ON "RECOGNITION" AND "SELF-DETERMINATION"

Professor Fairbank has requested that the following elaboration on his remarks at the Quemoy-Matsu "Protest" meeting of Tuesday, September 31, be printed as a letter to the Editors of the CRIMSON.--Ed.)

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

"Recognition of Red China" and "Self-determination for Taiwan" have become slogans but their meaning is seldom precisely defined. Neither is as easy as it sounds. Both represent old-fashioned American ideas which may not work out as effectively as we may hope in practice to-word China.

Suppose we try to "recognize" Peking. It must be a two-way street. If Peking asks, "Do you recognize us as possessing Formosa," we will promptly answer "No," and that may be the end of "recognition" as a real development of two-way relations. On the other hand, we might find it useful to bargain hard about recognition of Communist China as the mainland regime, making this bargain a part of a larger deal. But recognition as a unilateral act on our part is no panacea and will bring no millennium.

Similarly "self-determination" in our election-conscious Western society seems like a natural democratic solution for the people on Formosa, and this principle is undoubtedly basis for a sound policy. But if we expect it to be applied in the form of a "plebiscite" sponsored by the UN, we will be disappointed. Plebiscites are not an old Chinese custom. The Nationalist government on Taiwan is a sovereign power in law and in its own sentiment and view of itself. It would not permit the UN to come in and stage a referendum; nor would it be desirable to let in an outside group of UN observers including Communist representatives.

The best way to demonstrate the principle of self-determination on Taiwan is to continue with the election process which the Nationalist government is now operating at the local level. Whenever this process can be built up and begin to operate for Taiwan as a whole, under the auspices of the present government, it will go far to show that the people there have a form of democratic self-determination. John K. Fairbank '29,   Professor of History.