The Week

■ France’s finest chefs are steaming because Secret Service men were assigned to supervise them at Versailles as they prepared Ronald Reagan’s chow. No doubt they rightly feel that this was a needless affront to their honor, considering that they have resisted every temptation to poison François Mitterrand.

■ It is this simple: the (inside) report is that the PRC lobby is getting ready to move decisively against Taiwan. The proposal will be that a so-called “Shanghai II” manifesto be published, reiterating that Taiwan is a province of China, but suggesting (this time around) that it is organically subordinate. There would follow (so goes the proposal) a recommendation that the Taiwan Relations Act be modified to provide, at some time in the future, for cutting off U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. When this proposal reached the President (it is reported) he sent it back, ordering modifications. Question: What modifications? How severe? There is no doubting that the PRC has moved mightily, threatening every kind of sanction, to persuade the U.S. to turn its back on Taiwan. Vice President Bush got an earful in Peking, and Peking’s representatives have been busy, using their considerable network. Reagan- ites are betting that the same man who ordered tougher sanctions against the Soviet pipeline won’t give in on Taiwan, with whose continued independence his political reputation is so firmly associated. But hang on to your hats, and let your views be known.

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■ France’s finest chefs are steaming because Secret Service men were assigned to supervise them at Versailles as they prepared Ronald Reagan’s chow. No doubt they rightly feel that this was a needless affront to their honor, considering that they have resisted every temptation to poison François Mitterrand.

■ It is this simple: the (inside) report is that the PRC lobby is getting ready to move decisively against Taiwan. The proposal will be that a so-called “Shanghai II” manifesto be published, reiterating that Taiwan is a province of China, but suggesting (this time around) that it is organically subordinate. There would follow (so goes the proposal) a recommendation that the Taiwan Relations Act be modified to provide, at some time in the future, for cutting off U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. When this proposal reached the President (it is reported) he sent it back, ordering modifications. Question: What modifications? How severe? There is no doubting that the PRC has moved mightily, threatening every kind of sanction, to persuade the U.S. to turn its back on Taiwan. Vice President Bush got an earful in Peking, and Peking’s representatives have been busy, using their considerable network. Reagan- ites are betting that the same man who ordered tougher sanctions against the Soviet pipeline won’t give in on Taiwan, with whose continued independence his political reputation is so firmly associated. But hang on to your hats, and let your views be known.