No Favours For France

Press, Issue 30997, 1 March 1966, Page 17

No Favours For France

(N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) HONG KONG Feb. 26. President de Gaulle, two years after recognising the government of China, is chagrined with the attitude of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, writes Seymour Topping of the “New York Times.”

Topping wrote: In establishing diplomatic relations with China, General de Gaulle hoped to initiate a dialogue with the Peking leadership that would help solve East-West problems and enhance French influence. But French eloquence has made no headway against Chinese dialectics.'

Over innumerable cups of tea, the Peking leaders have chatted with a succession of special envoys from Paris about better relations, but there is still no special communication between the two countries.

Mr Lucien Paye, the French Ambassador to Peking, still must get the bulk of his information about Chinese thinking in the same way as the 40-odd other diplomatic missions in Peking, that is, by reading the local newspapers.

If this slight was not enough, French businessmen complain because they do not receive as many trade contracts as Japanese, West Germans, and others who have no diplomatic ties with Peking. The pragmatic Chinese deal with those who offer the best commercial terms. Little information is available about activities of the Chinese leaders, and diplo-

mats in Peking have had unusual difficulty during the last three months in arranging appointments with officials. Ironically, the United States, which has no diplomatic or commercial ties with Peking, is the best informed country on what is going on inside China. In Washington and in Hong Kong and at other points around the China periphery, highly trained American analysts sift through Communist publications, monitor broadcasts, and interview travellers and refugees. This data is supplemented by intelligence collected by clandestine means, such as overflights of U2 planes, and from a world-wide reporting system on Chinese commercial transactions and the movements of officials. However, zjnerican analysts have found it increasingly difficult to make assessi ments of Chinese intention .