China Alleges Soviet Raid

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32012, 12 June 1969, Page 13

China Alleges Soviet Raid

(N.Z. Press Association-Copyright)

TOKYO, June 11.

Radio Peking claimed today that Soviet troops backed by tanks yesterday crossed into Sinkiang province—site of China’s nuclear base—and clashed with Chinese frontier guards, the Associated Press reported.

In a Chinese-language broadcast monitored in Tokyo, Radio Peking said that the Russians killed one Chinese woman herder and took into Soviet territory one of three other herders they molested. The broadcast said the Chinese Foreign Ministry had protested about the incident to the Soviet Embassy in Peking, describing the incident as a “fresh incident of bloodshed created solely by the Soviet Government" In a later broadcast Peking’s New China News Agency (N.C.N.A.) said the latest Chinese-Soviet border incident occurred after “dozens” of Soviet troops violated Chinese territory and “carried out wanton provocations against three Chinese herdsmen who were grazing cattle.”

The Russians also kidnapped one herdsman, said the protest Note released by N.C.N.A.

Peking’s protest warned the Soviet Union to change its “policy of territorial expansion and armed provocation against China,” otherwise it would “surely meet with severe punishment by the Chinese people and the Soviet Government must be held fully responsible for all the grave consequences arising therefrom.” The protest demanded an immediate halt to Soviet armed provocations, an immediate stop to Soviet “encroachment” on Chinese territory, and the return of the kidnapped herdsman. Also, Peking said, it reserved the right to demand compensation for losses.

The latest protest came five days after Peking alleged that Soviet troops were continuing to provoke incidents along the 4500-mile Chinese-Soviet border, in some cases firing

at Chinese and kidnapping them.

Earlier, China announced that it had agreed to meet the Soviet Union in a Soviet border city on June 18 to discuss questions of navigation on boundary rivers between the two nations. However, the announcement indicated that the talks would be limited to navigational problems.