Russia backs China’s entry

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32460, 21 November 1970, Page 17

Russia backs China’s entry

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyright)

NEW YORK, Nov. 20.

In a surprise move today, the Soviet Union entered the debate on China’s entry to the United Nations; the vote on the resolution is expected about 4 a.m. on Saturday (New Zealand time).

Informed sources said that the decision by the Soviet delegate (Mr Jacob Malik) to address the Assembly, after years of silence on the issue, was apparently taken at the last minute. Mr Malik declared that the “lawful rights” of China had been “usurped by imperialism,” in the form of “the American puppet,” the “Taiwan clique,” and should be restored immediately. The proposed two-thirds

majority requirement governing the admission of China —supported by a number of countries which have relations with Peking, and which support its entry—was a procedural “trick,” he said, that could be construed only as a hostile action against the people’s republic. Accord unlikely If the Soviet Union were to soften its position, even to the extent of not insisting on the immediate expulsion of the Chinese nationalists from the United Nations, it might pave the way to an United States-Soviet agreement on this vital point, diplomats in Washington feel. Although the United States is seen as taking a more flexible line this year, .it is generally understood that their attitude will not change for at least another year. Even if the vote gets a simple majority, China will probably continue to be barred from the United Nations, because of the nine-year-old ruling that the question must be decided by a two-thirds majority.