Wu Hsiu-chuan, chief Chinese Communist delegate to the Sixth Congress of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) of East Germany, had very rough going on January 18 when he delivered a speech to the congress attacking the "Yugoslav revisionists" and their fellow travellers. The attack provoked an uproar of booing, whistling and foot-stamping by other satellite delegates.
The Jen Min Jih Pao (People's Daily) charged in an editorial on January 27, that Wu was repeatedly stopped in his speech by the executive chairman of the congress, Paul Verner. When Wu ignored the warning and continued talking, the official translators refused to translate his speech at some points and his words were lost. After the speech, Verner went so far as to protest that he "most decidedly rejected" the criticism of Yugoslav revisionism which "contradicts all the norms prevailing among Communist and revolutionary workers parties."
The January 15-21 Congress, attended by leaders of the Communist bloc including Nikita Khrushchev, had been prepared by the East German Communists as an occasion for condemning Peiping's "false" concepts, according to a January 11 UPI dispatch from Berlin. As predicted, the strife between the Chinese Communists and the Soviets reached a new climax.
In his speech, Wu first attacked those "self-styled Marxist-Leninists," referring apparently to those in the Kremlin, "who distorted facts in the Sino-Indian border war and joined blindly in Nehru's anti-China chorus."
He then turned his blade directly to the Yugoslav revisionists and described them as "betraying Marxism-Leninism, carrying on subversive work against the socialist camp and world Communist movement, and engaging in activities which prejudice the unity of all the peace-loving forces and countries." He quoted the 1960 Moscow statement:
"Further exposure of the leaders of Yugoslav revisionists and active struggle to safeguard the Communist movement and the working class movement from the anti-Leninist ideas of the Yugoslav revisionists, remains an essential task of the Marxist-Leninist parties."
Stating that the Chinese Communist Party "has consistently worked to uphold and strengthen the unity of the socialist camp," Wu reiterated the Peiping proposal that "a meeting of representatives of the Communist and workers parties of all countries should be convened to iron out differences and strengthen unity through comradely discussion and consultation."
Wu's speech was not heard by Khrushchev who, perhaps detecting what was in store, took time out that morning to visit an East Berlin electronics factory.
Khrushchev had made a two-hour-and-a-half long address to the congress two days before. In addition to praising his own "policy of peaceful coexistence" and blasting the "Albanian leaders," Soviet term for Chinese Reds, for their "belief that war with the West is inevitable" and their "talk of nonsense about rockets and nuclear warfare," Khrushchev flatly turned down the recent Peiping call for a meeting of the world's Communist parties. "Such a meeting," he said, "would lead, not to a calm and judicious removal of differences, but to their aggravation and to the danger of a split."
However, Khrushchev seemed to have changed his mind three weeks later. An article in the February 10 edition of Pravda announced that the CPSU was "ready to accept any bilateral meeting at any level, and at any time, if any party, irrespective of how significant the differences are, shows an interest in such a meeting."
The Soviet party said that it now "favors the convocation of another meeting of Marxist-Leninist parties if the fraternal parties regard it as expedient," adding that "the success of such a meeting would be promoted by the necessary preparation, to give time a chance to do its work and to clear away all the extraneous irrelevant stuff that has been introduced in the passion of polemics."
Bitter Counterblast
The Communist Jen Min Jih Pao, in an editorial on January 27 entitled "Let Us Unite on the Basis of the Moscow Declaration and the Moscow Statement," delivered a bitter counterblast to the "utterly uncomradely and rude manner" with which the East German Congress had treated the Chinese Communist delegates. "This outrageous practice was all the more serious because it was carefully planned," the paper said.
It blamed the East German confab for its failure to "strengthen unity among the fraternal parties," its shielding in many ways the "Yugoslav revisionist clique, the betrayers of Marxism-Leninism," and its "vulgar as well as completely futile behavior to deprive delegates of fraternal parties opposing Yugoslav revisionism of the opportunity to speak." The paper then warned that "the Moscow declaration and the Moscow statement ... are in great danger of being publicly torn up, and the unity of the socialist camp and of the international Communist movement is under a grave threat."
The Communist official paper regarded it a "strange and almost incredible" phenomenon that "in the view of certain comrades, adherence to the principles of the Moscow statement was impermissible and illegitimate while the Yugoslav revisionism condemned by the Moscow statement was to be welcomed and was legitimate."
It quoted "Comrade Khrushchev" as having said in the fifth East German congress: "The anti-Marxist, anti-Leninist views of the Yugoslav leaders were subjected to thoroughgoing principled criticism" and "When the Yugoslav leaders declare they are Marxist-Leninists and use Marxism-Leninism only as a cover to mislead gullible people and divert them from the path of revolutionary class struggle charted by Marx and Lenin, they want to wrest from the hands of the working class its sharpest class weapon."
It wondered "why some comrades, who formerly took the correct stand of criticising Yugoslav revisionism, should have now made an about-turn of 180 degrees," especially when the "Tito clique" themselves have constantly denied any change of their policy.
The paper further stated that one's attitude toward Yugoslav revisionism today "is not a minor but a major question—a question of whether to adhere strictly to the Moscow declaration and the Moscow statement or to tear them up."
The Communist official paper, however, concluded its counterblast in a much softer tone with a view to leaving room for reconciliation with its Kremlin masters. It appealed: "We sincerely hope that the fraternal party which launched the first attack will ... take the initiative, and return to the path of interparty consultation on the basis of equality, to the principles guiding relations between fraternal parties and countries as set forth in the Moscow declaration and the Moscow statement.
"The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) is profoundly conscious of the duty incumbent on it to uphold and strengthen the unity of the socialist camp and of the international communist movement. As always, we shall spare no effort in making our contribution in this connection."
Afro-Asian Conference
On February 4, at the third Afro-Asian solidarity conference in Northern Tanganyika, the Chinese Communist delegate, Liu Ning-yi, made a long and tedious speech accusing the "U.S. imperialists" for their "policy of aggression in Asia, Africa, and Latin America," according to a New China News Agency dispatch from Peiping.
Liu said that the "imperialists are trying to intimidate the peace-loving Afro-Asian peoples with their nuclear power every day." He added: "We can not beg for peace. We must fight with the imperialists to get it." Liu's words sounded like a direct blow at Khrushchev's "policy of peaceful coexistence."
Liu went further and rapped the United Nations as a futile organization "manipulated and controlled by the imperialists." He said to obtain independence the Afro-Asian peoples must "depend on their own efforts and close solidarity." He said the UN intervention in Congo had resulted in nothing but "the murder of Lumumba and the detention of Gizenga."
In conclusion, Liu asserted "the aggressive nature of the imperialists will never change" and that "all the Afro-Asian countries should unite closely in their fight against imperialism and for world peace."
Worst Drought
The worst drought in more than 40 years is now hitting the Peiping area, a Reuters dispatch datelined Peiping, February 6, reported.
The dispatch quoted the Communist Peking Daily as saying that "the drought is getting worse and worse with each passing day due to a minimal rain and snowfall since the end of last July."
Earlier, on December 12, 1962, the Peiping Jen Min Jih Pao had predicted that "according to an analysis of the meteorological data obtained, the volume of snow and rainfall in Peking this winter and next spring will be less than in a normal year. This year, the water table underground is lower compared with previous years and is falling rapidly. It is estimated that the lowest underground water table will be recorded in Peking next spring."
The Reuters dispatch added: "Peking is reported to be the worst hit drought area in Red China, but a prolonged dry spell is also threatening the growth of winter crops and the forthcoming spring cultivation in the northern parts of the important winter wheat growing provinces of Hopei and Shansi, as well as in the southern areas of Inner Mongolia, Red China's main livestock region."
The dispatch also quoted the Peiping Ta Kung Pao as saying that recently "there had been inadequate snow all over the Chinese mainland in past weeks ... The scarcity of rainfall in the southernmost major rice-growing province of Kwangtung in the past two months was threatening to cause drought and hinder spring cultivation there."
The Ta Kung Pao further disclosed that the province of Kwangtung suffered a cold snap in January and winter-sown potatoes in some parts of the province "were damaged, although preparatory work for spring cultivation was done better than last year."
Charges Against India
The spokesman of the Chinese Communist "Ministry of National Defense" accused the Indian government on January 13 of war provocations along the Sino-Indian border since the Chinese Communists started withdrawing their frontier troops on November 21 last year.
The spokesman said that "throughout the eastern sector of the border, the Chinese frontier guards had, up to the end of last year, withdrawn to areas north of or close to the line of actual control of 7 November 1959. In the Western sector, most of the Chinese frontier guards have withdrawn 20 kilometers behind the line of actual control, that is, the traditional customary line. In addition, during the period from 5 to 31 December last year, the Chinese guards released six groups of captured Indian army personnel who were wounded or sick, at Bomdila and other places."
"By contrast," the spokesman stated, "the Indian Government has to date failed to reciprocate the Chinese Government's good will. Instead of responding positively to the cease-fire and withdrawal which the Chinese frontier guards effect on their own initiative, the Indian Government even used this opportunity to commit a series of grave provocations against the Chinese guards.
"Special attention must be drawn to the fact that Indian aircraft have repeatedly flown over the Sino-Indian border and intruded into the airspace over the posts of the Chinese frontier guards, over such major Tibetan cities as Lhasa and Shigatse, and over the interior of Sinkiang on provocative reconnaissance missions."
Other "provocative actions" mentioned by the Red spokesman included the war mobilization and the evoking of a war at mosphere within India, the fanning up of anti-China fever, persecution of Chinese nationals residing in India and the tearing up of agreement on the exchange of consulates general between New Delhi and Peiping.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Communist "Ministry of Foreign Affairs" in a note to the Indian Embassy in Peiping on January 10 lodged a "serious protest" with the Indian government against the Indian side's "serious violations of China's territory and airspace across the China-Sikkim boundary."
The note, as broadcast by the New China News Agency from Peiping, said: "It has been satisfied through repeated investigations that Indian troops crossed the Natu La on the China-Sikkim border on 28 September 1962 and penetrated about 300 meters into Chinese territory, where they started building fortified structures. In the past few months, Indian troops have built a total of 39 pill-boxes in Chinese territory, of which 11 are big and 28 small. The Indian troops have also set up barbed wire, dug communication trenches at the Natu La, and blocked the pass to hinder the normal movement of border inhabitants.
"Indian aircraft have also been sent out on many occasions to intrude, via the Jelepa La, the Natu La, the Thanka La, the Taoi La, and KaHu Pass into China's airspace over the Khamer Dzong, Yatung, Phari, and other areas in Tibet, China, for reconnoitering and harassing purposes."
Accepts Colombo Proposals
Chinese Communist "Premier" Chou En-lai sent a message to Madame Sirimavo Bandaranaike, prime minister of Ceylon, on January 19 stating that Peiping "accepts in principle the proposals of the Colombo conference as a preliminary basis for meetings of Chinese and Indian officials to discuss stabilization of the cease-fire and disengagement and to promote Sino-Indian boundary negotiations," according to the Communist New China News Agency.
The Red "premier", however, pointed out that in accepting the proposals the Peiping regime maintains the following two points of interpretation:
"1. The stipulation in the proposals of the Colombo Conference regarding the Indian troops keeping their existing military position should be equally applicable to the entire Sino-Indian border, and not to the western sector alone. It is the understanding of the Chinese Government that in the eastern sector, India will continue to refrain from sending its troops to reenter the areas south of the line of actual control as of 7 November 1959, vacated by the Chinese frontier guards, and will send only their civilian personnel carrying arms of self-defense, as India says it has done up till now.
"2. After their continued withdrawal all along the border to positions 20 kilometers from the line of actual control of 7 November 1959 in accordance with the statement of the Chinese Government, the Chinese frontier guards will be far behind their positions of 8 September 1962. Thus no Chinese frontier guards will be stationed in the Chedong area and Longju in the eastern sector, Wuje in the middle sector, and the area in the western sector where India once set up 43 strongpoints ... China is willing to move another step forward on the road of reconciliation by refraining from setting up civilian checkposts in those places, provided Indian troops or civilian personnel do not reenter these places."
Chou concluded his letter by expressing the hope that although India may "have its own interpretation of the proposals," the difference in interpretation by the two sides "will not prevent the speedy holding of talks between Chinese and Indian officials."
Kennedy Attacked
The Jen Min Jih Pao on January 21 attacked U.S. President Kennedy's State of the Union Message as an exposure of "his intentions to increase the U.S. plans of aggression and war in the coming year."
The newspaper said President Kennedy made no bones in his message about his schemes "to step up arms expansion and war preparations on an unprecedented scale." It added: "This shows that Kennedy will continue to pursue a military strategy for all types of warfare, that is, while preparing for a world nuclear war as a 'final showdown,' he is also preparing for 'limited wars' by nonnuclear forces and for 'special warfare.' "
Citing the President's words that the United States "made steady progress in building a world of order," the newspaper said: "Kennedy has rejoiced too soon. No one can change the direction of the wind in the world. The situation in which the East wind prevails over the West wind is developing in a way more favorable to the peoples. The revolutionary movement of the world's people is growing more vigorously than ever before. Their struggles against the U.S. imperialist policies of aggression and war and against old and neocolonialism are continuing to grow."
Meanwhile, the Peiping Kwangming Daily declared on January 22 that President Kennedy's State of the Union Message and budget message to the U.S. Congress "smell strongly of gunpowder and warrant vigilant attention."