The Old Yen

The flag of Japan's Rising Sun flew in Peking last week alongside the five-star banner of Communist China. Below, on the stone gates of a huge hall built by the Russians two years ago to house their industrial exhibition, the legend "Chinese-Russian Friendship" had been scraped out, and the Chinese had diligently chiseled instead: "China-Japan Amity." Peking, exploiting any opportunity to loosen Japan's ties with the West, had decided to make a big thing of a Japanese trade fair, the first since the prewar days when North China was the biggest market in imperial Japan's "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere."

Because their International Trade Ministry forbids the sale of heavy industrial goods to the Communists, the Japanese exhibitors displayed only light machinery, textiles and the gadgets for which their factories are famous. Yet on opening day Chairman Mao Tse-tung led 85,000 Chinese through the show. Fascinated by the mechanical toys, Mao spent part of his two-hour visit delightedly pressing buttons to make a toy bus stop, back and turn by remote control. He also found time to say: "I realize Japan's connections with the U.S. make the problem difficult, but we hope for restored Sino-Japanese relations." Other comrades, queueing for half a mile to get in, fought for glimpses of Japanese cameras, electronic fishing gear and TV. Television, in fact, was the hit of the show. The Japanese had brought a small transmitting outfit and set up a receiver in Mao's office, in the exhibition hall and in some 20 oth er vantage spots around town. At one point, the TV network broadcast a film of Mao's visit to the exhibition. When Chair man Mao saw himself waving to people as he was leaving the hall, his round, bland face split like a sliced watermelon with a wide smile; he clapped his hands and cried, "Hao, hao" (Good, good).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.