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THE ECONOMIST september 28, 1968
The Prisoners of Mao
he British Government is not as helpless to get Anthony Grey and the others out of China's hands as it seems to think it is
Once a
h this week China has refused to let a British official visit Anthony Grey. Mr Grey, who used to be Reuter's correspondent in Peking, has now been confined to one room of his house in the city, under armed guard, for well over a year. Nobody from the British mission has seen him since April; he has had almost no contact with anyone except his guards, and is said to be in poor health. He is detained in reprisal for the gaoling in Hongkong of two journalists from the New China News Agency who were sentenced for their part in the colony's anti-British riots last year. They were convicted after an open trial on specific charges. Mr Grey's detention is purely political.
He is only one of 14 or 15 British subjects or ex-subjects held by the Chinese. Other people who have fallen foul of the Chinese authorities include three officers of the Merchant Navy who have been accused of breaches of security regulations, but have not been tried or allowed to see British officials. It is difficult to see why they have been picked out, for there have been many similar cases involving ships in Chinese ports when British seamen have been arrested only to be released soon afterwards. Probably they were victims of straight xenophobia or of some local worthy's attempt to show Maoist merit by turning in suspicious-looking foreigners. The only British subject who has been given a trial on clear charges is Mr George Watt, an engineer working on a Vickers-Zimmer project at Lanchow. He was sentenced to three years in prison in March this year after he had been found guilty of spying on "evidence supplied by the revolutionary masses." One may be suspicious of such evidence; but he was tried. Some of those arrested, such as Mr Michael Shapiro, Mrs Israel Epstein and Mr and Mrs Crook are communist sympathisers who have lived in China for many years and may indeed have become Chinese citizens. They are pre- sumably victims of the cultural revolution whose patrons have fallen and who have been caught up in their fall. There is little that Britain can do for them. They might resent any move on their behalf, and a British intervention would probably make the Chinese authorities even more suspicious of their revolutionary bona fides. These people are British in name only, if that. The British Government need feel no particular obligation to obtain their release.
But it can no longer remain passive about the others, and particularly about Mr Grey. The Chinese have always refused to say what would induce them to release Mr Grey. They might set him free if the Chinese journalists in gaol in Hongkong were released, but they might not. And in any case a bargain of this kind is unacceptable because it would set an ugly precedent. Whenever an important Chinese national was arrested in Hongkong a hostage would be taken in China for an eventual swap. The Government has steadily refused to barter the Krogers, who were gaoled for spying in Britain, against Gerald Brooke, who is now in a Russian labour camp after being found guilty of distributing anti- communist literature. Brooke did get a trial, though his sentence was unusually long. But it is likely that he was arrested partly as a bargaining counter, and the bargain has quite rightly been turned down. The arguments against such a deal over Mr Grey are even stronger since he has never been tried at all.
Straight intimidation is no more acceptable. The Indo-
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nesians managed to get their embassy staff out of Peking last year, when the Chinese had refused them exit visas, by threatening to burn down China's embassy in Jakarta and to manhandle the staff unless they changed their minds. More recently the Russians are said to have told China that if there was any more trouble outside their embassy in Peking there would be even larger and even less spontaneous demon- strations against the Chinese ambassador in Moscow. Britain cannot use this kind of tactic, partly because threats of this kind are not credible from a British government. It might be pleasant to see the Tariq Ali mob descending on Portland Place for an assault on China's mission there, but it just is not going to happen. And if a crowd of a different sort did start smashing windows, Britain's political habits would require the police to tell them to stop it.
There remains only one way in which the Government can bring pressure for Anthony Grey's release. At the moment there are four journalists of the New China News Agency in London, each of whom has to have his visa renewed each year. The Home Secretary has the power to deport these four men at any time (though such power is rarely used) and he can, of course, refuse to renew their visas. These correspondents are very useful to their government. The Chinese mission in London has few political contacts, and the journalists are in a much better position to report to their government (if not to their readers) about what is going on. The Chinese government might well be prepared to make concessions to keep them here.
One of the two Chinese journalists in prison in Hongkong is due to be released in November. Mr Grey may be set free at the same time. It should be made clear to the Chinese that, if he is not, their London correspondents' visas will not be renewed, and no replacements will be allowed in. It is unlikely that the Chinese would retaliate against the members of the British mission in Peking and their families. Since July they have granted 18 exit visas to the couple of dozen people attached to the British mission. If they lowered the boom again, Britain would presumably retaliate in kind against the Chinese in the Portland Place mission. But the advantage of acting against the Chinese journalists is that it should not involve either country's diplomatic mission. At the moment it seems that Anthony Grey is a forgotten man. His continued detention is intolerable. A threat to China's capacity to gather news in London might well help towards his release.
RECEIVED I
N163 1 OCT1968
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