Peiping continued to make peace motions with one hand and get ready for war with the other. The border talks with the Russians dragged on without announcement. Each side seemed to be sticking to its guns. Reports of "no progress" were stronger and more frequent than the hints that a compromise might be hammered out.
Preparation for war was a highly favored Maoist propaganda theme - but perhaps more as a means of economic exaction than as a military endeavor. In the Canton area, food rations were cut by 15 to 20 per cent and the cloth allowance was reduced to 8 feet annually. Similar reductions presumably were made elsewhere.
The Maoist crisis was deepening. Since 1966 and the beginning of Mao Tse-tung's "great proletarian cultural revolution", deterioration has been continuous. The communes are falling apart, the "revolutionary committees" are governing badly or not at all and party rebuilding is a fiasco.
Lip service to Mao is just that and meaningless except as a kind of cement to hold together the remnants of the Communist deception. The mainland seethes with localism, factionalism and individualism. The Communists themselves have used the word anarchism. It wouldn't take much of a push to bring about the end of all social controls and a real state of anarchy.
People's Daily warned that the degeneration of the communes had reached the "danger point". Peasants and workers attended millions of "Mao thought" classes throughout the mainland, then promptly turned around to act in their own self-interest and for their families in contravention of the Maoist slogans they had parroted. Tendencies toward revisionism, capitalism and a bourgeois way of life were stronger than ever. Cadres either didn't want to interfere or didn't dare to. Even from Peiping, the admonitions were vocal, not physical. The "people's liberation army" on which Mao had to depend to prevent Communist collapse during the "cultural revolution" was trying to steer clear of politics. Military leaders seem to realize that Maoism is crumbling and are trying to keep the PLA uninvolved. The military has begun to talk of "professionalism" once again and to look down its nose at Mao's "people's war".
The Maoists were trying to guide and control a land of more than 700 million people with slogans and it wasn't working. The slogans are mouthed and ignored or forgotten. No one believes them; they are repeated only to keep out of trouble and as an amenity. One example was the emulation campaign in industry. Revolutionary emulation is supposed to eliminate all the crimes in the Maoist book, revolutionize leadership and get production going again. Nothing is happening; the mainland people have been through a score of such campaigns already and have lost all faith in them.
Some of the emulation guidelines were informative, however. One call was for the full operation of all machinery and the resumption of production at all mines. This suggests that the wheels have not been turning at anything like full capacity. Labor discipline was also demanded-just after Peiping said that workers were exceeding their production quotas. If so, why the need for more discipline? Workers were told not to damage industrial machinery, an implication that the sabotage of the "cultural revolution" has been resumed.
The bottom had fallen out of the value of JMP$ ("people's money"). Black market rates of gold were six times the official rate. U.S. banknotes sold at 10 times their supposed worth. Prices at the Canton Fair were high.
Internationally, Red China was turned down at the United Nations for the 19th the in 20 years. Peiping was bitter about the failure of the Soviet Union to say even one word in the debate but showed unprecedented interest in a U.N. seat. Having failed in everything else, Mao Tse-tung may hope to gun his way into the international organization and cause enough trouble to distract the people of the mainland. Details of the U.N. debate and vote will be found in another article in this issue.
These are developments involving Red China and peripheral matters in the period October 20-November 19:
October 20
Russians and Chinese Communists began their border talks in Peiping. Heading the Soviet Union's delegation was First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily V. Kuznetsov, a former ambassador to Peiping. His Red Chinese counterpart was "deputy foreign minister" Chiao Kuan-hua. Japanese sources said the Peiping regime was unlikely to compromise on its demand that the Russians admit the border treaties were imposed by the Tsars and unequal.
Yugoslav and Hungarian sources said there might be some progress in the Peiping talks but warned that expectations could easily be exaggerated.
October 21
Neither Moscow nor Peiping had much to say about their border talks. Japanese sources said first priority probably would be given to the prevention of further military clashes. Deputy chiefs of the two de legations are military men. One Japanese correspondent said negotiations would be behind closed doors and that there would be no announcements until conclusion of the conference.
Travelers reaching Hongkong from Canton said investments of overseas Chinese in Kwangtung province had been confiscated. All privileges of overseas Chinese were terminated, they said, adding that this applied to the whole of the mainland and not just to Kwangtung. Overseas Chinese were accused of being Liu Shao-chi capitalists and given no compensation. Many were said to be living in abject poverty.
Italy's new Foreign Minister AIdo Moro said negotiations for the recognition of Red China were continuing because the Rome government wanted to see an end of military blocs. He was speaking in Parliament. Former Foreign Minister Pietro Nenni claimed that a U.N. seat might woo Peiping away from "positions of opposition".
Burma's former Premier U Nu, in Hongkong on a world tour to seek support for the overthrow of his country's strong man, General Ne Win, said he would go to Peiping and accept any unconditional aid that was offered.
October 22
Canton reports said that Peiping had ordered a tempering of criticism of Russia and other foreign countries. Speculation suggested that the Chinese Communists might be about to embark on a "soft sell" campaign against the Soviet bloc and the free world.
Premier Phan Van Dong of North Vietnam arrived in Peiping for a visit. "Premier" Chou En-lai was among the welcomers. Also in the Hanoi party were Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Hoang Van Tien and Vice Minister of National Defense Tran Sam. The North Vietnamese had attended national day ceremonies of East Germany and visited the Soviet Union.
Red China sentenced Trutz von Xylander, a West German national, to 10 years imprisonment on charges of spying for the United States. The trial took place in Lanchow, Kansu, where the German was an inspector for a German industrial company.
October 23
Yugoslav dispatches from Peiping said the Russians had offered substantial concessions in the border talks with Red China. The U.S.S.R. was said willing to extend economic and technological help if the Chinese Communists would tone down their demands that Moscow admit the border treaties were unequal and unfair.
Yugoslav reports said a Peiping publication had attacked the Soviet leadership as a "revisionist outlaw clique" on the eve of the Moscow talks. The Russians were charged with re-establishing capitalism.
Hongkong sources said 16 escapees had reached freedom in 16 hours. One had been swimming for three hours when colony police picked him up.
October 24
Chou En-lai charged that the United States had sent Thai forces into Laos to fight Communists. He also told North Vietnam visitors that the United States was pulling a small number of troops out of Vietnam but replacing them with Asians.
October 25
Free China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed the government stand that any Moscow-Peiping agreement on borders is illegal and invalid. The statement said that once the mainland is recovered, the Republic of China will seek an equitable solution, through political means, regarding the territory which China was forced to give up under the unequal treaties imposed by the Tsars.
October 26
Chinese Communist forces pursued an escapee onto a Hongkong island, shot him and carried him back to mainland territory. He had swum to the island through Chinese Communist and British waters.
October 27
London sources said the Russians and Chinese Communists were feeling each other out at Peiping and that their conflict could be defused but not resolved. The U.S.S.R. was said to be adamantly opposed to any admission that the 19th century treaties were imposed and unequal. These sources also reported Peiping has about 150 atom bombs of Hiroshima type but no intercontinental ballistic missile system and none in prospect for several years.
Japanese correspondents in Peiping reported the Moscow-Red Chinese talks were moving along. Soviet chief delegate Kuznetsov visited a park in the suburbs on Sunday and the Russia charge d'affaires was appearing at a number of social functions.
In Moscow, Soviet party chief Leonid Brezhnev called for mutual trust to speed the Peiping negotiations.
Marshall Green, U.S. State Department expert on Southeast Asia, told Congress that Red China is in filtrating Laos and conducting subversive operations against most of the other countries of Southeast Asia.
Peiping claimed successes for Communist forces in southern Thailand. Armed attacks were cited and the "masses" were said to have been mobilized in several provinces.
Portraits of Mao Tse-tung, Lenin and Stalin were found on the scene where 30 to 50 terrorists ambushed a military convoy and blew up a section of the Malaysia-Thailand main highway.
October 28
Hongkong reports said the Chinese Communists were moving industrial plants inland as part of their war preparations. Additionally, small rural plants were being established to provide agricultural necessities. Such measures were reported from Chekiang, Fukien, Kiangsi and Kwangtung provinces.
Another 10-mile section was completed in the Chinese Communist road penetrating Laos in the direction of Thailand. The road now extends 92 miles from Takuchang in Yunnan province of China to Muong Houn, which is 60 miles from the Laotian royal capital of. Luang Prabang and 50 miles from the Thai border.
Peiping claimed that the resignation of the Communist government of Kerala in southern India proved that Indian Communists were a "screen" and "ornament" serving the New Delhi government. India's Communist Party is aligned with Moscow.
In another propaganda outburst, the Chinese Reds said the Japanese government was conspiring to annex Korea. Japan was said to be moving into South Korea economically and to be preparing to play a military role there.
October 29
Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman of Malaysia, returning from a foreign tour that took him to Washington and a meeting with President Nixon, said the United States will not allow Malaysia and the rest of Southeast Asia to fall victim to the "new imperialism" of Red China. He said that this was a direct and personal promise from Nixon.
Travelers from Kwangtung said coastal areas facing Macao had been declared "military zones" by the Chinese Communists. Civilians are not permitted to enter the zones and buildings have been camouflaged. Hongkong sources said these steps were part of Red China's war preparations.
Peiping said a pilotless high-altitude U.S. drone was shot down over south-central China. This was reported to be the 19th such plane downed since 1964.
Seven West Germans reached Hongkong after being detained in Red China for more than 14 months. The four construction workers and three dependents were arrested in August of 1968 after completing a construction project at Lanchow, a support base for Pei ping's nuclear installations.
A Hongkong newspaper said "dozens" of people trying to escape to Hongkong had been executed by Chinese Communist firing squads. Bodies were posted with placards denouncing the victims as traitors to Mao's thought.
October 30
Japanese reports from Peiping said the Chinese Communists will not resume diplomatic discussions with the United States at this juncture. An article in People's Daily and
October 31
Radio Moscow said the Peiping talks with Red China will have a great influence on the Asian and world situations. Leonid Zamyatin, the chief spokes man of the Soviet foreign ministry, said the talks could provide the basis for an understanding.
November 1
Moscow diplomatic sources said the Soviet Union and Peiping were considering another summit meeting like that between Alexei Kosygin and Chou En-Iai.
Mainland sources said anti-Communists and minority tribesmen had attacked and robbed granaries in Yunnan. A railroad station in Nanning, Kwangsi, was reported bombed. Chaotic conditions were cited in Kwangtung, Kwangsi, Yunnan, Szechwan and Kweichow.
November 2
A Japanese correspondent in Peiping reported that the Red Chinese appeared to be on their good behavior at the talks with the Russians. He said Peiping had' not attacked the Soviet Union directly in several weeks. As part of the Peiping diplomatic offensive, Chou En-lai is expected to make visits to Paskitan and Cambodia next year.
Yugoslav sources said the Peiping talks are so secret that not even the meeting place is publicly known. The Belgrade correspondent supported Japanese contentions that the Chinese Communists are trying to put their best foot forward. At a dinner given by Chou En-lai shortly after start of the negotiations, the Soviet Union was described as a socialist country, the first such mention in Peiping in a long time.
Peiping accused the United States and Russia of intensifying the Middle Eastern war. The speaker was "vice premier" Hsieh Fu-chih at a Peiping reception marking Algeria's independence day.
The Chinese Communists claimed that the U.S. balance of payments deficit for the first nine months of 1969 was US$8 billion, the highest ever. Apparently this was a "big lie" told for domestic consumption only.
November 3
Mainlanders are compelled to hunt wild herbs for medicines, Hongkong sources said, because of a shortage of herbal pharmaceuticals. The wild herbs also are reportedly prescribed by doctors in the armed forces.
November 4
Chinese Communist broadcasts told of continuing class struggle in the countryside. Followers of revision ism were said to be taking advantage of "some weak nesses" and to be carrying out "various plots in the field of production with a view to launching an attack on the proletariat".
November 5
Former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker urged the Canadian government to give up its plans to recognize Peiping.
Diefenbaker, who returned recently from a trip to the Soviet Union, said: "After speaking to some of the heads of that nation, I impress once more the danger of taking the course which the government seems bent on taking. All over the world people are laughing at Canada chasing after Mao saying won't you allow us to recognize you?"
November 6
Hongkong sources said some 10 million mainland people sent to the countryside have returned to cities. In Canton, 400,000 were said to be jobless and without ration cards. The number in Shanghai was put at between 700,000 and a million. Other cities crowded with such returnees are Wuhan, Hankow, Hanyang (the triple cities), Nanking, Changsha and Tientsin. The numbers are so large that the authorities dare not act.
Peiping congratulated the U.S.S.R. government on the 52nd anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution but ignored the Communist Party. Russia had done the same on Peiping's 20th anniversary.
The Chinese Communists, speaking through a newspaper in Hongkong, said the talks with Russia were not getting anywhere. The article, which carried a Canton dateline, blamed Russian intransigence. In Moscow, the Russians made no comment.
November 7
Burma's Premier General Ne Win disclosed that Burmese troops had fought a series of skirmishes with the Chinese Communists along the border. Burmese losses were put at 133 dead, 250 wounded and 42 missing. Chinese Communist casualties were not mentioned.
Taiwan sources said 7,000 Chinese Communist troops are deployed in Laos. A military spokesman said the Chinese Reds are supplying and training rebel forces in Burma, Thailand and Laos.
November 8
Five Japanese businessmen detained in Red China for more than two years reached Hongkong and immediately returned to Tokyo. Peiping said they had admitted grave crimes.
Reports from the mainland told of a large-scale uprising in Tibet. More than 3,000 anti-Communist prisoners were said to have broken out of a prison at Shigatse. Some 100 were killed in subsequent fighting. The next day 1,000 youths mounted a protest demonstration. That night they clashed with Red forces, then joined the escapees at a guerrilla stronghold in the Kua Lan mountains.
Chinese Reds were reported to have sent heavy weapons to North Vietnam from Nanning near the border.
November 10
Red China denounced the Russo-Japanese air agreement which will allow Japan Air Lines to operate over Siberia beginning in March. Peiping said the accord, which was signed November 5, was a concession to "reactionary Japanese".
November 11
"Vice premier" Li Hsien-nien, who has been acting as Peiping's "foreign minister", accused the United States and the Soviet Union of collusion to make a Middle Eastern peace that would cheat the Arab countries. He also attacked President Nixon's Vietnam policy address. Together with Chou En-lai, he was attending a reception on Cambodia's national day.
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau announced that recognition talks between Canada and Peiping "are in the process of winding up" and that progress was satisfactory. He admitted there had been some difficulties, presumably related to Red China's insistence that Canada also recognize its claim to Taiwan. Trudeau asserted that the Chinese Communists are "interested in joining the United Nations".
Great Britain protested to Peiping against the arrest of two aged Britons and the continuing detention of seven others. Newly arrested in Shanghai were Bill McBain, about 80, and Mrs. Constance Martin, 70, an employee of the Shanghai branch of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.
Hongkong newspaper sources said that Henry Puyi, the puppet-emperor of Manchuria under the Japanese, was beaten to death by Red Guards in Pei ping in September of 1967. The Russians' handed him over to Red China in 1953 and he worked as a gardener after brainwashing and labor reform.
November 12
Diplomatic sources in London said four weeks of talks in Peiping had produced virtually no progress but that the Chinese Communists and Russians were pre pared to go on talking to avoid the danger of war. Neither side has budged from its original position, the sources said.
November 13
Travelers reaching Hongkong from the mainland told stories - unsubstantiated by other sources - that anti-Maoists had seized parts of Manchuria with Russian help. They were said to be pushing efforts to over throw the Peiping regime. The travelers claimed that this accounted for mainland war preparations fever.
Washington revealed that the U.S. Senate had passed, 72 to 0, a resolution opposing the admission of Red China to the United Nations. The resolution was attached to an appropriations bill. The House had passed the measure earlier. Some Senators said they did not know the resolution, which has been passed annually since 1953, was included in the bill.
November 14
Peiping praised Thai guerrillas who killed seven policemen and wounded three in an ambush. The Red Chinese made new claims of big victories in Thailand.
November 16
Taiwan sources said the Tibetan heartland west of Lhasa was under control of anti-Communist guerrillas following a mutual assistance agreement between two groups. The two were identified as nomads and anti-Communists of central Tibet, and freedom fighters of Chomonogangar mountain.
November 17
Peiping lashed out at the United States and the Soviet Union for denying the regime a seat at the United Nations. This was the first time the Chinese Reds had shown so much interest in the U.N. They implied that they were interested in membership. The denunciation of the Soviet Union for not backing Red China was as strong as that of the United States for backing the Republic of China.
November 18
Chinese Communists went on record as opposing the strategic arms limitation talks between the United States and the Soviet Union. Peiping said the talks were part of a conspiracy of the Russians and Americans to maintain their "nuclear monopoly". In the Peiping view, this monopoly is aimed at the Maoist regime.
U.S. Secretary of State William Rogers said the United States was willing to talk with Peiping but that there was no evidence of a favorable Red Chinese response.
November 19
Moscow said the talks with Peiping were at the stage of deadlock. Initial optimism had evaporated. Adjournment was foreseen with another meeting of Alexei Kosygin and Chou En-lai to follow.
In an official note to Vientiane, Red China denied that it had sent workers into Laos to build a road for the Pathet Lao.
Hongkong sources said that the health of Lin Piao, the heir-designate of Mao Tse-tung, had "broken down". "Foreign minister" Chen Yi was said to have made a comeback and to be in charge of the watch on the 4,500-mile border between the mainland and U.S.S.R.
Russia was reported to have rejected Red Chinese demands to hand over the son of Liu Shao-chi and two other anti-Maoists now in the Soviet Union. Hongkong sources said the Peiping regime was seeking the return of Liu the younger and of former Chinese Communist Party leader Wang Ming and former "deputy premier" Ho Lung. The demand was made at the Peiping talks. According to the source, Liu Sun-wen is Liu Shao-chi's son by his first wife. Wang Kuang-mei, present wife, was said to be No.6.