Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Perhaps more surprising than the invective hurled at the United States
for its involvement in Vietnam was China's unexpectedly aggressive over-
all anti-Western position at the conference. Sino-American relations had
thawed remarkably under Nixon, and the president had visited the com-
munist nation in February of 1972. But Tang apparently hoped to use the
conference to establish the People's Republic of China (PRC) as an impor-
tant force in the United Nations, and he and his colleagues staked out a
position as champions of the Third World in the face of “imperialistic
superpowers.” At the time of the conference's initial preparatory meet-
ings in 1971, the People's Republic of China had not yet been admitted to
the United Nations, and Tang insisted on reopening the all but finished
“Declaration on the Human Environment” for “more democratic” revision
now that the PRC had been seated.
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Once reopened, negotiations over
the language of the declaration became a forum for criticism and dissent,
with the United States as a primary target. Despite the concessions of the
Founex Report, many less developed countries still harbored deep reserva-
tions that a U.N. environmental effort would not sufficiently account for
their development needs. China fueled their discontent. “We are firmly
opposed to the superpowers subjecting other countries to their control
and plunder on the pretext of improving the human environment,” Tang
declared.
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Some African nations, Algeria most vocal among them, had
begun to demand compensation for the historical exploitation of their
environments by colonial powers, and Tang supported these demands.
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“Victim countries,” as Tang called them, “have the right to apply sanctions
against and demand compensation from the culprit countries.”
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Because
of the Chinese delegation's focus on the interests of less developed coun-
tries, its critical remarks drew heavy applause from an audience whose
Third World representatives outnumbered the developed world by more
than two to one.
The U.S. delegation handled these developments rather badly. Tang
Ke's scathing remarks proved particularly damaging, not least because
Russell Train and his colleagues had to clear unscripted statements with
the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the White House
before offering a rebuttal. The sequence of events that followed was embar-
rassing. The U.S. delegation asked for rebuttal time immediately after Tang
finished speaking; but after nearly five hours of deliberation, Christian
Herter of the State Department had to ask that the rebuttal be deferred for
