Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-11-05

Sci GLlat CHINA leaQ.
ers now seek friendship with the
West"
Part of this self confidence
may be based on China's greatly
improved communications. Two
years ago, a local hothead among
Shanghai's Communists, for in
stance, might get away with
private purge against his local
enemies and so antagonize thou
sands. The government was hard
up for officials who could use
intelligence as we'll as Marxist
philosophy in dealing with such
a situation. 1t lacked efficient
communication with its local au-
thorities in distant places. It
could never relax, therefore,
while so many weak spots re-
manned, many of which it genu-
inely feared would be exploited
by agencies financed by the
West.
Cleanup q Major Drive.
Peiping's other face is much
more likable If one first accepts
that the new regime has a right
to tackle its own problems in
its own way. Only by super
human effort was it possible,
for instance, to clear up China
and instill a sense of hygiene in
backward masses. When British
Labor Party leader Clement
Attlee said there were no flies
in China he said a great deal
more.
The organization behind such
q result had to be enormous and
ruthless. A fair comparison
would be if the Netherlands were
crammed with over 40 times her
present population, most of them
people lacking a sense of cleanli-
ness, but governed by a small,
educated group in the capital.
Either these people must be al
lowed to die in huge numbers
from self-produced diseases or
else few must suffer from
frankly dictatorial campaign.
Men like Prime Minister
Nehru of India have found other
solutions which do not imperil
individuals free d om. But
China's new leaders had to fight
both invaders and their own
oppressors for too many years.
They had no time for subtle
answers to their problems. They
grabbed the first thing which
offered itself. And that was
communism.
Looking at Our Viewpoint.
Today there's evidence they
are taking a much harder look
at our viewpoint. Unfortunately
both sides have obscured their
arguments with so much ridicu-
louS propaganda that it may be
years yet before any of us get
beyond the stage of shifting each
other over.
1t would pay us to investigate
the probability for example that
the Chinese language is so hard
to translate accurately that what
we think the new regime is
talking about and what it really
means could be two different
things
My first reaction to Official
dom was annoyance and resent
ment. I had been pushed around
by relationships before. My con-
facts here seemed still and UNI
smiling. and appeared to 60 to
undue lengths to put difficulties
In my way.
1t was the harsher face of
Peiping all over again. Then
realized their reaction to me was
the same. I demanded short
cuts to the things I wanted to
do after these same officials for
years had to go through the mill
Of bureaucracy.
Too Many Conducted Tours.
I still get annoyed. There are
too many conducted tours. I
travelled all the way to north
east China to see a village only
to discover it was the same
village shown all foreign visitors.
The noble rustic who showed
me around this mutual-aid farm
had seen more strange people
trekking there from Tibet to
Finland to South America than
any one North American citizen
ever looked upon. I wasted time
listening to a kind of repertory
company version Of the simple
Chinese worker trotting out the
same old stories. It would be
less than honest to report them
because not one was spon-
taneouS.
1t will be long time before
any of this changes. The regime
feels confident it now has won,
through mass propaganda, the
backing of the whole country.
But it still fears the intrusion
of Allied ideas.
Yet a start has been made.
Peiping is wide open to the
foreigner today. It tells West
erner correspondent far better
than any number Of second-rate
propagandists imported by the
regime from the West to churn
out English-language publicity.
Stroll down Embroidery street
beyond the outer walls of
Peiping. Here hundreds of small
shops do roaring trade in the