Among Uncle Sam's motley assortment of bosom friends, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek has never been known to be red hot for civil liberties and that sort of thing. He is, if only by virtue of his friendliness (or perhaps dependence), a pleasant alternative to Mao TseTung, but the internal affairs of the island of Formosa have occasionally become an embarrassing skeleton in the United States' diplomatic closet.

This week the Chinese skeleton is rattling for all it is worth. A Taipei publisher named Lei Chen made the mistake last summer of starting an opposition party--something that is not done in America's rather tarnished bastion of democracy in the Far East. On September 4, Chang's men arrested Lei on charges of sedition, much to the dismay of Nationalist intellectuals at home and overseas. Now the trial, originally scheduled for October 15, is being pushed through this week, and no one has any serious doubts as to its outcome.

The Lei Chen case would be a disgrace at any time, but for Chiang's American patrons it is particularly disturbing with Premier Khrushchev making loud noises at the UN about a seat for Communist China. Mao has been sufficiently bellicose in the recent past to scare away his usual support from India and other Asian neutrals. Chiang's antics, however, show once again that his friendship (like that of other dictators) is of dubious value for the United States. His dependence on American aid is such that the State Department need not keep quiet while civil liberties die. The lesson of South Korea, where the United States kept hands off and mouths closed until almost too late, has apparently not been learned.