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Peking denounces Moscow press conference of March 7
DOCUMENTS reactionary circles in the United States and West Germany, which are beginning to speculate openly about what they might gain by the tension on the Soviet-Chinese border. Soviet people have not equated and do not equate Mao Tse-tung's group with the Chinese people. Our country has always been motivated, and is now, by feelings of friendship in relations with the Chinese people. But at the same time, as the Soviet government note to the C.P.R. government has already pointed out, the reckless provocational actions of the Chinese authorities will be fittingly rebuffed by us and resolutely halted. All responsibility for the possible consequences of the Chinese leadership's adventurist policy, which is aimed at aggravating the situation on the border between China and the Soviet Union and at worsening relations between our countries, rests with the government of the Chinese People's Republic. At the conclusion of the press conference L. M. Zamyatin and Lieut. Gen. P. I. Ionov, assistant director of the U.S.S.R. Chief Administration of Border Troops, answered correspondents' questions.
PEKING DENOUNCES MOSCOW PRESS CONFERENCE OF MARCH 7 Partial text o f a Hsinhua article o f March 14, 1969. Hsinhua International Service in English, March 15, 1969.
After creating an extremely grave border incident of bloodshed by sending its armed forces to intrude into China's territory, Chen Pao Island, on March 2, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique has in the past few days turned on all its propaganda machines and held a "press
I53
conference" to fabricate lies and distort the truth unscrupulously in a vain attempt to cover up its crime of intruding into Chinese territory and carrying out armed provocation, according to Moscow reports. But having a guilty conscience, the more denials the antiChina buffoons of the Soviet revisionist clique made, the more blunders they committed, thus revealing more clearly the Soviet revisionists' ugly features as social -imperialists. In the midst of the hysterical outcry against China in Moscow, two flunkeys of the Soviet revisionist clique--Leonid Zamyatin, head of the press department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, and Petr Ionov, deputy chief of the main board of Soviet frontier troops--staged a singularly marvellous "press conference" in Moscow on March 7 after painstaking preparations. At the "press conference" they resorted to the Soviet revisionists' notorious old trick of a thief crying "stop thief," brazenly vilifying and attacking great socialist China and frantically trying to fan up antiChina sentiments with the help of phoney photos and sensational materials. But their drivel and the inconsistency in their statements were so fantastic that they made a laughing-stock of themselves at the "press conference." Zamyatin and Ionov made a futile attempt at the "press conference" to describe the indisputable Chinese territory, Chen Pao Island, as "Soviet territory." Zamyatin glibly told the newsmen that "this is a Soviet island and its ownership by the Soviet Union has been affirmed by treaty." Ionov chimed in with: "I can show you the treaty . . . . " Ionov's offer of assistance threw Zamyatin into a panic. Without letting Ionov finish, he cut in and said hastily: "No, it's unnecessary. It's history." Why did the head of the Soviet revisionists' press department interrupt Ionov so hurriedly? Because his heart
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misgave him. He was trying to make people believe in his fabrications with the ambiguous statement of having been "affirmed by treaty." But Ionov rashly offered to "show the treaty" and this threw Zamyatin into a panic. It is known to all that even according to the unequal "Sino-Russian Treaty of Peking" imposed on the Chinese people by tsarist Russian imperialism in 1860, Chen Pao Island is indisputable Chinese territory. So, what treaty could Ionov produce? Zamyatin had no alternative but to hastily cut short Ionov's unrehearsed statement in front of everybody. This was indeed clumsy to the extreme. In a futile attempt to prove that Chert Pao Island is "Soviet territory," Zamyatin said with affected seriousness : " O n the night of March 1-2, about 300 armed Chinese soldiers, having violated the Soviet state border, crossed an arm of the Ussuri River" to Chen Pao Island. However, Zamyatin's statement precisely proved that the Chinese frontier guards were on normal patrol duty on Chinese territory. As is well known, according to established principles of international law, in the case of navigable boundary rivers, the central line of the main channel should form the boundary line which determines the ownership of islands. Chert Pao Island and the river arm are precisely situated inside the Chinese territory on the central line of the main channel of the Ussuri River. How could the Chinese frontier guards have "violated the Soviet state border" when they crossed the river arm inside Chinese territory to go to Chen Pao Island inside the Chinese state border? This shows that this head of the Soviet revisionist press department not only has no knowledge of the boundary but also has lost his senses. At the "press conference," these two anti-China knaves of the Soviet revisionists did their best to spread lies and to
vilify the Chinese frontier guards as having "planned beforehand" to provoke the Chen Pao Island incident in order to throw the blame on China. For this purpose, Zamyatin racked his brains in inventing a cock-and-bull story, saying that in order to "create" this incident, about 300 "soldiers and officers of the Chinese regular army" "lay in ambush on the island on the night of March 1." However, press department head Zamyatin, while straining himself to invent this fantastic tale, had forgotten the "report" the journalist of the Soviet revisionist paper Trud received from the Soviet revisionists' staff headquarters of the Pacific military border area on March 5, that is, two days before the "press conference." According to the Trud report, more than 200 Chinese "armed personnel . . . . rushed toward" Chen Pao Island "shouting anti-Soviet slogans." Now, one said that about 300 Chinese lay in ambush on the island beforehand while another said that more than 200 Chinese rushed toward the island shouting slogans. Thus Zamyatin and Trud are slapping each other. It is useless for the Soviet revisionist renegade clique to try by telling lies to shirk their responsibility for the crime of provoking single-handedly the border incident of bloodshed. The anti-China farce staged by the Soviet revisionist renegade clique had countless such cases of inconsistencies and ridicule. Here is another instance. Petr Ionov denied at the "press conference" that the Soviet frontier troops had sent armored vehicles to attack the Chinese frontier guards, while the Soviet revisionists' paper Komsomolskaya Pravda admitted gratuitously that the Soviet revisionist frontier troops, " u n d e r the command of Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin," "mounted armored troop carriers and rushed" there. This is a true picture of the utter confusion
DOCUMENTS and impasse which the Soviet revisionist renegade clique is in . . . .
PROTESTS OF VLADIVOSTOK WORKERS AGAINST BORDER PROVOCATIONS
Vladivostok Domestic Radio Service in Russian, March 3, 1969. Today inhabitants of Primorye learned with indignation of the armed provocation by Chinese authorities on the Soviet-Chinese border. The just anger of our kray's working people has taken the form of numerous protest meetings which have been held at plants, factories, kolkhozes, and sovkhozes. Reportage on a meeting of Vladivostok port workers, which ended several hours ago, is presented by our correspondent Aleksandr Vorobyev. Vorobyev: The scene is the red corner of the Vladivostok mercantile port. The shift has just ended and workers and employees are hurrying here from all moorings. All seats are already occupied but people are still coming. On every face there is anger and indignation at the impudent provocation of the Chinese militarists. Demchenko, assistant secretary of the party committee of the maritime transport, administration, is on the rostrum. Demchenko: Dear comrades, lately each one of us has been following the events occurring in China very attentively. All of us have met the seamen who returned from China. The meetings which we held at the maritime station to welcome the tanker Komsomolets Ukrahzy and the motorship Svirsk are still fresh in our memory. But at that time the Chinese began taunting seamen. Today we learned that on March 2, a group of armed Chinese broke through our border zone (pogranichnaya polosa). All of us
I55
are of course deeply grieved over our fallen fighting men and express our angry protest against this recurring provocation by the Mao Tse-tung group. Vorobyev: Comrade Lubensky, a port worker brigadier, is now speaking. Lubensky: I am not mistaken in declaring on behalf of the entire collective of our Vladivostok mercantile port and our port workers that we brand the Chinese provocateurs and ardently support the decision of our government, which states that if you stick your nose into our Soviet kitchen-garden once more you will receive a complete rebuff. Vorobyev: The floor is given to timekeeper Rusanova. Rusanova: It is not known what the Chinese authorities hope to achieve by such provocations. However, one thing is clear--they will always receive a deserving rebuff. On behalf of women of the second region, we approve the measures adopted by the Soviet government to defend the state border. Vorobyev: Abaturov, secretary of the Komsomol organization of the port's second region, is coming to the rostrum. Abaturov: The Mao Tse-tung clique has switched from ideological diversions to direct military provocations. The Peking leaders are trampling upon the generally accepted sacred international norms. There is nothing sacred left for them. They are striving to involve the Chinese people in a dirty fratricidal war. But our people and our government have always stood and will continue to stand on defense of the unity and cohesion of the socialist camp. On behalf of the komsomols and young people of the port, I resolutely and angrily protest the intrigues of the Chinese dissenters. Shame on the Mao clique, shame on the provocateurs. Vorobyev: A resolution of the meeting is being read. Unidentified voice: We, the workers and employees of the Vladivostok mercantile
PEKING DENOUNCES MOSCOW PRESS CONFERENCE OF MARCH 7 Partial text o f a Hsinhua article o f March 14, 1969. Hsinhua International Service in English, March 15, 1969.
After creating an extremely grave border incident of bloodshed by sending its armed forces to intrude into China's territory, Chen Pao Island, on March 2, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique has in the past few days turned on all its propaganda machines and held a "press
I53
conference" to fabricate lies and distort the truth unscrupulously in a vain attempt to cover up its crime of intruding into Chinese territory and carrying out armed provocation, according to Moscow reports. But having a guilty conscience, the more denials the antiChina buffoons of the Soviet revisionist clique made, the more blunders they committed, thus revealing more clearly the Soviet revisionists' ugly features as social -imperialists. In the midst of the hysterical outcry against China in Moscow, two flunkeys of the Soviet revisionist clique--Leonid Zamyatin, head of the press department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, and Petr Ionov, deputy chief of the main board of Soviet frontier troops--staged a singularly marvellous "press conference" in Moscow on March 7 after painstaking preparations. At the "press conference" they resorted to the Soviet revisionists' notorious old trick of a thief crying "stop thief," brazenly vilifying and attacking great socialist China and frantically trying to fan up antiChina sentiments with the help of phoney photos and sensational materials. But their drivel and the inconsistency in their statements were so fantastic that they made a laughing-stock of themselves at the "press conference." Zamyatin and Ionov made a futile attempt at the "press conference" to describe the indisputable Chinese territory, Chen Pao Island, as "Soviet territory." Zamyatin glibly told the newsmen that "this is a Soviet island and its ownership by the Soviet Union has been affirmed by treaty." Ionov chimed in with: "I can show you the treaty . . . . " Ionov's offer of assistance threw Zamyatin into a panic. Without letting Ionov finish, he cut in and said hastily: "No, it's unnecessary. It's history." Why did the head of the Soviet revisionists' press department interrupt Ionov so hurriedly? Because his heart
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STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE COMMUNISM
misgave him. He was trying to make people believe in his fabrications with the ambiguous statement of having been "affirmed by treaty." But Ionov rashly offered to "show the treaty" and this threw Zamyatin into a panic. It is known to all that even according to the unequal "Sino-Russian Treaty of Peking" imposed on the Chinese people by tsarist Russian imperialism in 1860, Chen Pao Island is indisputable Chinese territory. So, what treaty could Ionov produce? Zamyatin had no alternative but to hastily cut short Ionov's unrehearsed statement in front of everybody. This was indeed clumsy to the extreme. In a futile attempt to prove that Chert Pao Island is "Soviet territory," Zamyatin said with affected seriousness : " O n the night of March 1-2, about 300 armed Chinese soldiers, having violated the Soviet state border, crossed an arm of the Ussuri River" to Chen Pao Island. However, Zamyatin's statement precisely proved that the Chinese frontier guards were on normal patrol duty on Chinese territory. As is well known, according to established principles of international law, in the case of navigable boundary rivers, the central line of the main channel should form the boundary line which determines the ownership of islands. Chert Pao Island and the river arm are precisely situated inside the Chinese territory on the central line of the main channel of the Ussuri River. How could the Chinese frontier guards have "violated the Soviet state border" when they crossed the river arm inside Chinese territory to go to Chen Pao Island inside the Chinese state border? This shows that this head of the Soviet revisionist press department not only has no knowledge of the boundary but also has lost his senses. At the "press conference," these two anti-China knaves of the Soviet revisionists did their best to spread lies and to
vilify the Chinese frontier guards as having "planned beforehand" to provoke the Chen Pao Island incident in order to throw the blame on China. For this purpose, Zamyatin racked his brains in inventing a cock-and-bull story, saying that in order to "create" this incident, about 300 "soldiers and officers of the Chinese regular army" "lay in ambush on the island on the night of March 1." However, press department head Zamyatin, while straining himself to invent this fantastic tale, had forgotten the "report" the journalist of the Soviet revisionist paper Trud received from the Soviet revisionists' staff headquarters of the Pacific military border area on March 5, that is, two days before the "press conference." According to the Trud report, more than 200 Chinese "armed personnel . . . . rushed toward" Chen Pao Island "shouting anti-Soviet slogans." Now, one said that about 300 Chinese lay in ambush on the island beforehand while another said that more than 200 Chinese rushed toward the island shouting slogans. Thus Zamyatin and Trud are slapping each other. It is useless for the Soviet revisionist renegade clique to try by telling lies to shirk their responsibility for the crime of provoking single-handedly the border incident of bloodshed. The anti-China farce staged by the Soviet revisionist renegade clique had countless such cases of inconsistencies and ridicule. Here is another instance. Petr Ionov denied at the "press conference" that the Soviet frontier troops had sent armored vehicles to attack the Chinese frontier guards, while the Soviet revisionists' paper Komsomolskaya Pravda admitted gratuitously that the Soviet revisionist frontier troops, " u n d e r the command of Senior Lieutenant Vitaly Bubenin," "mounted armored troop carriers and rushed" there. This is a true picture of the utter confusion
DOCUMENTS and impasse which the Soviet revisionist renegade clique is in . . . .
PROTESTS OF VLADIVOSTOK WORKERS AGAINST BORDER PROVOCATIONS
Vladivostok Domestic Radio Service in Russian, March 3, 1969. Today inhabitants of Primorye learned with indignation of the armed provocation by Chinese authorities on the Soviet-Chinese border. The just anger of our kray's working people has taken the form of numerous protest meetings which have been held at plants, factories, kolkhozes, and sovkhozes. Reportage on a meeting of Vladivostok port workers, which ended several hours ago, is presented by our correspondent Aleksandr Vorobyev. Vorobyev: The scene is the red corner of the Vladivostok mercantile port. The shift has just ended and workers and employees are hurrying here from all moorings. All seats are already occupied but people are still coming. On every face there is anger and indignation at the impudent provocation of the Chinese militarists. Demchenko, assistant secretary of the party committee of the maritime transport, administration, is on the rostrum. Demchenko: Dear comrades, lately each one of us has been following the events occurring in China very attentively. All of us have met the seamen who returned from China. The meetings which we held at the maritime station to welcome the tanker Komsomolets Ukrahzy and the motorship Svirsk are still fresh in our memory. But at that time the Chinese began taunting seamen. Today we learned that on March 2, a group of armed Chinese broke through our border zone (pogranichnaya polosa). All of us
I55
are of course deeply grieved over our fallen fighting men and express our angry protest against this recurring provocation by the Mao Tse-tung group. Vorobyev: Comrade Lubensky, a port worker brigadier, is now speaking. Lubensky: I am not mistaken in declaring on behalf of the entire collective of our Vladivostok mercantile port and our port workers that we brand the Chinese provocateurs and ardently support the decision of our government, which states that if you stick your nose into our Soviet kitchen-garden once more you will receive a complete rebuff. Vorobyev: The floor is given to timekeeper Rusanova. Rusanova: It is not known what the Chinese authorities hope to achieve by such provocations. However, one thing is clear--they will always receive a deserving rebuff. On behalf of women of the second region, we approve the measures adopted by the Soviet government to defend the state border. Vorobyev: Abaturov, secretary of the Komsomol organization of the port's second region, is coming to the rostrum. Abaturov: The Mao Tse-tung clique has switched from ideological diversions to direct military provocations. The Peking leaders are trampling upon the generally accepted sacred international norms. There is nothing sacred left for them. They are striving to involve the Chinese people in a dirty fratricidal war. But our people and our government have always stood and will continue to stand on defense of the unity and cohesion of the socialist camp. On behalf of the komsomols and young people of the port, I resolutely and angrily protest the intrigues of the Chinese dissenters. Shame on the Mao clique, shame on the provocateurs. Vorobyev: A resolution of the meeting is being read. Unidentified voice: We, the workers and employees of the Vladivostok mercantile