Hua Moves On

The east wind blows

Like a well-heeled tourist cashing in on the good will of the locals, China's Chairman Hua Kuo-feng seemed almost reluctant to end his sojourn in the Balkans. Both in Yugoslavia last week and Rumania the week before, the Chinese leader got a warm reception--and spent far more time per country than is customary for visiting heads of state. As if emboldened by the friendship he was finding at the Kremlin's doorstep, Hua missed no opportunity to cast calculated aspersions on Moscow. The Soviet press responded with a few choice phrases of its own, claiming that Hua was not only "demagogic and hypocritical" but with "fanatical stubbornness" was undermining the unity of the world Communist movement.

Hua arrived in Belgrade early in the week amidst rumors that his visit to Rumania had prompted a Soviet protest to Bucharest, which for all its friendliness to Peking still has important military, economic and political ties to the Soviet Union. Nonetheless, with maliciously anti-Soviet timing, Hua touched down at the airport outside the Yugoslav capital on the tenth anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Lest anyone fail to get his point, he made it clear that night. At a state dinner given by Yugoslavia's venerable Field Marshal Josip Broz Tito, 86, Hua alluded to fears that Moscow might try to intervene after Tito's death. "Yugoslavia," warned Hua, "is ready at all times to repel an enemy that would dare mount an invasion."

Next day Hua was treated to an outpouring of warmth and hospitality the likes of which Belgrade had not seen in many years. An estimated 400,000 people, many waving little red Chinese flags, cheered his motorcade through city streets and cascaded him with carnations. Hua, who normally masks his emotions, visibly relaxed and enjoyed himself. He pumped hands and strode into reeking cow stalls at a big farm cooperative to question workers. At a special musical program, he saw and heard, probably for the first time in his life, a long-haired youth plucking a guitar and singing folk melodies, 16th century chamber music and a dazzling variety of Yugoslav folk dances. The biggest Chinese applause, as well as barely suppressed giggles, was reserved for a somewhat faulty--if brave--Yugoslav rendition of a Chinese folk song, The North Wind Blows.

The variety was symbolic of the message the Yugoslavs were trying to deliver to the Chinese: socialism is enriched, not weakened, by the diversity within it. The same theme was elaborated on by Tito, who said that both countries had produced socialist revolutions of an authentic character. Their original paths, he added, taken under different conditions, have provided a lasting bond between them.

The Chinese, in the past at least, had never seen it that way. When Belgrade recognized the Peking Communist government only four days after the proclamation of the Chinese People's Republic in 1949, Mao Tse-tung ignored the gesture. In subsequent years, the Chinese press regularly attacked Titoist "revisionism." In one famous outburst, the Peking People's Daily called Tito "a dwarf kneeling in the mud and trying with all his might to spit at a giant standing on a lofty mountain."

In 1970 relations began to thaw, and the two countries exchanged ambassadors. Tito sealed the growing friendship when he traveled to Peking last fall for the first time. Now the Chinese, particularly in view of their estrangement from Albania, are anxious to pursue the connection further. At the same time, Belgrade hopes its relationship with China may temper Russian action in the post-Tito era.

But as Tito's own remarks and Yugoslav press comment showed, the foxy old field marshal was careful to avoid adding fuel to the Kremlin's displeasure. He was no doubt mindful of a comment that China's Chou En-lai made in 1971. Speaking to a Yugoslav interviewer, Chou recalled an old Chinese proverb to the effect that "distant water cannot quench fire." In short, China is too far from Yugoslavia to be of much help in real trouble--while Russia is close and powerful. In fact, as Hua prepared for a brief stopover in Iran to discuss oil with the Shah, there was talk that Tito might soon make a visit of his own--to Moscow.

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