RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHINA

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 21

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHINA

(N.Z. Press Association —Copyright!

MOSCOW, December 6.

The Kremlin is seen today in the midst of an unprecedented campaign to stir up the emotions of the Russian people against China, says United Press International.

The Soviet press, television and party machinery has been enlisted in a massive propaganda effort to portray China as the enemy of Russia.

Only cartoons are not being used since this could lead to charges of racism, an accusation the Kremlin often levels at Peking. Diplomats believe the campaign is connected with the Soviet Union’s call for a world Communist summit meeting presumably to isolate China from the Communist movement.

They believe the Kremlin is determined to use any means available to discredit China.

This new report to stir up anti-Chinese feelings at home surfaced in the last week. It surpasses any propaganda campaign yet launched against the United States. “Soviet Culture,” a Russian newspaper, reported yesterday that a famous Chinese actress committed suicide after militant Red Guard youths cut off her hair and paraded her through the streets of Canton.

The newspaper said the actress. Hung Hsiang Nu, plunged six storeys to her death from a Canton building. Later, it said, the Red Guards asserted she had “escaped a punishment that awaited her.” For months, the Kremlin has been attacking China

publicly, but this campaign was mostly confined to the press and consisted largely of ridicule.

The new campaign differs in the degree of venom, in its scope, in its target—the heart rather than the mind—and in its use of almost every propaganda media. The change became evident last week with the publication of an unusually strong. 5000word editorial in the Soviet Communist Party newspaper, “Pravda." “SINS” REVIEWED

It reviewed all of China’s “sins” and stressed the antiSoviet campaigns now underway in China. The length and detail was unprecedented. Party leaders throughout Russia were instructed to carry the word to non-party members, who make up 88 per cent of the Soviet population.

Films of anti-Soviet demonstrations in Peking, withheld for nearly a month, were released for television last week. Commentators described the Red Guard militants as “barbarians."