Dialogue at Geneva

Keen-eared Western diplomats in Geneva last week thought they detected the faintest softening in Peking's tone. Perhaps it was just a lullaby over the Laos settlement, or maybe the Reds were too hungry at home to take on external adventures. At any rate, in his closing speech to the negotiators of the Laos accord, Peking's Foreign Minister, Marshal Chen Yi, 61, sounded almost benign. After some standard bluster, the tough veteran of the civil war said: "We have, after all, broken a link in the chain of tension in Southeast Asia, and we should enlarge this breakthrough." Chen even found a reasonably hopeful and almost scrutable Old Chinese Proverb for the occasion: "The strength of a horse is tested by the distance of the journey, and the heart of a man is seen with the passage of time."

Taking his leave of the conference table, Paris-educated Chen slipped easily into the cocktail circuit, retired to the roof terrace of the Palais des Nations, where TIME'S Paris Correspondent Israel Shenker found him sipping champagne. A Red Chinese official talking to a U.S. newsman is such an unusual sight that diplomats and other reporters clustered around the pair. In the ensuing dialogue. Chen stuck to the familiar Peking line, but with a few-curves added.

Q. Will you explain the sudden references in your statements to peaceful coexistence?

A. This is nothing new. We have always been in favor of peaceful coexistence. Any idea to the contrary comes only from the Western press. The Americans say they don't want war, the British say they don't want war, the French say they don't want war. Even if we wanted to fight, whom could we fight?

Q. What is the state of China's relations with Russia?

A. We are two great nations, and it is only natural for countries to have differences of opinion on certain subjects. But of one thing you can be sure--you will not profit from our differences. If we are attacked, we shall defend ourselves together.

Q. How is China's economy?

A. We are having serious economic troubles. This is our third straight year of bad harvests.

Q. Would you accept Western aid?

A. We would not, because Western aid always comes with conditions. Western aid without conditions is unthinkable. You could just as reasonably expect to find it on top of Mont Blanc over there.

Q. What can be done to improve Chinese-American relations?

A. It is not up to China to do anything. The United States can remove its Seventh Fleet and withdraw from Taiwan.

Q. In that case, what would happen to Chiang Kaishek?

A. If he were reasonable, no harm would come to him. We would not kill him. Look at the former Emperor of Manchuria. He is very happy now.

Q. What is he doing?

A . Gardening.

Q. What have you learned about the West from your trip to Geneva?

A. See here, this is not the first time I have been in the West. I might just know the West better than you do. In any case, you do not know China.

Q. If I tried to get a visa to China, you know very well what the reply would be.

A. Maybe things will change.

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