Chinese attitudes

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32450, 10 November 1970, Page 10

Chinese attitudes

(N.Z.PA.-Reuter—Copyright) ROME, November 9. Chairman iao TseLung’s influence is decreasing, China despises Western “Maoists,” and the Chinese prefer the Americans to other Western people, according to an influential Italian newspaper.

The Turin “La Stampa” said that these were among discoveries made by Italian negotiators during 20 months of secret talks with the Chinese on establishing diplomatic relations. The decision to exchange ambassadors was announced last Friday in a -Joint communique issued in Rome and Peking. In a report from Paris by a correspondent, Michele Tito, “La Stampa” yesterday

traced the history of the negotiations which began in Paris in February, 1969, on the initiative of the former Italian Socialist Foreign Minister, Mr Pietro Nenni. The first approach to the Chinese Embassy in Paris was made on Italy’s behalf by the French Government, “La Stampa” said. But the negotiations did not finally get under way until many delays and hesitations by the Chinese had been overcome. The Italians .were told by the French that these delays were not always intentional, and that China itself lacked clear ideas, Tito said.

The French Minister, Mr Andre Bettencourt, who had visited Peking, explained to the Italians his astonishment at discovering that Mao Tse- : tung, the idolised Communist , Party chairman, never replied • to a question without first s consulting Mr Chou En-lai, ' his Prime Minister. According to “La Stampa,” ' the Italian negotiators themselves noticed with time that . the Chinese spoke increas- : inglv little of Mao. They learned that the Chinese had reservations about Stalin. , “He was 70 per cent a Com- ■ munist, and 30 per cent an assassin,” the Chinese said. .’ The Chinese also explained that they despised the West- ? ern “Maoist” and said that ; they would never allow such people to enter China. But i they said that "Maoist” ac- . tivity in Western Europe had ■ certain advantages because it embarrassed local Commu- • nist parties, particularly the Italian party, which they dei scribed as “the most sly, the i most dangerous, and the most treacherous.” i According to “La Stampa, ; the Chinese also described A Vietnam as a thorn in fl China’s side.. The Russians |' were encouraging the war r because they wanted to main- • tain the Americans in Asia, k “La Stampa” quoted the r Chinese negotiators as saying. When the Americans _ ink vaded Cambodia and Prince r Sihanouk went to Peking, the [ Chinese comment was: “How L lucky people are who don’t [• have embassies in Cambodia I and don’t have to worry I' about Sihanouk.” li The Chinese said that they r had perhaps been mistaken | in pressing so drastically their claims on Taiwan when f they first took power in 1949. They said that China still dreamed of Chiang Kai-shek coming over to its side, but could not be expected to give up whole pieces of its own territory. They would continue to offer Chiang Kai-shek the governorship of Taiwan, they said. "La Stampa” said that the Chinese took a better view of the Americans than of any other Westerners. While others had spread opium in China, the Americans had sent doctors and philanthropic missions. But the Chinese said it would be impossible to talk with the Americans so long as they continued to maintain that Taiwan was a second China.