Gen. Vessey Ends Peking Talks; Chinese General Will Visit U.S.

Gen. John W. Vessey Jr., chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, left Peking on Tuesday after a series of meetings with Chinese civilian and military leaders that produced no announcement of when U.S. Navy ships may visit Chinese ports.

Vessey, the highest-ranking U.S. military official to visit China since 1949, held discussions with Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang and with Yang Dezhi, chief of the general staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, during a three-day visit here.

After the meetings, it was announced that Gen. Yang--who heads the world’s largest army and who commanded Chinese troops in the Korean War--has agreed to visit the United States. The date for that trip has not been fixed.

In recent months, Chinese and U.S. officials have confirmed that the two countries are in the process of planning U.S. Navy port calls in China, which would be the first such visits since the Communist takeover in 1949.

The Chinese position is that these calls are simply a reflection of normal relations between two countries, and that ships of other friendly countries, such as Australia, have already been permitted such calls. At a news briefing last month, a Foreign Ministry spokesman declined to answer a question whether China would permit a Soviet ship to make a port call.

Neither U.S. nor Chinese officials would provide any details about what was discussed during Vessey’s meetings here. State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb acknowledged Monday that the United States and China have been holding talks on modernization of Peking’s navy, but he said no agreement on weapons sales has been reached. Kalb confirmed that another U.S. delegation, led by Melvyn R. Paisley, an assistant secretary of the Navy, will soon go to China to continue discussions.

The reports of U.S. plans to help the Chinese navy touched off a strong reaction in Taiwan. Newspapers there quoted a Foreign Ministry source as warning that U.S. sales to China could threaten peace in Asia and that Washington should carefully examine China’s present military power before selling the country any weapons.

Vessey will now visit Chinese military facilities in the cities of Shenyang, Hangzhou, Shanghai and Canton. He will leave the country Saturday.