Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1960-11-26
Mao and Mr.. K.

Few news stories in recent times
have been murkier or less documented
than the ones having to do with the
Communist summit" conference in
Moscow. Indeed, although it evidently
has been in progress since November Z,
none Of the Red participants (from some
30 countries) has deigned even to an
nounce or acknowledge that the meeting
has been taking place. So the foreign cor
respondents reporting on it can hardly
be blamed for the large amount Of
gossipy speculation in their dispatches.
Nevertheless, despite all the obscu-
rites surrounding it, "well informed
sources" presumably Russian) have let
it be known to the correspondents that
this peculiarly furtive get-together has
been dealing principally with the fact
that Red China continues to take sharp
Issue with Soviet Premier Khrushchev's
thesis that war is not inevitable and that
peaceful coexistence" is both possible
and desirable. BY way of contrast, Mao
Tze-tung and his Peiping regime are
said to have been insisting that the
Moscow confereeS should reject Mr.. KS
mendous armed conflict between COM
,munism and the free world.
It is primarily for this reason, &C
cording to the 'Well-informed sources"
that the Moscow meeting has been so
prolonged. The Soviet Premier and his
colleagues, it would SEEM, have been
having hard time trying to persuade
pnirinn oV1A
Generalissimo Macs rather bk>od-cur-
ding contention that "revol ltionary
war even one in which as many as
800 million Chinese might be killed, not
to mention hundreds of millions Of
other peoples-would be good thing if
it promised to advance the cause Of Red
totalitarianism. Mr.. K, who has indi-
Gated that he believes such war would
be mutually suicidal, is reported to have
become alarmed by the Chinese Com
munists' stubborn bellicosity, and also
by their suggestion that they may soon
have nuclear weapons of their own-a
possibility that might tempt them to
embark on adventures that could lead to
CHASTITY consequences for the entire
world.
OF course, if the Communists finally
decide to admit the existence of their
summit" meeting in Moscow, they
probably will issue communique at
f1rming that the Kremlin and the Mao
regime are in basic and unshakeable
agreement on everything, and the free
world would be wise not to think too
wishfully to the contrary. Still, even
though we must reckon with the posi-
bility that the Mao-KhruShchev debate
is put-up job calculated to throw us
off guard, the fact remains that the
Soviet Union, with it's population OF little
more than 200 million, has reason to
look soberly toward the time, not dis
tant, when neighboring China will have
no fewer than l billion people living in
it and creating pressures for expansion
outward.
President de Gaulle of France has
made penetrating comment on this
matter. AS he has put it, the USSR, re-
gardless of Peiping's communism, must
worry constantly and most seriously
about the masses of China, nunberlesS
and impoverished, indestructible and
ambitious, building through trial and
hardship a power which cannot be
measured and casting her eyes about on
the open spaces over which she must one
day spread" 1t is this factor, above all,
that makes interesting and significant
the reported Sino-Soviet theological
clash at the queerly secretive meeting in
Moscow.