Basic HTML Version
turned. It is instead the Soviets who
feel enci rcled by China's bold initia–
tives with Japan and in the Balkans.
Reconcil iation with the new men
running China is clearly out of the
question for Moscow, at least for the
foreseeable future. Reali zing that
atfairs are going from bad to worse
along her eastern ftank, Moscow is
making renewed efforts to shore up
her position in the West.
The Kremlin is doing its best to
woo the West Germans, the French
and other Western Europeans away
from their economic and military
partnership with the United States.
The Soviets are playing up to Euro–
pean fears about the fa te of the U.S.
dollar and America's rapid ly declin–
ing role as defender of the free
world. Moscow is hinting once again
that it is willing to offer noo–
aggression guarantees to Western
Europe in return for Bono and the
other European capitals abandon–
ingNATO.
lf Moscow's policy succeeds, the
biggest loser of all in this worldwide
diplomatic game of change-your–
partner wil l be the United States–
abandoned by its disillusioned allies
and trading partners, left isolated on
a mountain ofunwanted dollars.
China's Bold " Breakout"
Let's examine these remarkable de–
velopments in more detail - and see
what they mean in the light of Bible
prophecy.
All of a sudden, China has burst
upon the world scene, changing in a
manner thought inconceivable only
two years ago when Mao Tse-tung.
China's leader throughout its Com–
munist era, died.
Peking's new pragmatic leaders
are determined to modernize the
world's most populous country and
make it a genuine global power by
the year 2000. This enormous un–
dertaking will require the expendi–
ture of at least $350 billion dollars!
As one news analyst put it: "What
we are witnessing is the beginning
of a new era in world relationships.
This will be the China Era. lt's just
beginning. Today China is a rela–
tively poor, developing nation. In
the next fifteen or twenty years it
will be a major world power."
16
On the diplomatic front, China is
seeking new allies of any political
stripe who can provide the eco–
nomic as well as military help she
desires to strengthen herself against
her archrival Soviet Russia. Chair–
man Hua Kuo-feng's tour of East–
ern Europe wi ll cer tainly be
followed quickly by visits to severa!
capitals in Western Europe.
This autumn, with little advance
warning, thousands of Chinese stu–
dents descended upon universities
in Western Europe and the United
States in search of up-to-date train–
ing, mainly in the scientific and
Peking's new leaders have
broken the gri p of
Maoist isolation.
They are determined
to modernize the world's
most populous country
and make it a gen uine
power by the year 2000.
Japan will be the
key to China's $350
billion program
of na tional
reconstruction.
technological fields. Chinese delega–
tions with long shopping lists are
continually scurrying around the
Western world seeking everything
from oil rigs to computers to ad–
vanced weaponry.
Downgradlng Mao 's Thought
On the home front, the Chinese are
being told not to take the once-ven–
erated "little red book" containing
quotations from Chairman Mao too
seriously. According to the new offi–
cial line, the so-called "Thought of
Mao" merely represents a philo–
sophical guide to living, not holy
writ to be applied chapter-and-verse
to each and every specific situation
from digging a ditch to constructing
ballistic missiles.
Already it has been discovered
that construction workers "inspired' '
by the prospects of cash bonuses–
another "innovation"- are doing
their jobs faster than previously,
when they were imbued only with
Mao's thought.
In education and the arts the
winds of change are blowing eq ually
strong. Intellectual life is loosening
up. Novelists can actually write
simple !ove stories once again, in–
stead of tired ideological polemics.
(The rampaging Red Guards un–
loosed by Mao in the mid-1960s
persecuted and even t ortured
China's poets and novelists.)
China's new leaders have also
launched another ambitious pro–
gram: This autumn , al! of the coun–
try's schoolchildren aged
JO
and
older have begun learning English–
perhaps the most dynamic sigo that
China's days of Maoist isolation and
self-reliance are over.
The Chinese revolution is so thor–
ough that Peking is even consid–
ering thc implementation of a whole
new politico-economic systcm.
China's leaders are studying thc Yu–
goslav "self-management" form of
communism to see if it could im–
prove worker efficiency.
Japan the Key
One nation more than any other
will be the key to China's bold new
policy: Japan.
The peace and friendship treaty
which China has concluded with Ja–
pan virtually guarantees Japanese
priority in China's all-out drive for
national reconstruction. Noted one
Western observer: "Add the vast
Japanese scientific and industrial
achievements to the important re–
sources of China-its intelligent, in–
dustrious, ingenious people, and its
immense wealth in unexplored oil,
tungsten, coa! and other valuable
minerals- and there is the potential
for a merger of giants."
The new pact is important not
only to Peking. By vastly increasing
trade between the two Asían giants,
the Japanese will gain an expanded
market for their exports- a welcome
sign in the face of increasing in-
The
PLAIN TRUTH December 1978