a three-to-six-month phase-out), they will retain strong "unofficial" ties. The reason is simple economics. Taiwan's industry, growing at the healthy rate of 10% a year, takes 39% of its imports from Japan.

But the Japanese know that they cannot continue even unofficial ties with Taiwan indefinitely. Once they begin negotiations with the Communists on a civil air agreement, for instance, they would have a difficult time convincing Peking to allow Japan Air Lines to become the first "two Chinas air line," serving both Taipei and Peking.

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