TNAG-0033-FCO40-69-Relations-with-China-1968 — Page 147

(PER/8)

B.J. to Mr. Boyd off.

Dear John,

40%

CONFIDENTIAL

RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No.31)

27 AUG 1968

FC13/2

Ents.

812

(ffice of the British Chargé d'Affaires,

PEKING,

13 August, 1968.

Copris for SCATO

Сорий

Į

Here is yet another selection of news items from the Reference News bulletin. The period covered in this

4 survey 10 July to August is a little longer than usual, This is due to a temporary hitch in our supplies.“

2. Reports of events in Czechoslovakia dominate recent issues of the bulletin. A cadre who had read Huang Yung-cheng's remarks in his speech on the anniversary of the PLA about the "disintegration" of the Soviet camp would find plenty of evidence to support this assertion in the Reference News. Before the Cierna talks, a picture was presented of confusion and blatant "rightism" in Czechoslovakia itself, of alternate Soviet blustering and hesitancy in dealing with the new Czech leaders, and of the gradual alignment of a block of socialist countries and communist parties opposed to interference or inter- vention by Moscow. More recently, however, the bulletin has taken the line that the Russians had done a "revisionist" deal with their Czech counterparts, and that Moscow has all along been more concerned with assuring her economic. and national interests than with checking liberalisation in Prague. The selection of reports seems calculated to underline the Soviet dilemma, and reveals China's Schadenfreude at the spectacle of disarray in the enemy camp, particularly in view of her own persistent difficulties at home.

3. The period under review has been relatively uneventful in Vietnam and Paris, and this lull is reflected in the bulletin. Fewer indications of North Vietnamese flexibility and increasing signs of their obduracy at the Paris talks made it easier for the Chinese to present the North Vietnamese position in a slightly more approving light, particularly on the demand for the total cessation of bombing. More recently, however, there have been indications that the Chinese are still concerned at the possibility of the achievement of a political settlement through full-scale peace talks, and the significance of Hanoi's modification of the third of the "four points" has not been lost on Peking. Un Sinc/US relations, the Chinese again cold- shouldered suggestions by prominent American statesmen and politicians in favour of a reduction of tension.

1. The Chinese still appear keenly interested in the prospect of Canadian recognition. However, they may feel that Cttawa is dragging its feet on this question. The bulletin seems to be anxious to reassure its audience that things are still moving in the right direction, and

../to explain

J.D.I. Boyd, Esq.,

Far Eastern Department.

CONFIDENTIAL