CONFIDENTIAL
The Export of Communism
8. Chinese Communism differs fundamentally from that of the Soviet Union. The Chinese Party seems genuinely to feel that the Russians have perverted the true course of Communism, and have become both bourgeois and imperialist. Even the Chinese leadership maintains a simple life style and contact with peasant conditions. Because the Chinese revolution came later, and was more closely related to an agricultural than to an industrial society, Chinese Communism has made little headway in industrial countries. Its appeal has been greater in some ex-Colonial territories, particularly those where de-colonization has been combined with hostility to Western economic influence, for example Tanzania and Cambodia. However, China still falls short of the military, economic and diplomatic strength which would enable her to exert influence world wide on a scale approaching that of the two Super Powers.
9.
China's Marxist-Leninist political philosophy is nevertheless incompatible with Western political and economic systems. The Chinese, like the Russians, forecast the destruction of capitalism and "bourgeois society". During most of the period 1949-1969, these concepts prompted them to vociferous condemnation of the West and active efforts to undermine Western influence. But, as the Sino- Soviet dispute developed, some of this energy was channelled into support for pro-Chinese splinter Communist parties throughout the world; later, following China's re-assessment of the Russian threat at the end of the 1960s, hostility to the West began to diminish as the Chinese saw Western Europe and the United States as valuable counter-weights to the Soviet Union. There is remarkably little evidence of Chinese subversion in Western Europe and they appear not to have given significant support at least in Europe to the activities of those claiming to be "Maoists". Though they continue to support anti-colonial and anti-capitalist sentiment in the Third World, this now appears to be less important to them than to prevent the Soviet Union gaining a foothold there.
External Trade
This
10. China's share of total visible world trade is probably about 1.2%. is mostly in foodstuffs and raw materials, which account for 55% of China's exports, but textiles and clothing at 20% and other manufactured goods at 20% are growing categories. Traditionally China has sold rice and bought wheat and this pattern continues. Part of the sale of raw materials goes to finance the purchase of other raw materials. China's imports of foreign technology and industrial plant are of increasingly vital importance to attainment of her modernization goal. Since 1973 some of these purchases have been financed by deferred payment, although the Chinese attitude towards credit remains conservative. Because of China's size, even small quantities of trade can amount to vast totals. For example, in 1974 China's imports of grain were 7 million tons, greater than the purchases made by either India or the Soviet Union. Similarly, even though the economy is comparatively backward, overall GNP represents nearly half that of Japan. The growing importance of oil exports (already 11/12 million tons in 1975 and predicted by many to become 40 million tons by 1980) will give the Chinese further scope for trade.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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