344
THE CHINESE
them with the traditional émigrés from poor countries either. These people are not like the bourgeois and the intellectuals who left China after 1949, having lost both their fortunes and their positions. They are not exiles from poverty--they are young people, often of the most humble origin, but full of health and vitality.
Although they have not known any other regime and do not lack the basic necessities of life, they seem unable to put up with the social pressure, the absence of any prospects of personal promotion, and the political and religious intolerance. They have a hazy picture of another type of society in which they hope to improve their lot.
The actual rate of immigration-one Chinese leaves each year for every fifteen thousand who stay behind—is negligible statistically, but it rep- resents much more in human terms. We should not attach to the refugees the excessive importance given them by the China watchers who lie in wait for their arrival, pen in hand, ready to rewrite their adventures for readers in the United States, Japan and Taiwan. We should not, however, overlook their disturbing testimony.
It is also unsettling that Lin Piao and his eight companions tried to flee to Moscow, the Mecca of a "revisionist" ideology which Mao's appointed successor had himself condemned with such passion during the Cultural Revolution.
26
The Precariousn
On the day the first banqu Assembly in the Palace of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chou En-lai? He replied: naturally. And Kuo Mo-jo necessary." It was July 16 Nixon would be making a this remark at the time. confirmed that Mao's "close this news was given only to it out for themselves from longer referred to- as if he rumors as well, and this is standing of the way Chines nil.
The Palace Revoluti
This episode reveals political regime: the perm that the way they develop
*The French Foreign Minister, Mrs. Bandaranaike.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.