China Seen Ready to Give Pol Pot and Aides Asylum in Political Settlement

WASHINGTON â€”  China, in a move that heightens prospects for an end to the nine-year-old Cambodian conflict, has informed the United States that it is willing to take guerrilla leader Pol Pot and his top aides out of Cambodia and give them permanent asylum when a political settlement is reached.

The potential Chinese maneuver was first broached to U.S. officials in early March during a visit here by then-Foreign Minister Wu Xueqian, according to Administration sources. Follow-up discussions have helped generate a growing belief at the State Department that China is quietly shifting its Cambodia posture in ways that facilitate a negotiated settlement.

The future of Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge fighters, blamed for the deaths of 1 million to 2 million Cambodians during their 1975-78 rule in Phnom Penh, has been a major unresolved issue in a settlement of the war.

Neither Vietnam, whose troops support the current Phnom Penh regime, nor non-Communist nations would accept an arrangement under which Pol Pot and his guerrillas return to power after the Vietnamese withdraw. Yet, they could have a serious chance to do so should China continue to support them militarily.

News of China’s move comes as the Soviet Union also has been showing interest in helping to arrange a Cambodia settlement.

Vietnam, too, has been shifting its posture, announcing that it will withdraw 50,000 of its 120,000 troops from Cambodia this year and agreeing to join talks on a diplomatic settlement.