Chinese Party Chief Puts Off U.S. Visit; Cooling of Ties Seen

In an indication of a cooling of Sino-American relations, China has shelved for at least another year longstanding plans for Communist Party leader Hu Yaobang to visit the United States, according to Chinese sources.

Hu, the party’s general secretary and the top aide to Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, accepted an invitation to visit the United States during President Reagan’s visit to Peking in 1984 but has not yet made the trip. Now, the sources say, it has been decided that he will not go in 1987 either.

The explanation given is that Hu will be too busy preparing for the congress of the Chinese Communist Party to be held next fall. “His schedule will not permit him to go to the United States next year,” one official said.

However, Hu himself has made it plain recently that the timing of his American trip is also linked to political factors.

In an interview in September with Katherine Graham, chairman of the board of the Washington Post Co., the Communist Party leader said he would like to go to Washington but could not do so until he was sure he would have something to show for it “so I can justify myself to the party and people when I return.”

Want Taiwan Contacts

Hu did not specify exactly what he had in mind. However, Western diplomats here say that during the last few months, in private conversations with American officials, Chinese leaders have been pressing hard for U.S. support for an opening of trade, transportation and communications links between China and Taiwan. The Taiwan government opposes all such contacts.

Last week, the United States appeared to rebuff these recent Chinese overtures by repeating its oft-stated view that it will not get embroiled in disputes between China and Taiwan.

In a speech to the San Francisco World Affairs Council, Gaston J. Sigur Jr., assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, declared, “We will not serve as an intermediary or pressure Taiwan. . . . We will leave it up to both sides to settle their differences.”

Regular exchanges of high-level visits are considered to be an important part of relations between the United States and China. Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger visited Peking in October, and although no dates have been announced, Secretary of State George P. Shultz is expected to come here some time early next year.

U.S. Hopes for Others

A Western diplomat in Peking said Tuesday that the United States is hoping to attract some other high-ranking Chinese official to Washington next year.

“We haven’t officially been told Hu’s not (going to the United States), but the body signals have all been in that direction,” the diplomat said, speaking on condition that his country would not be identified.

Last spring, Hu made a widely publicized trip to Western Europe, visiting Britain, France, West Germany and Italy. More recently, under Hu’s leadership, the Communist Party has begun the process of re-establishing party-to-party relations with the Communist parties of Eastern Europe.

Polish Communist Party leader Wojciech Jaruzelski and East German leader Erich Honecker visited China this fall, the first such visits by Soviet Bloc leaders in a quarter century.

The last visit to the United States by one of China’s top three leaders was in January, 1984, when Premier Zhao Ziyang traveled to Washington.