China Burns its Bridges
MCCABE, ROBERT KARR
'THE SINO-SOVIET DISPUTE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME' China Burns its Bridges By Robert Karr McCabe Hong Kong "Next thing you know," a Sinologist said, "the Russians will be asking to join...
...This evidently referred to Chiang Kaishek's smashing of the Sovietadvised Chinese Communists in 1927...
...The modern revisionists," Red Flag added thoughtfully, "are scared stiff before the "policy of strength' of U.S...
...He was joking, of course, but his remark illustrates the Alice-inWonderland atmosphere which surrounds the latest developments in the Sino-Soviet dispute...
...Khrushchev, of course, remains the arch-traitor...
...on the other, China and a fair share of the Asian parties...
...Six months ago, observers in Hong Kong confidently stated that relations between Peking and Moscow could not possibly deteriorate further: "The ties holding them together will always be stronger than the forces pulling them apart," was the consensus...
...The Sofia debacle was only the beginning...
...The last two Soviet consulates in China have been closed...
...In any case, the attack on India indicates that Soviet influence over China, whatever its strength in the past, has lost its viability...
...Moscow saved its biggest guns for the Italian party congress in early December...
...indeed, it is fast approaching the proportions of a chasm...
...The dialectical sniping will continue, perhaps ebbing in violence as time goes on, though relations between the two Communist giants will never be the same...
...this year there were knives in the backslapping hands...
...In Communist China's political vocabulary "Tito" is still an obscene word...
...But as these words are written, no let-up is in sight...
...These protestations notwithstanding, China's invasion of India is a splendid example of Chinese dogmatism, in a nationalistic sense...
...The failure of Communist China's delegates in Europe is having its effect on the Asian nations...
...A prominent example is North Vietnam's reaction, as expressed by a December 5 editorial in Nhan Dan, the organ of the Vietnamese Communists...
...Peking's congratulatory message to Moscow, for instance, praised the "brilliant achievements of the fraternal Soviet people in their Socialist and Communist construction...
...Peking's immediate reaction was to pretend that it really had not happened...
...And the Chinese Communists show no sign of slackening their furious verbal assault on the Soviet Union...
...The next clash of Sino-Soviet interests may well occur, for example, in Africa...
...At the same time, Peking's search for backers in Europe has failed...
...Hypersensitive to Soviet charges of dogmatism, the Chinese newspaper was careful to anticipate Moscow's response-delivered by Khrushchev...
...President Tito, arriving in Moscow for his first visit since 1956, was greeted by a brotherly buss from Premier Khrushchev...
...Indeed, a logical, but so far wholly unsubstantiated, explanation for China's sudden cease-fire is that the Soviet Union had threatened to cut off China's fuel supplies...
...Shorn of its ideological overtones, the dispute is nothing less than a vulgar struggle for control of the world Communist movement...
...To build Socialism and Communism successfully, and to fruitfully defend the world Socialist system, all the Socialist countries must unite closely, especially the two big countriesthe Soviet Union and China-because the solidarity between the Soviet Union and China is the mainstay of the solidarity within the Socialist camp as a whole...
...Accusing the modern revisionists (read: Khrushchev and Co...
...THE SINO-SOVIET DISPUTE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME' China Burns its Bridges By Robert Karr McCabe Hong Kong "Next thing you know," a Sinologist said, "the Russians will be asking to join NATO...
...As one Hong Kong observer points out, Peking's support of Castro costs nothing...
...We may never see the day that the Soviet Union joins NATO...
...Key personnel in such Chinese embassies as Moscow, Prague, Budapest and Sofia have been dismissed...
...In an editorial entitled "Defend the Purity of Marxism-Leninism," the Party devoted 5,000 words to a savage condemnation of revisionism...
...It remains perfectly possible that the barrage may halt with the same abruptness that characterized Peking's unilateral cease-fire on the Indian border...
...He also protested attacks on the Albanians: "We are deeply pained by the practice of one party making use of the rostrum of its congress to launch open and one-sided attacks on another fraternal party this can only grieve those near and dear to us and gladden our enemies...
...From all this, it seems clear that the Peking-Moscow axis is a thing of the past, however fervently both camps may continue to call for solidarity of the Socialist camp...
...Gradually, though, a more realistic response took shape: Mass rallies paraded China's devotion to Cuba's cause...
...Nobody in China needs to be reminded just who has surrendered to imperialist pressure recently...
...North Vietnam has been walking a tightrope between the two giants, obviously reluctant to become a Chinese satellite yet generally in sympathy with Peking's theories on war...
...long editorials assailed the "modern revisionists" (spelled K-H-R-U-S-H-C-H-E-V) who had betrayed heroic Fidel Castro...
...Because omissions are perhaps more important than what is actually said in notes of this kind, North Vietnam's message provides an instructive contrast...
...The Italians were quick to reply: Giancarlo Pajetta, a leading Italian party member, informed the Chinese that his party "condemns your unjust position...
...The People's Daily anniversary editorial of November 7 underlined Communist China's belief that the Soviet revolution has run out of steam...
...Nhan Dan's editorial was picked up by New China News Agency, though the Chinese version carefully omitted any reference to the call for Sino-Soviet solidarity and dropped all allusion to the Soviet Union as the center of the world Socialist system...
...Palmiro Togliatti, head of Italy's Communist party, keynoted the anti-Chinese mood in his opening speech...
...Since roughly 1955, India has fallen within Moscow's sphere of Asian influence, and the Chinese aggression was a rude slap at Khrushchev's hopes...
...Then, attacking Peking's thesis that war with the capitalist world is inevitable, Kozlov labeled it "an adventurist position which has nothing to do with Marxism...
...imperialism...
...the Chinese can portray themselves as the friends who stood by Cuba, while Russia quit and ran...
...And on both sides increasingly less care is being taken to disguise the insults, so there is no mistaking their intent...
...And Khrushchev is the betrayer of the holy principles of Marxism-Leninism...
...U.S...
...of adulterating Marxism-Leninism with bourgeois ideologies, Red Flag declared they "substitute bourgeois pacifism for anti-imperialist struggle, substitute reformism for proletarian revolution, substitute bourgeois nationalism for proletarian internationalism and substitute humanitarianism for the Marxist-Leninist theories on class struggle...
...Pinpointing the precise date on which the conflict reached its current level of intensity is difficult, but a strong case can be made for October 28, when Khrushchev decided to pull his missiles out of Cuba...
...Meanwhile, at the Czech congress, Wu was experiencing equally heavy going...
...The gap has widened...
...During the stage of democratic revolution in China, doctrinaires wanted us to apply knowledge mechanically from books and other countries without any analysis, thus causing exceptionally serious losses to the Chinese revolution...
...Robert Karr McCabe reports regularly for The New Leader on political developments in the Far East...
...Liu Hsiao, long-time Chinese Ambassador in Moscow, has been replaced by Pan Tzu-li, the ex-Ambassador to India, and thus far Liu's new job, if any, has not been announced...
...From the 1957 Moscow Declaration, signed by both China and the Soviet Union, Red Flag went on to quote a description of revisionism: "The existence of bourgeois influence is an internal source of revisionism, while surrender to imperialist pressure is its external source...
...On the contrary, the argument grows hotter, as was demonstrated on December 12, when Premier Khrushchev sharply attacked Peking before the Soviet Parliament...
...Peking's retort, delivered by Central Committee member Chao Yiming, frankly admitted that the Chinese differed with other Communist parties on several important points: structural reform, Yugoslav revisionism and the Albanian Party position...
...The Mao-led Chinese Communists, it continued, have applied the "universal truth" of Marxism-Leninism to achieve "brilliant victories in the Socialist revolution...
...But China studiously avoided mention of Moscow's current contributions to the building of world Socialism-or of its ideological position...
...In the long run, the free world will probably be much the better for it...
...The next day an official correction changed "deviations" to "betrayals," and added: "The Chinese Communists know full well dogmatism and its great harm...
...The Chinese walked out...
...imperialism," he said, "bullies the fainthearted but fears the strong" in an obvious allusion to Khrushchev's Cuban withdrawal...
...Modern revisionists," said the editorial, "represented by the Tito clique, have betrayed the principles of the October Revolution in a most despicable manner...
...The most forthright expression of China's disgust appeared in the November 15 issue of Red Flag, the Chinese Party's theoretical organ...
...The article concludes that "We will fight forever, shoulder to shoulder with the Albanian Labor Party and the Albanian People, in defense of Marxism-Leninism...
...An actual break in relations may never come about, but for all practical purposes the rupture has already taken place...
...Opposition to dogmatism,' its editorial said, "is used as a cover for deviations from Marxism-Leninism...
...Frol R. Kozlov, Soviet First Deputy Premier, told the Italian Communists: "Those who are certain of their historic future have no need to play with thermonuclear fire...
...Peking has forced the issue...
...China's pro-Cuba fireworks were still exploding in early November, when it came time to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the October Revolution...
...In following weeks, Chinese delegates suffered a series of embarrassing rebuffs at European Communist party congresses...
...Once again he attacked the Soviet Union...
...While Hanoi sent its "best wishes, deep gratitude and sincere love" to the Soviet people and the "glorious Communist Party of the Soviet Union headed by Comrade N. S. Khrushchev," Peking confined itself to toasting only the "fraternal Soviet people...
...He also attacked the Peking credo which labels imperialism "a paper tiger...
...Nowadays, these same seers are scuttling for cover...
...On the one hand are the Soviet Union and the European Communists...
...Though he was applauded before he delivered his speech, at the end he was greeted by stunned silence...
...Prime Minister Viliam Siroky "strongly disagreed" with Wu's statements...
...The official New China News Agency, which previously had carried nothing but reports of Chinese speeches at the various congresses, was so shaken by Togliatti's attack that it reported it in considerable detail...
...Ho Chi Mirth hailed the "unselfish" Soviet aid to North Vietnam and other Communist countries, as well as Moscow's sacrifices for mankind in general...
...Though reports of the actual context of the discussions so far have been sketchy at best, the mere meeting of the two is enough to infuriate onlookers in Peking...
...It is a vicious act," Wu said, "for one party openly to attack another fraternal party at its own congress...
...Wu moved on to Budapest, delivered essentially the same speech, and drew a violent response from the chief Soviet delegate, Central Committee member Otto V. Kuusinen...
...The Czech response was stony...
...Kozlov was not the only one to attack the Peking line...
...When Moscow's Ambassador to Peking praised the Soviet Premier as a "steadfast and faithful Leninist" during a Soviet October Revolution reception in Peking, Chinese guests remained silent while Russians and East Europeans applauded...
...If China's harvests continue to improve, efforts to subvert the underdeveloped nations will take on an increased tempo...
...According to the Chinese, Moscow (and particularly Nikita Khrushchev) has gone soft, and is no longer fit to lead the world toward Communism...
...However, the more frenziedly they attack, the more clearly the MarxistLeninists and revolutionary peoples throughout the world can see that the Albanian Communists are called 'dogmatists' and 'sectarians' by the modern revisionists precisely because of their unswerving loyalty to Marxism-Leninism, their resolute defense of the revolutionary principles of the Moscow Declaration and the Moscow Statement and their repeated exposure of the shameless betrayal of MarxismLeninism.' Red Flag notes the frequent allusions by other parties to "adventurism" and "narrow-minded nationalism" and explains that this is because the Albanians have drawn a clear distinction between friend and foe, because they have given full support to "the revolutionary struggle of oppressed nations and peoples...
...Ho Chi Minh would like to avoid being forced into making a choice...
...Normally, this is the occasion for an orgy of camaraderie...
...But there is always the chance that China and Albania may develop their own rift...
...But Chao defended China's position as the only correct one and, in effect, condemned those in disagreement to the outer darkness of revisionism...
...In the midst of the Chinese fiascos in Europe, too, SovietYugoslav relations took a turn for the better-or worse, if you look at the rapprochement through Peking's jaundiced eyes...
...Perhaps even China's leaders have begun to feel the pangs of loneliness...
...The Chinese party," he said, is "maintaining a unity with the Albanian leaders which cannot be accepted...
...Early this month, Red Flag published a long history of the triumphs of the Albanian Communists, which reads like a plaintive defense of China's stand: "The scientific Marxist-Leninist analysis and correct stand maintained by the Albanian Labor Party and Government of major international problems of the present era, and the correct policies and lines it has formulated, have been maliciously attacked by the modern revisionists represented by the Tito group...
...In Sofia, for example, Central Committeeman Wu Hsu-chuan charged that criticism of the Albanian Workers' (Communist) Party seriously undermined Socialist unity at a critical time...
Vol. 45 • December 1962 • No. 26
