American Notes

When Vice President George Bush faced Chinese Vice Premier Wan Li across the net at Peking's International Club early one morning last week, the doubles match struck some as a paradigm of his six-day China visit. Teamed with Donald Gregg, his national security adviser, Bush took the first two sets, 6-3 and 6-4, then lost the third on a tie breaker, 6-7, after Wan changed partners.

The Vice President's trip was a success, but the Chinese made him work hard. Bush wanted to lobby for improved trade. While cordial in private, Chinese Leader Deng Xiaoping publicly upbraided the U.S. for its continued support of Taiwan, which he called the "principal problem" between the two countries. Bush was pleasant but unyielding. "They know our position, and we * know theirs," he said. Obstacles aside, the U.S. is now China's third-largest trading partner (estimated 1985 total: $7 billion), after Japan and Hong Kong. By week's end Bush had good news: the NATO-Japan coordinating committee on export controls, which oversees Western high-tech sales to Communist countries, decided to allow more such transactions with Peking.