Writer raps China’s offer

Press, 25 October 1982, Page 8

Writer raps China’s offer

NZPA Taipei The exiled Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, yesterday warned Western nations against supporting mainland China’s peaceful reunification with Taiwan proposal, maintaining that the offer is “hypocritical.” On what appears to be the first Russian-language speech in Taiwan, Solzhenitsyn said “extremely powerful circles” in the West are gladly picking up the “hypocritical offer from Communist China on peaceful reunification." The Nobel literature prizewinner told an audience of

about 2000 people in a speech entitled “To Free China” that many American journalists “cry from the house-tops” that Peking is bound by promises, but they had forgotten that the Communists had already “cheated many times.” “If China breaks its promises and seizes Taiwan by force, then America would be freed from obligations and could again start to deliver arms ... to whom, then?” said Solzhenitsyn. Any support to the “myth" that China is a “good-natured peace-maker is not out of short-sightedness, not out of stupidity, but out of despair and loss of spirit," he said. He said that the United States broke diplomatic ties

with Taiwan in January 1979 “only to follow the futile Western dream of gaining an ally in Communist China." In the 50-minute speech which was repeatedly interrupted by applause, the Russian writer accused America of wanting to “force Taiwan to ' accept capitulatory negotiations, to relinquish voluntarily its freedom and power." Solzhenitsyn visited Taiwan last week on an invitation by the private Wu San Lien Arts Awards Foundation. He ■ has toured several cultural and scenic spots throughout Taiwan, but was reluctant to talk to the press. Yesterday’s speech was the only one planned during his visit.