Update on China’s Cooperation

By Donna Downes Knox

DPMO reports some progress with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on the accounting effort. While there is still a long road ahead, it is encouraging that a dialogue has begun. We are concerned, however, that these initial steps forward will pass for real progress, which they are not, in and of themselves. It has been 47 years since the end of the Korean War. This dialogue should have begun a long time ago. If the Chinese intend meaningful cooperation, they will pick up the pace. Nothing is gained by a series of diplomatic exchanges, unless they lead to meaningful results. We welcome the PRC’s cooperation and hope that they will provide some important information about American servicemen who were lost under Chinese control.

A year ago, in January of 1999, the PRC designated an official in their Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chen Mingming, who will work with the U.S. government on the POW/MIA accounting. DPMO head Bob Jones met with Mr. Chen last September. At that time, Mr. Jones gave Chen a list of 44 American servicemen who remain missing, and about whom it seems the PRC should have information, based on either the circumstances of loss, or information later acquired.

In January of this year, Mr. Jones and Mr. Chen met in Beijing. Chen reported that he had no information about any of the 44 men. These are men who are known to have been alive in Chinese custody during the war, some even after the Armistice was signed and the fighting had stopped. These men didn’t just disappear. The same Communist Party is in power today that was in power then. They know what happened to the men who were not returned.

This is precisely the sort of delicate political situation that will test the mettle of both the Chinese and the American governments. Will they find the courage to answer the hard questions that are on the minds of thousands of American families, who suffer the anguish of not knowing to this day?

Chen has reportedly agreed to an Oral History Program with Chinese veterans of the Korean War who were involved in POW camp operations. Unfortunately, in view of the restrictive environment imposed by the Chinese government on its people, one has to wonder how free these individuals would feel to reveal troubling practices about, for example, the torture, execution, or withholding of American prisoners.

On the other hand, these veterans might be able to shed light on things like burial practices and locations, and documentation and other record keeping in the prisons. Certainly, many of the missing men did die in the camps, and we need answers about their fates. The oral history program is a good step forward in trying to answer questions about men who died in the camps during the war. DPMO is currently developing a proposal for this program, which will be sent to Chen for his consideration.

The PRC continues to deny U.S. requests for a review of Chinese records on the Korean War. Chen states that these records are controlled by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and remain classified. It would be encouraging if the PLA would declassify these materials, in the spirit of open cooperation on this issue. Hiding behind the ‘classified’ label arouses suspicions that are hard to dispel.

Bob Jones asked Mr. Chen if U.S. archivists could at least visit PRC libraries and museums to search unclassified materials, particularly military museums in Dandong and Shanghai. No definitive word on that, yet. However, DPMO reports that Chen has indicated that academic exchanges between PRC and U.S. researchers and historians might be facilitated.

Mr. Jones has proposed a visit to China by representatives of U.S. veteran and family groups to meet with Mr. Chen and Chinese veterans, in an effort to build mutual trust and confidence. DPMO reports that Chen seemed to like the idea. He said he would forward the proposal to his superiors.

The PLA appears to be the force to reckon with, in large part, on questions of missing Americans. So far, PLA officials have dodged requests for a meeting with U.S. officials on the POW/MIA issue. Mr. Chen stated in January that he was not sure of the current status of the U.S. request for such a meeting. I think we can fairly take that as a ‘No’ at this time.

Oral history programs, academic exchanges, and family/veteran visits are all mechanical parts of the accounting process. They represent movement forward from the many years of China’s silence on the POW/MIA issue. But, they alone will not get the job done. These programs will only go as far as both governments’ foreign policy will allow. If China does not want a productive, bi-lateral relationship with the United States, no amount of cajoling will bring about information that undoubtedly lies buried deep within the Chinese Communist Party’s vault.

If China does want to develop good relations with the U.S., therein lies our opportunity for success. Whether or not we achieve that success depends on the foreign policy of those in the White House. A matter of true national priority becomes evident as such by the treatment it gets from our leaders at the highest level. It is not enough that something gets mentioned in the margins of a meeting. President Clinton raises issues of importance to him in forums all over the world. The POW/MIA issue is not one of his issues. If it were, we’d hear more about it.

The U.S. President must send a clear message that accounting for our missing servicemen will be one of the cornerstones of his or her foreign policy. A good example of how that message is lacking in this Administration’s rhetoric, and its policies, lies in President Clinton’s State of the Union address this year.

During the hour and a half that President Clinton ...our military’s Commander in Chief ... addressed the nation, he covered what might loosely be described as ‘everything from soup to nuts’; everything, that is, except our POW/MIAs. He discussed guns, and schools, and race relations. He covered technology and health care. He thanked Hillary for her work and mouthed ‘I love you’ to her for the cameras. He urged global this and global that. He discussed peace and prosperity. Yet, somehow, he never got around to the thousands of men who sacrificed everything so that the rest of us might live in the good times that we now enjoy.

Lip service and marginal priority appear repeatedly on the forefront of this Administration’s policy on the question of missing servicemen. If we expect the PRC to respond to either, we are sadly mistaken.

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