Impregnable Alliance?

The 30 days of Chou En-lai in Moscow ended with a fanfare fortissimo. Joseph Stalin himself gave a state dinner in the Kremlin for Red China's visiting Premier. The Chinese reciprocated with a banquet in the grand ballroom of the Metropole Hotel; their thousand guests sat at 50 tables, and Chou moved about, gaily drinking to the health of Stalin and Mao Tse-tung. Peking's press and radio hailed the Moscow communiques of the Sino-Soviet talks as proof of an "impregnable alliance."

Gist of the communiques: as promised by the Sino-Soviet Agreement signed in Moscow in February 1950, the Russians will turn over to their Chinese comrades full control of the strategic Changchun Railway in Manchuria by the end of 1952. But the Russians tacked a hard condition on to another 1950 promise: until a peace treaty is signed between the Communist states and Japan,* they will not turn over to the Chinese the powerful naval base of Port Arthur, on Manchuria's Liaotung Peninsula. Beyond these specifics, the communiques said only that other "important political and economic questions" had been discussed. At least ten of Chou's top 14 advisers remained behind in Moscow, presumably to work out the Sino-Russian program.

Washington and London guessed that Peking was disappointed because there was no mention of Russian industrial or financial aid, which the Chinese need to withstand the strain of the Korean war. But some of Russia's top military, production and trade experts had taken part in the talks. Very likely, Chou had got less than he wanted--but more than the communiques admitted.

* Moscow's chief conditions for a peace treaty with Japan: 1) Red China must be recognized; 2) Formosa must be handed over to Mao Tse-tung; 3) Japan must throw out "foreign" (i.e., U.S.) troops.

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