The Nome Nugget

Chou En-Lai Offers to Negotiate With U.S. on Formosa Area Tension

BANDUNG, Indonesia (AP) - Premier Chou En-lai of Red China offered Saturday to negotiate with the United States on tensions in the Far East, including the Formosa area.

In a move interpreted as the launching of a new Communist peace offensive in Asia, Chou issued this formal statement at the Asian-African conference:

"The Chinese people are friendly to the American people. The Chinese people do not want to have a war with the United States of America.

"The Chinese government is willing to sit down and enter into negotiations with the United States to discuss the question of relaxing tension in the Far East, especially . . . in the Taiwan (Formosa) area."

The Chou statement was issued after an informal luncheon conference that included representatives of the Colombo powers, sponsors of the Asian-African meeting, Thailand, China and the Philippines.

The five Colombo powers are India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ceylon and Burma.

Burma's Premier U Nu, who has assumed the role of an East-West negotiator and plans a trip to the United States, called the Chou statement "a good step toward ending world tension."

Officials in Washington reacted with extreme caution to Chou's statement. They said, however, it may be his most determined effort so far to break out of diplomatic and economic isolation.

In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said Britain "is interested in any idea which might provide the basis for settlement" of Far East problems.

But the reaction on Formosa was cold. A spokesman for Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government termed Chou's offer "another Communist move intended to divide the free world."

He noted Red China's move was timed on the eve of the arrival at Taipeh of Adm. Arthur W. Radford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Asst. Secretary of State Walter S. Robertson.

The spokesman said the United States "is on record" that it will take no part in discussions of Formosa without Nationalist participation. "And the Communists know it," he added.