The Republic of China formally protested to the Japanese government against its moves to establish diplomatic relations with Peiping.
Discontent among young people in Kwangtung province arising out of their objections to rural work assignments reportedly has led to an upsurge of crime in Canton and brought the number of refugees reaching Hongkong to its highest peak in the last 10 years. Mass trials have been held and stiffer penalties imposed on those caught trying to reach Hongkong. Punishment has been extended to offenders' relatives.
AUGUST 17—The Radio Corporation of America signed a contract for construction of a second satellite communications station in Peiping and expansion of another unit already built in Shanghai at a cost of US$5.7 million. RCA Global Communications Inc. will build a 98-foot dish shaped antenna in Peiping and enlarge to 98 feet the 33-foot antenna in Shanghai. Work will be finished in 18 months.
Reports from the mainland suggested Chinese Communist leaders expect more political trouble to follow their campaign to discredit Lin Piao, former "defense minister." Red Flag compared the history of party struggles to waves which undulate continuously. The same comparison was used to signal the upheavals of the "cultural revolution" in 1966. Red Flag said: "This, in terms of time, means that there are major struggles once every few years...Each big struggle is a continuation and development of the day-to-day struggles."
AUGUST 18—Peiping and Tokyo agreed to settle their trade accounts in yuan and yen currencies. The fixed yen-yuan rate is to be 135.84 yen to the yuan (about US44 cents).
Japan's Minister of International Trade and Industry Yasuhiro Nakasone said a top level mission of government and business leaders will be sent to the Chinese mainland after Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's visit to Peiping.
Peiping agreed to opening of a United Nations information center in that city. The U.N. had an information center in Shanghai from 1947 to 1957. Re-establishment of a center was requested by U.N. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim during his visit to Peiping.
AUGUST 19—The Hongkong Star said anti-Mao posters in Canton indicated "growing discontent in Kwangtung province over a harsh new order that 15 per cent more of the rice crop must be handed over to the authorities, despite the flood disaster of last June in which many communes lost most of their crop."
South China Morning Post said well-organized racketeers were operating "underground freedom trails" to arrange escapes from Shanghai to Hongkong. Escapees were reported to have paid the equivalent of US$88. One escapee said he went to Shanghai from Nanking, 160 miles to the northwest, caught a train to Canton, 700 miles to the southwest, and was escorted to the shores of Mirs Bay opposite Hongkong.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Peiping is not likely to become a major trading partner until its per capita income rises substantially.
The Japanese prime minister's personal envoy to Peiping, Hideji Kawasaki, met with Chinese Communist "premier" Chou En-lai.
Kyodo News Service reported from Peiping that the Mitsubishi group was prepared to extend technological assistance to Chinese Communists and offer cooperation in Peiping's fourth five-year development plan.
AUGUST 20—"New China News Agency" said Chou En-lai met Le Duc Tho, adviser to Hanoi's delegation to the Paris peace talks, and Mitchell Sharp, Canada's external affairs secretary, in Peiping.
Japan is studying an investment of about US$200 million to build an express railway linking Peiping and Canton.
Peiping approved Eduardo Bradley, a career diplomat, as Argentine envoy to Peiping. "Charge d'affaires" Yang Cheng-jan is Peiping's temporary representative in Argentina.
Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka reportedly decided to send Zentaro Kosaka, chairman of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party's "Council on Normalization of Japan-(Red) China Relations," to Peiping in mid-September prior to his visit to Peiping and former Foreign Minister Etsusaburo Shiina to Taipei to explain Japan's attitude toward Peiping relations.
Hongkong's Sing Tao Jih Pao said the Chinese Communists send agents abroad to work under the direction of secretaries attached to "embassies." They are disguised as importers, exporters, students and restaurant workers. The paper said Chinese Communist espionage centers include Paris, Rotterdam and Brussels.
AUGUST 21—The Government Information Office of the Republic of China said the Chinese Communists export an estimated 10,000 metric tons of narcotics a year and earn foreign exchange income amounting to US$800 million. More than 9,530,000 acres are being planted to poppies and other drug producing plants on the Chinese mainland and 72 narcotics processing plants are operated by the Chinese Communists. Peiping exports 45 brands of narcotics. Major exporting points are Mukden, Tientsin, Shanghai, Canton, Nanning, Kunming, Lhasa and Tihua. The Chinese Communists have established a "golden delta" of exports to the free world in the border area of Thailand, Burma and Vietnam.
Kyodo News Service said Kenzo Nakajima, director-general of the "Japan-(Red) China Friendship Association, "had quoted Chou En-lai as saying Peiping would establish relations with West Germany and Japan. Nakajima said West German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel would visit Peiping soon.
Liao Cheng-chih, "president" of the "(Red) China-Japan friendship association," said Chinese Communist "defense minister" Lin Piao attempted to oust Chou En-lai. He labeled Lin as the "most vicious of 10 big traitors in the Chinese Communist Party" at a meeting with Kenzo Nakajima, president of the "Japan-(Red) China Friendship Association."
AUGUST 22—The U.S. Department of Agriculture said the Chinese mainland exported US$800 million in farm products and imported US$524 million worth in 1969. Main exports were more than 700,000 metric tons of rice, 488,000 tons of soybeans, hogs worth US$48 million, 116,000 head of cattle, 105,000 tons of meat and 32,000 tons of tea. Imports included 3.2 million tons of wheat, 278,000 tons of rubber, 441,000 tons of sugar and 83,000 tons of cotton.
Chou En-lai denounced the Japan Communist Party as "revisionist" and "extreme leftist" after it opposed Tokyo-Peiping relations. The Japan Communist Party charged Chou with "interference in Japan's domestic affairs" and said "Chou En-lai is utterly ignorant of Japan's political situation.
Publisher Masato Kawazoe of the Kyukoku Jiho said 72 per cent of the Japanese people did not agree with the attitude of the Tanaka cabinet toward Tokyo-Peiping relations.
AUGUST 23—Chinese Communist "vice premier" Li Hsien-nien said the Chinese mainland population is more than 750 million.
Nippon Steel Corporation's President Yoshihiro Inayama was in Peiping to discuss technical assistance in building steel mills.
AUGUST 24—A Republic of China Chinese Communist affairs expert said the purge of Lin Piao resulted from a clash with Chiang Ching, Mao Tse-tung's wife. He said Hsiao Hua, an important follower of Lin, was purged by the Red Guards. Chiang's two vanguards, Wang Lih and Kwan Feng, initiated a campaign against Lin. Lin retaliated by supporting anti-Mao forces. The abortive Wuhan coup followed. Wang Lih was arrested by Lin's troops and "vice premier" Hsieh Fu-chih was placed under house arrest. In March of 1968, the conflict between Lin and Chiang broke into the open.
The Central News Agency reported from Hongkong that the Chinese Communist air force has been grounded again due to continued power struggles. Only training and reconnaissance flights were permitted. Fuel carried was limited. Grounded pilots were told to read "Mao quotations" and learn the "party line." CNA said the planes were grounded to prevent possible defections and forestall mutiny.
AUGUST 25—A West German foreign ministry spokesman said Bonn and Peiping were conducting negotiations looking toward establishment of relations.
AUGUST 26—Chinese Communists vetoed U.N. membership for Bangladesh which had been sponsored by the Soviet Union, India, Yugoslavia and Britain. Peiping said Bangladesh had failed to observe U.N. resolutions calling for prisoner repatriation and withdrawal of Indian troops from its territory.
AUGUST 27—A 12-member Chinese Communist mission arrived in Buenos Aires to prepare for establishment of an "embassy" there.
United Press International and the Chinese Communist "New China News Agency" concluded an agreement to exchange news and photos.
Foreign Minister Abdus Samad said Chinese Communist veto of Bangladesh's admission to the U.N. exposed the hollowness of Peiping's claim to be the champion of the third world. He said that "by exercising her veto, (Red) China has struck a blow at the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. The (Red) Chinese government has once again aligned itself with forces seeking to suppress freedom and democracy. It is a cruel joke of history that the people of Bangladesh who had championed the cause of (Red) China's admission into the United Nations have now become the first victim of the (Red) Chinese veto. It is obvious that (Red) China has no intention to reciprocate our gesture of friendship and is continuing to follow a deliberate policy calculated to create tension and instability in the subcontinent."
More than 900 Chinese organizations in Hongkong lodged a strong protest against Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's moves towards Tokyo-Peiping relations.
Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira said Japan's impending recognition of Peiping would in no way damage the interests of other nations maintaining friendly relations with Tokyo.
Chou En-lai told a group of China-born U.S. scientists headed by John Hopkins University physics professor Jen Chih-kung that the "Mao-Lin friction began in 1969 when Lin was number two (in the Chinese Communist hierarchy). At the (Chinese Communist) Party congress that year, Lin and his followers took over the proceedings for more than two days and it took Mao himself—with a speech like a drop of alcohol that stopped all germs—to squelch the impression that Lin was taking over."
Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka said Japan and Peiping should conclude a peace treaty.
AUGUST 28—Prof. Tao Hsi-sheng, a political commentator, said in an article in the Central Daily News that Lin Piao was murdered by Mao Tse-tung on trumped-up charges. He said Mao killed his "dearest comrade-in-arms" to prevent him from seizing power through the Red Army. Charges that Lin had tried to assassinate Mao and had been in touch with the Russians were part of a frame-up invented after Lin was eliminated.
Former French Prime Minister Pierre Mendes-France said in his report on his trip to the Chinese mainland last year that Chou En-lai was haunted by fears of a Soviet attack and believed that Moscow hoped to use India and Bangladesh to catch Peiping in a military vice.
A Chinese Communist minesweeper was spotted in Haiphong harbor despite mining of the port by the U.S. Navy. U.S. intelligence sources said the 136-foot ship was capable of clearing acoustic and possibly magnetic mines.
Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's readiness to sign a "peace treaty" with Peiping was branded by Sah Meng-wu and 20 other Republic of China Legislative Yuan members as a Tokyo-Peiping conspiracy to invade Taiwan.
Japanese Dietman Taisanburo Kumagaya, member of the House of Councilors, said he would dissuade Prime Minister Tanaka from sacrificing the Republic of China as the price of Japan-Peiping relations.
Naohiko Okubo, member of Japan's Komeito Party, quoted Chou En-lai as saying Peiping would not demand World War II reparations from Japan, that the U.S.-Japan defense treaty would not be an issue between Japan and Peiping and that a World War II peace treaty would be signed with Japan to replace the treaty Japan signed with the Republic of China in Taipei in 1952.
Kyodo News Service said Japan wanted to export crude oil to Peiping.
AUGUST 29—Harvard University Prof. Thomas Cheetham Jr., returning from a visit to the Chinese mainland, said: "We saw an operational, third generation computer using integrated circuits, all home built. This really shocked us. It puts them (Chinese Communists) ahead of the Russians in this technology. The Russians have to import their integrated circuits." He said the third generation computer was working at a research institute of the (Red) Chinese Academy of Sciences in Peiping.
AUGUST 30—Hideji Kawasaki, vice president of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party's "Council for Normalization of Japan-(Red) China Relations," said after returning from Peiping: "It will be a matter of months, not years, before Japan concludes a peace treaty with (Red) China."
Chinese Communist "vice foreign minister" Chiao Kuan-hua said Peiping "will use her veto again" against admission of Bangladesh into the U.N.
Canadian External Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp said Peiping intends to continue nuclear tests.
The situation of the 29 Chinese Communist Party "provincial revolutionary committees" as of August 17, 1972, revealed that of the first secretaries, Chang Kuo-hua of Szechwan and Hsieh Fu-chih of Peiping had died; Liu Hsing-yuan of Kwangtung was replaced by Ting Sheng; Lan Yi-nung of Kweichow last appeared in May 1971; Wang Chia-tao of Heilungkiang, Kang Chien-min of Ninghsia and Chou Hsing of Yunnan last appeared in January, 1972; Lung Shuchin of Sinkiang, Cheng Shih-ching of Kiangsi, Jen Jung of Tibet and Hsieh Chen-hua of Shansi had not appeared since February, 1970; Hsu Shih-yu of Kiangsu, Nan Ping of Chekiang and Hsieh Hsueh-kung of Tientsin have seldom appeared in public; Hua Kuo-feng of Hunan, Liu Hsien-chuan of Chinghai, Li Teh-sheng of Anhwei and Chang Chun-chiao of Shanghai appeared to be based permanently in Peiping to perform other duties. Of the 14 second secretaries, Liu Feng of Hupeh is known to have been dismissed; Chou Chih-ping of Fukien is almost certainly dismissed; Yao Wen-yuan of Shanghai is always in Peiping; and five have not been mentioned by news media for months.
AUGUST 31—A 14,570-ton Chinese Communist vessel docked at Manila to unload 2,104 tons of relief goods. The Republic of China's MV Hai Tai berthed on the opposite side of Manila harbor on a similar mission.
Chou Pei-yuan, "vice president" of the "(Red) Chinese people's institute of foreign affairs," gave a dinner in Peiping for Owen Lattimore.
Peiping announced that a Chinese Communist technical study group, a road technical survey group, a hydrogeological study group and a provincial towns electrification study group were in Ethiopia.
The Chinese Communist Geological Society demanded the expulsion of the Republic of China's delegation from the 24th International Geology Congress.
SEPTEMBER 1—U.S. intelligence sources said a number of Soviet tankers had been unloading fuel and other petroleum products in Chinese mainland ports.
Mao Tse-tung sent a message to North Vietnamese leaders on Hanoi's 27th national day.
SEPTEMBER 2—People's Daily said the United States would have to withdraw its troops from South Vietnam and conduct serious negotiations with the North Vietnamese "should it really want to end the Vietnam war."
The Republic of China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Hoh-tu said Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's Peiping visit would not ease tension in Asia. He said: "On the contrary, it will result in the increase of tension and restiveness and confusion in the Asian and Pacific region."
SEPTEMBER 3—Father Nguyen Lac Hoa, Vietnamese anti-Communist leader, accused Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka of perfidy in trying to establish relations with Peiping. He quoted a secret Chinese Communist document obtained by a Japanese professor in Hongkong as saying the Chinese Communists want to communize Japan in three stages: To set up diplomatic relations with Tokyo; to split the Japanese political parties and establish a "democratic coalition;" and to replace the existing Japanese political system with a totalitarian one.
"Foreign minister" Chi Peng-fei met in Peiping with Hiroshi Hashimoto and his advance party to prepare for Prime Minister Tanaka's visit.
Yoshimaru Kanno, president of Japan's international Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (KDD), said Peiping and Tokyo had agreed to lay a submarine cable.
Peiping has negotiated or renewed aid and trade agreements with 24 African countries in the last two years with concentration on Algeria, Egypt, the Sudan, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Burundi, Rwanda, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, Mauritius and Sierra Leone.
SEPTEMBER 4—Skipper Chien Yung-chang, political commissar Wang Wui-chin and interpreter Hsy Hua-yang of the Chinese Communist ship SS Anting walked out of the Philippines Malacanang presidential palace without seeing President Marcos after learning that he had received a delegation from the Republic of China.
Wake Wynn, general manager of Trench Electric Ltd. in Toronto, said Chinese Communist technical development was 30 years behind that of Canada and other Western countries.
French President Georges Pompidou will go to Peiping at the invitation of the Chinese Communists.
Hitachi Shipbuilding and Engineering Company and the "(Red) China national machinery import and export corporation" signed an agreement for sale of two 14,300-ton freighters to Peiping. The contract is worth about HK$89 million. The first ship will be delivered in late 1973 or early 1974 and the second at the end of May, 1974.
Ousted Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk said in Peiping: "In the field of transportation there was recently a new agreement between (Red) China and the Soviet Union to allow more trains to cross (Red) China carrying heavy weapons for the Indo-Chinese battlefront. A new network of secret trails has been built and new pipelines to carry fuel which cannot be destroyed from the air have been laid under ground."
SEPTEMBER 5—Members of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party's "Council on Japan-(Red) China Relations" agreed on these five principles for establishment of Tokyo-Peiping relations: Normalization of Japan-(Red) China relations in the spirit of the United Nations Charter and the Bandung conference; mutual respect for each other's political system, their friendly relations with other countries and noninterference in each other's domestic affairs; abstention from the use of force or armed intimidation as a means of solving bilateral problems; mutual promotion of economic and cultural exchanges and nondiscrimination against each other; and mutual cooperation for the peace and prosperity of Asia. Pro-Republic of China members opposed breaking of relations with the Republic of China but agreed to compromise wording which called for continuing relations with the Republic of China without specifying "diplomatic."
The Manila Herald said the walkout of Chinese Communists from Malacanang Palace was due to the "arrogant posture" of the Chinese Communists.
The Central News Agency said in Taipei that Mao Tse-tung's "people's liberation army" is facing demoralization. It said the rank and file had become "lethargic" because of the party interference with every phase of "defense operations." Factional strife among ranks is another factor.
Shigeichi Koga, president of the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Company of Japan, said Peiping would not become a major supplier of raw materials, would not allow foreign countries to exploit its natural resources or invest in the Chinese mainland and would not become a large consumer market.
SEPTEMBER 6—Pravda accused Peiping of distorting the Lin Piao affair and resorting to "absurd inventions" by implying that the Russians were connected with his alleged plot against Chinese Communist "chairman" Mao Tse-tung. It said the struggle inside the top levels of the Chinese Communist leadership "is not ceasing between representatives of different tendencies."
Peiping agreed to allow 150 Japanese newsmen, cameramen and TV crew members to accompany Prime Minister Tanaka to the Chinese mainland.
SEPTEMBER 7—NCNA said Chou En-lai and "vice foreign minister" Han Nien-lung met with Prasit Kanchanawat, adviser to the Thai table tennis delegation and deputy director of the division for economics, finance and industry of the National Executive Council of Thailand.
Ho Hsiang-ning, mother of Chinese Communist Party member Liao Cheng-chih, died in Peiping at the age of 95. She was painter, poet, widow of revolutionary martyr Liao Chung-kai and friend of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.
SEPTEMBER 8—The International Institute for Strategic Studies reported that Peiping is ready to test its first intercontinental ballistic missile.
SEPTEMBER 9—Chou En-lai met with Le Duc Tho, political adviser to the North Vietnamese delegation to the Paris talks.
A Boeing 727 of the All Nippon Airways carrying 88 Japanese communications technicians of KDD, arrived in Shanghai to prepare for television coverage of Prime Minister Tanaka's visit to Peiping. They will install a Japanese-made earth station near Peiping.
Sabotage has slowed agricultural production on the Chinese mainland. Some Chinese Communist cadres embezzled funds intended for agricultural development.
SEPTEMBER 10—Chinese Communist "vice premier" Li Hsien-nien and North Korea's Ambassador Hyun Jun Keuk charged the United States with trying to divide the Korean Peninsula permanently.
Chinese Communist aviation officials and Boeing representatives signed in Peiping a contract believed to be worth HK$825 million for purchase of 10 Boeing 707 airliners.
West German Foreign Minister Walter Scheel announced plans to visit Peiping in the first half of October to establish diplomatic relations.
NCNA said Pravda and Red Star said the Soviet press had published a series of articles "crudely attacking" Egypt and other Arab countries. It said the Kremlin had threatened Arab countries after Russian troops were ordered out of Egypt.
SEPTEMBER 11—Hsu Ching-lan, director of the Kuomintang Central Committee's Department of Mainland Affairs, said Mao Tse-tung wants one of his die-hard followers to succeed him but Chou En-lai is an obstacle. "That's why the next bout in the power struggle will be fought between the Mao and the Chou factions," he said. No matter who wins, he added, the victor will have to rely on the support of the military.
The Chinese Communists have opened a string of ports near North Vietnam to Soviet and East European ships carrying cargoes to Hanoi.
SEPTEMBER 12—The Chinese Communists have nearly completed an all-weather highway running from Yunnan province to within 20 miles of the Thai border. A two-lane all-weather road has reached the northern Laotian town of Moung Houn, about 110 miles from the Chinese mainland border. This leaves only 25 miles more to reach the river town of Pak Beng. From there it is 20 miles to the border with northern Thailand. Preliminary work has already been done on the last 25 miles. A second link runs eastward across the North Vietnamese border to Dien Bien Phu. About 20,000 Chinese Communist troops are in Laos along the highway.
SEPTEMBER 13—Professor Paul Lim, director of the East Asian Research Center of McGill University, returning from the Chinese mainland, said Lin Piao is charged with three "cardinal sins:" He was a defeatist and pessimist as early as 1929 after the failure of the Nanchang uprising under "marshal" Chu Teh; he made gross errors in tactics and strategy in the battle of the northeast (Manchuria) against the Nationalist Army in 1945-49; and he and Mao Tse-tung's former secretary, Chen Po-ta, were identified as "opportunists and rightists in the guise of ultra-leftists."
Chinese Communist "vice foreign minister" Chiao Kuan-hua will head the Peiping delegation to the 27th U.N. General Assembly session.
Reports from Washington said the U.S. had sold 400 million bushels of wheat to Peiping.
U.S. Ambassador to France Arthur Watson met for an hour with Chinese Communist representative in Paris Huang Chen.
SEPTEMBER 14—Chinese Communist "vice premier" Li Hsien-nien said support and assistance to the people of Vietnam and other Indochinese countries in "their war against U.S. aggression" was a "fixed policy of the (Red) Chinese party and government."
Rude Pravo of Czechoslovakia said Lin Piao had no reason to plot against Mao Tse-tung and that he was sacrificed to permit Mao and Chou En-lai to engineer rapprochement with the United States. It said Lin advocated a policy of "fighting on two fronts" against the United States and other "imperialists" on the one hand and against the Soviet Union on the other.
SEPTEMBER 15—Taipei intelligence reports said some 400 Naga rebels operating along India's border with the Chinese mainland had been receiving guerrilla training in western Yunnan province. They were given new Chinese Communist weapons.
Moscow said Soviet-Peiping border talks may be resumed in October.
A 23-man Japanese Liberal Democratic Party delegation left for Peiping via Shanghai to prepare for Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka's visit to the Chinese mainland.