Demoralisation In China Believed

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29896, 9 August 1962, Page 13

Demoralisation In China Believed

(AI.Z, Pres* Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, August 8. China is in a mood of “apathy, dejection and deinoralisaton” in the midst of economic disaster, United States officials say.

In an up-to-date assessment of the situation. United Slates Government experts on Chinese affairs said the Chinese economy continued to deteriorate.

There was no immediate sign of a levelling off, even if this year’s grain crop was slightly improved. A Washington dispatch in the “New York Times” said that the officials emphasised the affairs in China might be worse than was realised abroad because of difficulties in communications from the mainland

“In the opinion of American experts, there probably is no starvation in China. However, they believe that food shortages have lowered the life expectancy in many regions.” the newspaper said The Chinese population, now estimated at 700 million, might have ceased to grow in some parts of the country and might be decreasing. The psychological and political impact of the failure of 1958's “great leap forward” might be more erious than the economic hardships Because the people had been led to expect so much the let down had caused “apathy, dejection, demoralisation, despondency and despair,” the official said In spite of the hardships, it was believed in Washington that there was no mood of ’■ebellion in China.

Although the population would welcome a change of regime they were cowed by the military and security apparatus But the United States experts said it was conceivable the regime might fall in time, though the change would probably be evolutionary rather than revolutionary