30 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 52

INTERNATIONAL NOTES

Early in May, 1975, the weekly The 's current foreign policy has been a Guardian published a major and critical statement subject of broad discussion throughout the on China's foreign policy by Australian journalist, world ever since the crisis. Wilfred Burchett. The article is reprinted here. Burchett is primarily concerned with China’s As a person who has written about and response to Angola. The fact that he is a known defended the Chinese revolution since its friend of China and has recently spent much time inception, I would like to make a few covering events inside Angola adds weight to his preliminary comments about the Peking views. government’s present international line. My starting point is that China has made and About the same time that Burchett’s article was first published the Overseas Press Club of New York does make errors in its foreign policy. No awarded its prize for the best book on foreign affairs government or policy is capable of being to Phillip Knightly, another Australian. The book has entirely correct all the time. a lengthy title - "The First Casualty, The War For instance, one of the severe casualities in Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth Maker from the Crimea to ”. As this the cultural revolution of the late 1960s was indicates, the author examines the role of the war Chinese foreign policy. The career - and correspondent in the last 120 years and concludes perhaps even the life - of Foreign Minister that the “facts” most people read, and from which Chen Yi was saved by the vigorous defense they understand history, are dubious indeed. waged on his behalf by the late Premier Chou En-lai. For a brief period, even Chou was virtually deposed and chaos resulted. There are honorable exceptions among war correspondents and Knightly names as one of these This was the ultra-“left” period now Wilfred Burchett. Burchett was the first criticised by the Chinese themselves as correspondent to describe the atomic bombing of “making revolution by breaking diplomatic Hiroshima. His report in the Daily Express of relations" - and it contributed towards China's September 5, 1945 gave the first graphic descriptions of atomic destruction and made the isolation. At the same time, the Democratic first references to what is now known as radiation Republic of Vietnam was attacked for even sickness. Not surprisingly, Burchett’s story was considering peace negotiations with the US. immediately denied by various United States President Ho Chi Minh was reviled at certain authorities and he was accused of falling victim to public meetings in China for “selling out the Japanese propaganda. south”. Some Vietnamese diplomats were actually physically attacked. Fraternal relations with the Democratic People's In later years he was not only accused of falling Republic of Korea and friendly relations with victim to Chinese, Russian, Korean and Vietnamese neighbouring, neutral were propaganda, but various inspired stories have charged him with being an “agent” of these seriously jeopardized during the short reign of communist governments. Burchett has been these ultra-“leftists”. subjected to considerable vilification but Knightly's The proponents of this erroneous foreign book adds one more piece of hard evidence that his line were afterwards severely punished - and reports from Korea and Vietnam were generally accurate and that his analysis has been borne out by after a long series of personal initiatives by history. Few war correspondents receive this Premier Chou, the damage was repaired. judgment from Knightly. One or the merits of this period of ultra-“left” domination of foreign policy was that the mistakes were quickly perceived, admitted This does not mean that Burchett’s opinions on and corrected. Today, in my view, China is China’s present foreign policy are correct but they making some serious mistakes and getting should be assessed as coming from a friend of China deeper and deeper into the mire by trying to and raising some very pertinent questions. defend them. - M.R. Many friends of China have been troubled INTERNATIONAL NOTES 31

by what nas appeared to them to be Peking's MPLA leaders that if they could document abstention from the international diplomatic their charges appropriate action would be and economic boycott of the fascist Pinochet taken. As for the FNLA, Chou En-lai stated: regime in Chile. “We know is a self-declared This has now been followed by Angola, agent of US imperialism. where China made an error of extreme The MPLA leaders asked for some military dimensions. Lack of judgment in favoring the aid, including transport. Military aid was FNLA of Holden Roberto, long after it was immediately accorded, but - with China’s recognised (in Peking as elsewhere) that commitment to Indochina - they were advised Roberto was a creature of the CIA, has now to seek transport elsewhere. On the last day of been compounded by false versions as to what their visit, however, word came from Chou En- is happening in Angola today. The result is lai that some transport would also be included another very serious decline in China's in the military aid. Everything seemed fine. But prestige in the African sector of the third world then came increased aid, including military and a general lack of confidence in China’s instructors, for Holden Roberto’s FNLA. version of what goes on in various parts of the world. Absolute proof that UNITA was a tool of There is no evidence to suggest linking Portuguese neo-colonialism was sent to these errors to the current ideological Peking shortly after the anti-fascist coup in struggles in China, but since one of the two years ago this April. They came consequences of the present internal situation from the PIDE secret police files, directly from has been to set up a commission at the one of the leading personalities of the Armed central committee level to Forces Movement who had good reasons to investigate rightest errors, many of China’s know of the confidential relations between closest supporters would breathe a sigh of UNITA leader and the relief if this included a review of such errors in Portuguese High Command in Angola. the field of foreign policy. (Correspondence between Savimbi and top For instance, making aid to national Portuguese military officers proved what the liberation movements or friendship to certain MPLA leadership knew from bitter experience governments conditional on denunciation of - direct Portuguese-UNITA military co­ “Soviet social-imperialism” is to run the risk of operation aimed at wiping out the MPLA’s recruiting the opportunist riff-raff of the world. armed forces.) To make such demands would have been In May 1975, there was another top level correctly qualified by the Chinese leadership a MPLA delegation in Peking. By this time few years ago as inadmissible interference in Premier Chou En-lai was already hospitalized. the internal affairs of a country or The discussions took place with a deputy organisation. But that such criteria have been prime minister (not Teng Hsiao-ping) and a offered is an open secret. The Chinese may deputy foreign minister - both of whom were well argue that their adversarifes have done the present at the meeting four years earlier. They same for years - but a policy of “only those who were reminded of Chou En-lai’s denounce our enemies are our friends” is a characterisation of Holden Roberto and asked very poor basis for foreign policy. how it was possible that aid had been intensified when it was public knowledge that Errors, otherwise inexplicable, have this aid was being used in an attempt to occurred as a result. In the summer of 1971, for exterminate the MPLA. Photographic and instance, a top-level delegation of Angola’s other documentary evidence was presented of MPLA was very well received in Peking. It FNLA atrocities against MPLA supporters in included MPLA president and and around Luandasincethe Alvor Agreement secretary-general Lucio Lara. They explained of January 10, 1975. the situation inside their country and the role of the three independence movements. There was apparently a cold response to this Premier Chou and some of his top aides and a standard reply that the MPLA should listened attentively as it was explained that abide by the Alvor Agreement, which Portugal UNITA was little more than a Portugese had signed with the three movements, puppet organization; that the FNLA was a providing for a transitional three-party puppet of the CIA. Regarding UNITA, Chou coalition government until independence on En-lai showed some reserve, but told the Nov. 11, 1975. Patient explanations that the 32 AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW No. 52

MPLA had done everything possible to insure an unnatural alliance can never work for long. the strict implementation of the agreement but And the blunt truth is that Chinese arms in that the FNLA-UNITA forces - at the FNLA hands were not used against the instigation of the US - were simply bent on Portuguese but against the MPLA. exterminating them, fell on deaf ears. Through One error leads to another and the Chinese the military instructors China had at Holden version of events at the recent UN Security Roberto’s Kinkuzu base in , Peking was Council meeting called to examine the case of apparently well informed as to the real role of South African agression against Angola is an both President Mobutu and Holden Roberto. outstanding example of this. First of all it ran FNLA AID ENDED counter to the truth and chronology of events China stopped aiding the FNLA in 1975 and as confirmed by all eyewitness accounts, plus withdrew its military instructors on the official documentation. Secondly it put China commendable grounds that the aid had been in the unenviable position of at least partly supplied to help Angolans fight Portuguese letting racist off the hook for colonialism but that once independence had invading Angola by putting the principal been won, no more military aid was necessary blame on the USSR for “opening the door” to and the three movements should get together Pretoria's aggression. on the basis of the Alvor Agreement and stop Let’s briefly review a factual timetable of fighting each other. This was the position events in Angola. First, MPLA had been taken by Chinese diplomats abroad with fighting against Portugese colonialism since whom one discussed the matter. In principle it the early 1960s. Since The Guardian has so was a just and defensible position. As in often documented the struggle from this and elsewhere - notably in period until the anti-fascist coup in Portugal in Vietnam, and Cambodia - Chinese aid 1974 there is no need to recapitulate this had been given to help the peoples of Angola, period. Suffice to say MPLA was recognised Mozambique and Indochina in their anti­ by virtually the entire world as the legitimate imperialist, national liberation struggles. national liberation organisation in Angola and I attended the Alvor Conference and the had close ties - which it still enjoys today - with agreement was a good one, just as was the the PAIGC in -Bissau, Frelimo in Paris Agreement to end the war in Vietnam. Mozambique and most of the world’s But it depended on the goodwill and sincerity liberation organisations and progressive of all the signatories. The FNLA and UNITA countries. From the early 1960s on, MPLA supported to the hilt by the US, behaved received Soviet aid and help from the Cubans exactly like the Thieu regime in South Vietnam as well, among others. and used the Alvor Agreement to step up their Deeply distrustful, for good reason, of the attempts to wipe, out the MPLA and set FNLA and UNITA, MPLA agreed in good faith themselves up as neo-colonialist puppets. to at least experiment with unity proposals put China should have had all the necessary data- forward by the Organisation of African Unity and Peking’s best friends at state and following the defeat of Portuguese fascism - government level in Africa contributed to leading toward the possibility of a unity ensuring that it did have-to know that only the government when Angola's independence MPLA had a truly national, all-Angolan as well was to be declared in . as a truly all-African and internationalist position. SECRET SHIPMENTS China’s own experience with the The ink, quite literally, was not even dry on Kuomintang, and over the borders in Korea the Alvor Agreement before the CIA began its and the countries of Indochina, should have secret shipments of arms and money to the been sufficient for the leadership to know that FNLA-UNITA neocolonialists. The US agreement between patriots and traitors is government has admitted this. It is simply not impossible. One can try it, as the PRG of South true that the destroyed Alvor by Vietnam sincerely did with the Thieu regime in immense shipments to one organization. The Saigon and as the MPLA did with the FNLA- USSR did ship small quantities of materials to UNITA in Angola, even if only to demonstrate the MPLA as it had been doing for a decade, to the public who is for national unity and true but the big deliveries didn't occur until quite a independence and who is against it. But such bit later in the year when it became INTERNATIONAL NOTES 33 unmistakably evident the FNLA-UNITA were held state power to give every help “including getting massive support from the US, Zaire that of their armed forces" to support a people and South Africa. Then: which had taken to revolutionary struggle and were the object of counterrevolutionary March 1975: Troops of the regular Zairese army invaded Angola and established Holden intervention. People's China, to its credit, Roberto in nominal power in Carmona (Uije) upheld this principle in Korea and Vietnam. , to its credit, upheld this principle of and other towns of northern Angola. international solidarity in Angola. This is the August 1975: South African troops crossed way history will see it. into Angola from their bases in illegally- China’s error in Angola stems from the occupied South-West Africa (Namibia), nature of its struggle with the Soviet Union. It setting up bases in Cuangar and Calai. views the USSR as a fascist, capitalist October 23, 1975: Troops of the regular imperialist power bent on world domination, at South African army, supported by one brigade least equal to if not far worse than the US. Such of armored cars and one artillery brigade drive an analysis can lead one into a policy-making north 1000 miles before being halted by MPLA cul-de-sac unless both regional as well as forces at the Queve river just south of Gabela. global political considerations are kept in mind and unless all the varying and often Novem ber 7 and 10: Regular troops of the contradictory concrete conditions are Zaire army, supported by Portuguese objectively understood. and spearheaded by South African armored cars drive to within 15milesof Peking’s Angola mistake was based upon but were driven back each time - by the assumption that the principal MPLA troops. contradiction in the region was between the imperialist interests of both superpowers - November 10 and 11: The MPLA declares with the USSR as the main danger - and to independence and the setting up of the subordinate all else to preventing Moscow People's Republic of Angola. As an from gaining some kind of foothold in Angola independent and sovereign state, the PRA through the MPLA. The real contradiction was requests Cuban and Soviet help, in driving between the forces of neocolonialism, backed back the South African and Zairese troops. by the US, South Africa and Zaire and the Even the United States has admitted that aspirations of the people of Angola - led by the Soviet arms for the MPLA arrived after MPLA and backed by virtually all the Washington was secretly supplying some $32 progressive governments and movements in million worth of military supplies to the FNLA Africa and throughout the world - for and UNITA forces. To defend the South independence, liberation and social progress. African invasion as a reaction to Soviet-Cuban Fear of possible Soviet hegemony in “aggression” is to turn facts upside down. And southern Africa - a question I believe the it is equally incorrect and unjust to African peoples are perfectly prepared to characterize the Cuban troops - many of decide for themselves in their own interests - whom laid down their lives to prevent a South led China into the impossible position of African-Zairese takeover of Angola - as objectively compromising its support for a “mercenaries". It would be just as absurd to liberation struggle and of jeopardizing its describe as “mercenaries” the Chinese considerable prestige among progressive People's Volunteers in the Korean War; or the African nations. A logical corollary to seeing Chinese who fulfilled their international duty superpower contention as everywhere in helping the Vietnamese keep their supply supreme or to view Moscow undialectically is lines open - and defended - during the Vietnam to ultimately conclude that anyone who war. accepts Soviet aid is suspect and to insist that anything which the USSR does must It was the Chinese delegation to the 1957 automatically be condemned. Moscow meeting of world communist parties which correctly insisted on amending a Fortunately, this criteria was not applied passage in the draft resulution about during the and the Vietnamese “revolution not being for export” to insist that were able to benefit from both Chinese and counterrevolution was also not for export and Soviet aid and retain the friendship - as MPLA that it was the duty of communist parties which would very much like - of both countries.