The Telegram of Toronto published this comment by Lubor J. Zink on November 18, 1966, under the title "Is Martin's China Policy Flexibility or Appeasement?"
"Having run in Warsaw and Moscow into what he called 'a blank wall' of Communist intransigence on Vietnam, External Affairs Minister Paul Martin is now devoting his talents and energies to splitting the free world along the Chinese Wall.
"It is incredible that Canada, which helped to organize the free world's collective security system, should now be emulating de Gaulle's France in putting strain on the bonds of the alliance. But myopic pocketbook interests and the Liberal Party's quest for the leftist and Prairie vote are apparently over-riding all other considerations. The resulting shift in our foreign policy is, of course, presented to the public as pioneering 'flexibility' in a lofty endeavor to lay new and better foundations for world peace.
"It is the same argument which in the 1930s led to appeasement of aggressive Fascism until the whole bubble of self-delusions burst shortly after the crowning folly and ignominy of the Munich pact. Now a generation of Chamberlains is busily arranging a repetition of the Munich disaster in the Far East by seeking to appease aggressive Chinese Communism.
"Flexibility and timely adjustment to changing conditions are the essence of evolution whenever the change in conditions is brought about by genuine pressure for human betterment. This is almost invariably the case within free societies where the constant and open interplay of old and new ideas determines the scope and pace of necessary reforms.
"On the international scene, the situation is substantially different, especially when a considerable part of the world community is prevented from expressing its views and aspirations. In such circumstances the totalitarian regimes which speak for their silenced nations can and do distort the picture, for the pressures for change they exert do not represent a freely arrived at consensus of majority opinion.
"Adjustments by the free nations to such arbitrary pressures, which are clearly motivated by aggressive designs, are detrimental to the universal human aspiration for peace and freedom.
"Had the Western democracies, in the name of 'flexibility,' caved in to postwar Soviet pressures for change in Iran, Greece, Berlin, Germany and the rest of Europe west of the monstrosity of the Iron Curtain, the useasy but by now workable co-existence the non-Communist world has achieved with the Soviet bloc would not have been possible.
"It was the rigid determination to resist the pressures of aggressive totalitarianism which stabilized the precarious situation in Europe and averted another world war.
"The current ferment in the Far East is, by and large, a repetition of the European stage of the struggle in which Communist China is re-enacting with fanatical savagery the aggressive jitters of the Stalinist regime. In this analogy the conflict in Vietnam can perhaps be likened to the postwar struggle in Greece which Communist propaganda also tried to portray as a civil war.
"Coming hot on the heels of the Nazi big lie, the Communist big lie in Europe had little chance to deceive Western politicians. They rallied behind the American effort to hold the line and helped the inheritor of the burdens of free world leadership to stop the menace.
"Since then allies of the U.S. in the Atlantic area have grown fat, soft and blase. So blase that Western Europe, as the NATO secretary-general pointed out last week, is now losing ground on the political front. And so soft that the Pacific phase of the East-West conflict is regarded by those not directly involved as an irritant.
"Believing that none of their selfish interests are directly threatened by Communist China, Western Europe and Canada are quite willing to appease the aggressor under the guise of 'flexibility.' Why run any risk, they argue, for the sake of such remote places as Vietnam and Formosa? And what's wrong with trying to use the UN as a reformatory?
"This appears to be the attitude taken by our Government. And judging by the tenor of Canadian and European 'progressive' comment, the resulting shift in our foreign policy is being hailed as an example of imaginative flexibility, initiative and leadership on the international scene.
"Our friends in the Far East—notably Australia. New Zealand and Japan—do not see it that way. Being directly threatened by the aggressiveness of Chinese Communism, they know that the Peking regime is a menace to world peace. They are dismayed by Canada's appeasement moves which are confusing the issue and dividing the free world.
"What our Government is doing with its two-Chinas policy comes, in my opinion, perilously close to organizing a far eastern Munich. The only serious obstacle in the path of this exercise in misguided 'flexibility' is the firm stand of the U.S. It's sad to see Canada leading the attempt to undermine it." (Full text)
Hongkong Standard
The Hongkong Tiger Standard published on December 11, 1966, a report of Richard Hall from Ndola, Zambia: "In Lusaka, capital of Zambia, a 40-strong dancing troupe from Peking recently performed before a wide-eyed African audience. The programme included such numbers as 'I am producing Petroleum for the Motherland' and 'The Thought of Mao Tse-tung shines like Gold.'
"At about the same time, an emissary was preparing to leave neighbouring Malawi for the Far East bearing a pair of elephant tusks. They were a gift from President Banda to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in Taiwan.
"Although somewhat bizarre, these events were significant in the light of the recurrent failure of Peking's claim to a place at the United Nations. Africa has been a battleground on the issue, for in the General Assembly there are 39 seats—a third of the total—now occupied by African countries.
"For the past five years, the two Chinas have been locked in a diplomatic struggle for the allegiance of new nations. The tactics of the Nationalists, operating from their island stronghold of Taiwan have been strikingly successful.
"In the 1965 vote which was a 47-47 tie with 17 abstentions, 18 African countries supported the admission of Communist China. This year when the vote widened to 57-46 against Peking, with 17 abstentions, seven more young African States voted with the majority.
"Both sides have dug deeply into their resources to make friends in a distant continent. President Modibo Keita's Mali is a bastion of Peking in West Africa; in 1961 the (Red) Chinese gave Mali £6 million as a loan and are building factories for making textiles, cigarettes, matches and sugar—as well as sending Keita hundreds of rice-growers to instruct local farmers.
"Chiang Kai-shek for his part has 40 farming and technical missions scattered through Africa—including 160 rice experts in Mali's southern neighbour, the Ivory Coast.
"Taiwan has this year given £ 1 million loans to two other French speaking countries, Niger and Chad, and promised 'extensive aid' to Sierra Leone.
"Although the rival Chinese are often active in adjoining countries, they rarely come into direct contact. Neither will stay if the other is present. During the series of West African coups earlier this year, there was astute Oriental juggling as cone diplomatic mission moved in when the other moved out.
"The Chinese Communist approach to Africa is dynamic and undisguisedly political. Often quoted is Chou En-lai's statement during his first African tour in 1964: 'Revolutionary prospects are excellent throughout Africa.
" 'The people of many African countries that have won independence are pushing the revolution forward.'
"By the intensity of such views the Peking diplomats and journalists tend to alarm Africans as they convert. Even among the most militant black leaders, there was little enthusiasm for Marshal Lin Piao's thesis, expounded in his Maoist essay 'Long Live the Victory of the Peoples' War,' that Africa is part of the world countryside from which capitalist cities of Europe and North America must be encircled and destroyed.
"A mainstay of the Chinese appeal to Africa is that the people are allied by their experience of colonialist domination.
"This line has also served in the campaign to outflank the Russians since the Sino-Soviet split, the (Red) Chinese branding their Communist rivals as 'white, bourgeois and decadent'.
"Such condemnation has been most apparent in the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Organisation (AAPSO) and other left-wing international bodies with Peking trying to oust Moscow on the grounds that the Russian are neither Africans nor Asians.
"An ironic commentary was provided by a Zambian magazine, with a picture of Mao Tse-tung captioned 'Black-like me.'
"In Dar es Salaam, President Julius Nverere was forced to demand a halt when the (Red) Chinese and Soviet embassies grew so bitterly hostile that they were flooding the populace with ideological leaflets, taken up with charges and counter-charges.
"Peking's pursuit of absolute allegiance from Africa on world issues is often counter-productive. Non-aligned States which might be ready to vote for Communist China's admission to the UN have hesitated for fear that they should seem committed to her policies. Such countries are also torn between a hope that Communist China will 'cool down' inside the UN and a fear that she will turn it into a polemical arena for fighting the United States.
"In September this year the New China News Agency declared that 'the UN is incapable of realty doing anything in the interest of the oppressed nations. The UN has committed every kind of evil deed.'
"Yet the African countries are without exception dedicated to the world organisation. Membership is regarded as the hallmark of independence. They see UN action the only hope for ending the Rhodesian rebellion and bringing eventually the liberation of all southern Africa.
"In contrast to the evangelistic methods of Peking, the Chinese Nationalists are politically self-effacing. They are less concerned with putting their own case than with frustrating their rivals. Their eyes are always on those General Assembly votes.
"The architect of Taiwan's policy is the Vice-Foreign Minister, Dr. Yang Hsi-kun, a polished Columbia University graduate.
"Nicknamed 'Mr. Africa' by his colleagues, Yang Hsi-kun spends nearly half of every year in the hot and dusty black capitals. From Ouagadougou to Zomba, there is never an independence anniversary he fails to attend—unless the Communists have been invited there first.
"Yang says: 'Our aid programmes are unconditional—we do not ask anything in return.' Then he adds frankly: 'There is, however, a reward—the slow but steady shift of African opinion away from Peking and towards the Free Chinese.'
"Although Taiwan's smallness limits its capacity for giving aid, this also has its advantages. Africans are not frightened of an island of 14 million people, as they frequently are of the mainland Chinese giant with its 650 million population.
"They are painfully aware that China is only about a third of the size of the whole African continent but has almost three times more people.
"President Felix Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast said recently: 'The (Red) Chinese are hard-pressed by their demographic expansion. They are in search of space—that is why they are attracted by the emptiness of Africa.'
"When the 21st Session of the UN began this autumn, American delegates expressed confidence that militant Afro-Asian demands for the admission of Peking would be defeated 'with a few more votes to spare.
"The labours of Dr. Yang—aided by several right-wing coups in Africa since the 1965 decision to keep Peking out—had not been in vain." (Full text)
South China Morning Post
The South China Morning Post of Hongkong said December 5, 1966: "It is difficult to believe that the 'incident' on Taipa island last month over the Macao Government's order to stop work on the demolition of a building could generate so much hate and violence as was witnessed over the weekend in a territory which has been remarkable for its internal calm in the postwar years. There are conflicting reports on the number of injuries which resulted from the Taipa incident—Peking claims 40 but Macao puts the figure at 15 including 13 of their own policemen which if true indicates that they came off worse. The suspension of two leading Macao officials late on Saturday night by the Governor is clearly a conciliatory gesture but the demonstrations which subsequently touched off an orgy of destruction that can only be described as appalling, show clearly that Macao leftists are making a cause celebre of the issue. The riots have resulted in several deaths and many injuries and these are likely to exacerbate feelings though the ring leaders must have clearly calculated this risk ... but according to eyewitness reports, the youthful violence in Macao is being encouraged by provocateurs and until this stops, trouble is likely to continue.
"The riots bear a remarkable similarity to what happened in the first few days of the cultural revolution in Peking. But where the Red Guards sought to intimidate bourgeois elements (with the full knowledge that they had the backing of the authorities) the Macao rioters vented their violence against the Portuguese authorities. Where the homes of the bourgeoisie were ransacked in Peking, it was the Leal Senado in Macao. Nothing alas is sacred in (mainland) China today and there is little respect for priceless old books and paintings in a generation that has repudiated the past as worthless. It remains to be seen whether the Macao rioters, who at times displayed strident xenophobia, are going to be satisfied with the destruction they have so far caused or whether today will see fresh outbreaks ... (Partial text)
The Spectator
The Spectator of London said on December 2, 1966: "One of the most important, though least intended, effects of (Red) China's nuclear missile experiment last month is the reinforcement of Japan's basically pro-Western policy. The explosion provoked one of the rare shows of near-unanimity in Japanese politics: all the major parties from left to right condemned it. It also deepened the two great debates in which Japanese public opinion is currently immersed, on rearmament and on the American alliance. The two debates overlap at many points, especially where the (Red) Chinese factor enters...
"The official government position is that there is no question of Japan's acquiring nuclear weapons... The response of the Director-General of the Defence Agency (i.e. the Defence Ministry) to the latest (Red) Chinese test was to recommend that Japan give more serious thought to her own defence against possible nuclear attack...
"Curiously enough, the prospect of (Red) China's having an atomic missile capable of being delivered to most cities of Japan by about the end of next year has had less impact on Japanese opinion than the political implications of the Red Guards and the succession struggle in Peking ... There are many Japanese who feel that the (Red) Chinese are far too civilised to launch an unprovoked attack on their Confucian proteges: there are also a few who would regard such a thing fatalistically as a deserved punishment for past wrongs. Many in Japan used secretly to admire Mao's success in uniting China, but now they are not so sure...
"Meanwhile Mr. Stao must prepare himself, or his party under another leader, for the test of strength which will come in two or three year's time over the extension of the US security treaty.
"The treaty's ten-year term expires in 1970, and it then becomes optional rather than binding on the two governments. If Japan wishes to continue the arrangements, she need do nothing: extension is automatic. If she wishes to end the pact, then she must give one year's notice to Washington, and the earliest date at which this could be done is June 19, 1969. Left-wing opposition will undoubtedly reach a climax on that day, and the Liberal-Democratic Party will need to be rather more united and efficient than the present trend suggests if it is to ride out that storm safely. But the Komeito party has said that it would be 'unrealistic' to end the US treaty at the moment, and the Socialists are getting a less fiery response from the students and intellectuals on this issue. Comrade Lin Piao and the Red Guards may make Mr. Sato's passage an easier one." (Partial text)