Pactmanship

In its time of trouble and hunger, Red China presumably looks to Russia for help. But to judge by the 1961 trade agreement between the Big Two of the Communist world published last week, the Red Chinese asked for bread and were given a stone.

Last year's agreement grandiosely called for a 10% increase over 1959's Sino Soviet trade target of nearly $2 billion. Russia was to supply mainly machinery and finished goods, to be paid for with Chinese foodstuffs and raw materials. But with its well-publicized drought ("for 40 days it was possible to drive a car along the bed of the Yellow River," said Chinese Ambassador to Poland Wang Ping-nan recently), Peking was unable to deliver its part of the bargain. Instead, China has been sent scrabbling to buy wheat for itself from Canada, foodstuffs from other non-Communist nations to feed the folks at home.

The Russians last week said coldly that they had no grain to spare for China, did not even proffer gold or currency to help Peking buy it elsewhere. Instead, Moscow will send China this year some 500,000 tons of sugar. Sugar is one food commodity that China does not need, since it is already committed to take 1,000,000 tons of Castro's Cuban sugar.

Conclusion of Western Kremlinologists: the Russians may not be averse to showing the Chinese that they still have a long way to go before they are a power capable of challenging Russia's leadership of the Communist world.

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