West German Foreign Minister said Bonn and Peiping planned to exchange trade delegations and send advance parties to the two capitals to set up diplomatic missions. An air traffic agreement and contacts in sports, culture and scientific technology are planned.
U.S. Senator Marlow W. Cook, Republican from Kentucky, said the United States will not establish diplomatic relations with Peiping during the next four years.
Li Tzu-yuan, "deputy secretary" of the "Hainan regional committee," wrote in the ninth issue of Red Flag that Peiping's "class enemy" is resorting to sabotage to wreck the Hainan economy.
Li attributed "capitalist" activity on Hainan to failure of the low echelon cadres to follow Mao Tse-tung's line.
OCTOBER 17—Leonid Ilyichov, Soviet chief negotiator in the Moscow-Peiping border talks, and Soviet Ambassador Vasily S. Tolstikov returned to their posts in Peiping.
Peiping's "vice minister of national defense," Wang Shu-sheng, accused the United States and the Soviet Union of creating a stalemate in the Middle East.
Wang said that as long as the Arab people persisted in unity and struggle, "they are sure to win final victory by relying on their own efforts in the revolutionary struggle against imperialism and Israeli Zionism."
OCTOBER 18—Reports from Saigon said Peiping had stationed the 125th Regiment of the "People's Liberation Army" in northwestern Laos, apparently to deny North Vietnam or Laos control of the area between Yunnan province and Thailand.
U.S. Pentagon sources reported 45 Communist freighters and tankers had diverted nearly 250,000 tons of supplies to the Chinese mainland since the U.S. Navy closed North Vietnam's ports with minefields in May. Most of the ships that reportedly discharged North Vietnam-bound cargo in Shanghai and other mainland ports flew Soviet flags.
Peiping complained that Taiwan had not been ousted from the World Bank a year after its withdrawal from the United Nations.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Adam Malik said Indonesia was not ready to restore diplomatic relations with Peiping for internal security reasons. Indonesia suspended diplomatic relations with the Chinese Communists in 1967.
Malik said: "Indonesia has had a very bad experience in relations with (Red) China."
Russia and Peiping resumed their three-year-old border negotiations. The Kremlin had put out feelers for improved relations with Peiping. The Chinese Communists did not respond.
A "New China News Agency" broadcast pledged "firm support for the fraternal (North) Vietnamese people in their just struggle for independence and freedom."
OCTOBER 19—Peiping trade authorities asked Japan's Nippon Steel Corporation and Kawasaki to send estimates of the cost of steel mills likely to be priced at 100,000 million yen.
Peiping specified a hot-strip mill for turning out 3 million tons of crude rolled steel a year, a cold-strip mill for producing 1 million tons of tinplate a year and a multistage cold-strip mill for making 30,000 to 40,000 tons of silicon steel plates for use in the manufacture of electrical machinery.
A 16-member Thai economic mission led by Vicharn Nivatwongse, under-secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, arrived in Peiping.
Peiping was accused of trying to make opium the opiate of the people. The Sovyetskaya Rossia said Peiping was reaping huge profits by feeding illicit markets abroad with opium exports. It said the Chinese Communists make an annual profit of US$500 million on yearly exports of 2,000 tons of opium. The French-language African magazine Afrique Nouvelle was quoted as saying Chinese Communist officials were "using narcotics for the moral degradation of youth, civil servants and political leaders."
The Soviet weekly Novoye Vremya (New Times) said the Chinese Communists were meddling in the Mediterranean, flirting with West German "revanchists" and winking at NATO. The magazine quoted a foreign report as saying the Chinese Communists were afraid that reduction of forces in Europe would release more Soviet troops for the Far East but dismissed this fear as a "Maoist invention. "
OCTOBER 20—NCNA quoted Liao Cheng-chih, president of the "(Red) China-Japan friendship association," as saying "we (Japan and Peiping) should know that we shall still meet with difficulties and obstacles of one kind or another."
Chinese Communist "ambassador" to the U.N. Huang Hua expressed support for national liberation movements in Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Japan's Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira said Peiping does not object to Japan's continued economic and cultural ties with the Republic of China.
Ohira said his government's obligations to participate in the defense of Taiwan and Okinawa under the provisions of the mutual security treaty with the United States were not affected by the new relationship with Peiping.
OCTOBER 21—More Chinese Communist rockets appeared to be replacing Soviet rockets on Soviet Vietnamese battlefields. Chinese Communist 107mm rockets have been used in South Vietnam for 4½ years. They were first used against American troops during the 1968 Tet offensive.
Peiping asked the U.N. Security Council to "seriously consider application of sanctions against Portuguese colonial authorities" in Africa.
Peiping accused the Soviet Union of "colluding" with and giving economic help to the Cambodian government of General Lon Nol. NCNA said the Soviet vote in favor of Lon Nol's participation in the general conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was evidence of such "collusion."
OCTOBER 22—The U.S. Agriculture Department said Peiping had purchased 4.3 million tons (about 160 million bushels) of wheat abroad for delivery through next summer. Fifteen million bushels will come from the United States.
American newspaper editors who visited the Chinese mainland said they were not allowed to read provincial newspapers during their stay.
Japanese recently on the mainland gave these details of life there: Apartments and houses usually consist of two rooms and a dining kitchen. A couple with three children pays about 5 per cent of income for rent. Most workers live within 10 minutes' cycling time of their jobs. Men are urged not to marry before 28. The approved minimum for women is 25. A third of fertile married women in Peiping use oral contraceptives.
OCTOBER 23—General Albert Wedemeyer, former commander of U.S. forces in China, expressed confidence that the Republic of China would triumph over diplomatic setbacks and return to the mainland. He based his views on progress in Taiwan, leaders of honesty and competence working under President Chiang, philosophy and stamina of the Chinese people and mainland opposition to Communism.
Central News Agency reported from Hongkong that farmers on the Chinese mainland are being required to study further belt-tightening at neighborhood schools. The propaganda line extols the virtue of those who eat less. Peiping is tightening control over withdrawals from granaries and has set up food grain management teams. Withdrawals require approval by higher authorities and four witnesses.
OCTOBER 24—Peiping denounced Soviet proposals for a world disarmament conference, accusing Russia and the United States of engaging in an arms race while trying to prevent other countries from breaking the superpowers' nuclear weapons monopoly.
OCTOBER 25—The U.S. "Committee for a Free China" said that in its first year at the United Nations, the Peiping regime has been a "source of unrelenting discord in a world in search of peace and stability." It said Peiping has built 300 fighter-bombers capable of carrying small nuclear bombs. The committee denounced Peiping for vetoing U.N. membership of Bangladesh; demanding deletion of all references to Taiwan in publications, reports and documents; and refusing to pay for peace-keeping operations in the Middle East and the Congo, for aid to Chinese refugees fleeing to Hongkong and Macao and Tibetans reaching India, and for U.N. operations in Korea.
OCTOBER 26—A CNA report from Hongkong quoted a Uighur as saying Peiping is stepping up anti-Russian propaganda in Sinkiang. CNA also said the Chinese Communists have turned Hainan Island into a "huge concentration camp" for anti-Communist youths.
The flight of refugees to Hongkong continued despite cooler weather. Swimmers numbered 344 in October. Usually only a fifth of those arriving are counted.
OCTOBER 27—British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home left for Peiping for a week of talks with Chinese Communist leaders.
President Nixon announced the first sale of livestock feed grains — 300,000 tons of corn — to Peiping.
Peiping and Mexico issued a joint communique on increasing trade. Mexicans expressed interest in exporting cotton, fertilizer, sugar, sisal and timber.
CNA reported field rations were being produced in Canton for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. Uniforms and boots are made for North Vietnamese regulars.
OCTOBER 28—The heads of more than 60 diplomatic missions in Peiping were invited to make a four-day trip to Chungking in November. Chungking is the capital of Szechwan province, which has been virtually closed to foreigners since 1949.
OCTOBER 29—Author Pearl S. Buck, who spent 40 years on the China mainland, was denied a visa by the Chinese Communists. Miss Buck, 80, won the Nobel Prize for literature and the Pulitzer Prize for her best-selling novel The Good Earth.
A Chinese Communist formula for handling the future of Britain's crown colony of Hongkong emerged with the Peiping visit of British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home. Peiping would continue to regard Hongkong as part of China but would not press for early negotiations for British withdrawal.
OCTOBER 30—"Premier" Chou En-lai reiterated Peiping's support for the North Vietnamese stand on ending the war.
Japan gave 2,000 cherry and larch saplings to Peiping at a ceremony in Tientan (Temple of Heaven) Park. Premier Kakuei Tanaka had promised the gift during his visit to the Chinese mainland.
Jane's Weapon Systems said Peiping is forging ahead with its nuclear weapons program to gain bargaining power with the Soviet Union. The reference work said Peiping is technologically weak and will need American and Japanese help.
OCTOBER 31—Talks between British Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home and Chinese Communist "foreign minister" Chi Peng-fei revealed that Peiping is apprehensive about the Soviet Union's designs in Europe and is looking to Great Britain to playa more important role in European affairs.
Weekly Review reported that two caravans carrying smuggled opium worth US$250 million from the Chinese border were captured on the northern border of Thailand. It said Peiping derives US$500 million annually from the smuggling of opium.
Peiping called on the United States to sign its draft ceasefire agreement with North Vietnam "as soon as possible." It said Peiping will provide "all-out support and assistance to the Vietnamese people in their war against U.S. aggression."
NOVEMBER 1—Peiping said it was completing bomb shelters to protect some 160 million urban dwellers against Russian or American air attacks.
Jane's Weapons Systems said Peiping could have up to 25 intercontinental ballistic missiles operational by 1975.
The U.S. Agriculture Department said another 970,000 bushels of wheat would be sold to Peiping.
NOVEMBER 2—Soviet Ambassador Vasseli Tolstikov and East European envoys walked out of a Peiping reception and declined to join a diplomatic junket to Szechwan province.
Chinese Communist "foreign minister" Chi Peng-fei accused the United States and the Soviet Union of threatening the security of the Mediterranean countries and trying to maintain a situation of "no war, no peace" in the Middle East.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Sir Alec Douglas-Home reported these views of Chou En-lai and "foreign minister" Chi Peng-fei: (1) Peiping backs Hanoi's demands that the United States sign the cease fire accord and will continue support of Hanoi. (2) Peiping does not seek a Geneva-style international conference but would consider at tending.
Japan's Nomura Securities Company Research Institute estimated Chinese mainland food production at 240 million tons in 1970.
Peiping will open a special school for children of diplomats and other foreign residents next year.
Half the enrollment of 1,000 will be Chinese. Teachers will be Chinese. Languages will include Chinese, English, French and possibly Arabic and Spanish. The age span will be 7 to 14.
The Chung Hsing News Agency reported from Taipei that the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Shanghai municipal revolutionary committee, Chang Chun-chiao, might succeed purged "marshal" Lin Piao as Peiping's "defense minister" and Yeh Chien-ying, vice-chairman of the military council, might take the post of "chief of staff." The posts have been vacant since the purge of Lin Piao and his "chief of staff," Huang Yung-sheng.
CNA reported unrest was spreading in "people's communes" on the mainland. A Communist document attributed the worsening situation to sabotage by the "class enemies," Communist bureaucracy and the "poisonous residue of the counterrevolutionary revisionist line" of Liu Shao-chi, deposed "president" of the regime.
Chou En-lai said President Nixon was "playing a false game" in Indochina and that he expected no immediate end to the Vietnam war.
NOVEMBER 3—Taipei intelligence sources said secret Chinese Communist documents told of 37,000 military personnel being arrested for trial between September, 1971 and early 1972. They were charged with complicity in the alleged plot of Lin Piao to overthrow Mao Tse-tung. Eight ranking officers were sentenced to death. Sixty officers of medium ranks were sentenced to death and four to life imprisonment. One hundred and twenty-five junior officers were sentenced to death and 3,925 to life imprisonment. Eighteen hundred "other comrades" were sentenced to death and some 31,000 sent to labor camps.
A letter from Mao Tse-tung to his wife Chiang Ching dated July 8, 1966, and disclosed by Taipei intelligence sources said Mao was suspicioces of Lin Piao as early as 1966. Mao said he thought Lin was building him up in order to knock him down. He predicted further mainland struggle and said rightists will try to seize power after his death. Mao described the "cultural revolution" as a large-scale rehearsal for power struggle among the rightists, leftists and neutralists.
Roy Mason, president of Britain's Board of Trade, said a more ruthless form of dictatorship may emerge in China following the death of Mao. Mason visited the mainland, with a parliamentary delegation. He reported Mao was suffering from infirmities and finding physical appearances more difficult.
NOVEMBER 4—Peiping accused the United States of attempting to prolong the war in Vietnam by rushing munitions to Saigon while delaying signing of the ceasefire agreement.
Taipei intelligence sources said the letter from Mao Tse-tung to his wife (see November 3) was circulated among Communist cadres as "study materia1." They suggested Mao published the letter primarily to justify his purge of Lin Piao and protect Chiang Ching from reinstated Communist leaders who were attacked by ultra-leftists during the "cultural revolution."
NOVEMBER 5—A new diplomatic offensive by the Chinese Communists was under way to open up relations with Japan, increase trade and pursue improved relations with Western Europe.
A U.S. Agriculture Department report said: "If the (Red) Chinese should demonstrate an interest in American cotton, U.S. exporters may explore the possibility of using the CCC credit or barter programs." Under the Commodity Credit Corporation export credit program, the Agriculture Department guarantees three-year credits covering exported farm commodities at standard commercial interest rates.
NOVEMBER 6—Peiping "ambassador" Liu Hsiu-chuan walked out of a Moscow ceremony commemorating the Bolshevik revolution when Soviet politburo member Kirill Mazurov described Peiping's policy as "based on anti-Sovietism." Peiping sent anniversary greetings to the Soviet Union while pointing out that differences remain.
Peiping and the Malagasy Republic established diplomatic relations. There was no mention of Taiwan.
British diplomats returning from Peiping said they were struck by the fierce anti-Soviet posture of Chinese Communist leaders.
Liu Shao-chi, 74, former "president" of the Chinese Communist regime and purged during the "cultural revolution," was reported as "probably dead." In April a traveler from the Chinese mainland said Liu was incarcerated at a "sanatorium" for senior cadres in Wutaishan, Shansi province.
NCNA again accused the U.S. government of rushing war supplies to Saigon and said, "This shows the United States aims at continuing its Vietnamization program and dragging on the aggressive war."
NOVEMBER 7—Yeh Chien-ying, "deputy chairman" of the "central military committee," charged "Soviet socialist imperialism" with pursuing a "policy of expansionism". Speaking at a Peiping banquet for an Albanian military mission, he said "socialist revisionism and American imperialism have kept the world in a state of insecurity."
Lung Shu-chin, Communist boss in Sinkiang, was reported a purge victim. A Hongkong report said Lung was held incommunicado at Tihua, the capital of Sinkiang. Lung was a friend of Lin Piao. Sai Fu-ting, his deputy, took over. Chang Chieh-cheng, commander of the productive reconstruction corps in Sinkiang, also was said slated for the ax.
NOVEMBER 8—Warren H. Phillips, editorial director of the Wall Street Journal, wrote of mainland control and discipline. He said people live "in a society where you can't choose your career or job or where you will live, or travel to another part of the" country without permission, or speak your mind freely without fear of the consequences. Between 1,000 and 2,000 flee to Hongkong every month out of frustration, and there must be many times this number without the means to get close enough to the border to make the attempt. The regimentation must be most stifling to the intellectuals."
Japan proposed negotiations for a commercial air agreement with Peiping.
Sabotage has slowed down crop and livestock production on the Chinese mainland. Peiping's Kuangming Daily blamed poor leadership. People's Daily accused party cadres of separating production from revolution. Southern Daily said failure of party cadres to tighten control had affected the autumn harvest in Heilungkiang and Kirin provinces.
NOVEMBER 9—Chinese Communist "minister of foreign trade" Pai Hsiang-kuo said the Chinese mainland is "still fairly backward. We must constantly re-double our efforts to promote revolution and construction."
NOVEMBER 10—Moscow's weekly New Times magazine described as "especially dangerous" Chinese Communist attempts to interfere with relations between the Soviet Union and developing countries.
American businessmen who visited the autumn trade fair in Canton were reserved in their comments on the outlook for increased trade with the Chinese mainland. Ian Stewart of the New York Times said they found many goods high in price and low in volume of supply for export. Prices of some goods, including foodstuffs and textiles, were 25 to 30 per cent higher than at the spring fair.
NOVEMBER 11—The Free China Relief Association said another mass exodus of refugees from the mainland is possible. FCRA said numbers reaching Hongkong reflect a worsening of mainland conditions.
Chou En-lai said failure to end the Indochina war would reduce the Peiping-U.S. declaration on Far East detente to "empty words".
NOVEMBER 12—Another potential successor to Mao Tse-tung emerged. He is Yu Chiu-li, a 58-year-old veteran of the "long march" of the 1930s. Yu was humiliated by the Red Guards in 1967 and Chou En-lai intervened. He became a general in 1955, "minister of the petroleum industry" in 1958 (and responsible for the Taching project in 1960) and "vice-chairman of the state planning commission" in 1965. He is now in charge of the "state planning commission."
Peiping intensified its verbal barrage against Soviet leaders, accusing them of shouting about disarmament "to cover up their arms expansion and war preparation." People's Daily said: "In the last six years alone, their strategic weapons have increased more than sixfold."
British Foreign Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas Home said Chinese Communist leaders seem to want an end of the Vietnam war as soon as possible.
NOVEMBER 13—The "acting chairman" of the Chinese Communist regime, Tung Pi-wu, may be ill or away from Peiping. NCNA said an ambassador presented his credentials to "marshal" Chu Teh, "chairman" of the "national people's congress" Credentials are usually presented to the "chairman" of the regime.
The Chinese Communist have begun efforts to acquire Japanese industrial technology to modernize steel, machinery, automobile and shipbuilding industries, and to develop air, sea and land transportation. Kawasaki Steel and Nippon Steel said they have received Peiping inquiries regarding a hot strip mill with annual capacity of 3 million tons and a cold reduction mill with annual capacity of 30,000 to 40,000 tons.
The Japan Iron and Steel Federation estimated Peiping's steel output at 21 million tons last year. Output fell to 10 million tons in 1967 because of the "cultural revolution." Peiping imports about 10 per cent of her steel. Eighty per cent of this comes from Japan.
Chou En-lai said mainland grain output would be down about 4 per cent this year. He blamed drought and floods. The 1971 grain harvest was 250 million tons, he said.
"Ambassador" to London Sung Chih-kuang said Peiping was buying eight more Trident air liners. The order brings sale of Tridents to the Chinese Communists to about US$163.2 million.
Indonesia's weekly Khas said: "In many cases (Red) China is still interfering in Indonesia's internal affairs. The decrease in attacks by Radio Peiping cannot be interpreted as a slowdown in hostility. "
NOVEMBER 14—Le Duc Tho, North Vietnam's special adviser to the Paris peace talks, met with Chou En-lai and "vice premier" Li Hsien-nien in Peiping.
CNA reported hunger, partly due to Peiping's stockpiling of food, is driving farmers out of their homes to seek food elsewhere. The report said hardest hit areas are north of the Yangtze River. Farmers there receive only four ounces of rice a day, the report said.
People's Daily said many party cadres are refusing to follow Mao Tse-tung's policy line and that the situation has assumed "alarming" proportions.
Peiping "vice foreign minister" Chiao Kuan-hua sharply criticized the Soviet Union in a speech to the U.N. General Assembly. He denounced Soviet military moves against Czechoslovakia and Pakistan and along the Mongolian border.
NOVEMBER 15—Famine was developing on the Chinese mainland because of crop failures. Waves of hungry people in northern China were moving into seaboard provinces to the east and south.
Peiping earnings in Hongkong amount to some 40 per cent of its annual income, or about US$630 million. This represents sale of mainland products and remittances to relatives.