You're One Too

After a three-week interlude, the Sino-Soviet border talks resumed in Peking last week. The atmosphere was anything but cordial. One indication of the sorry state of relations between the two Communist giants came during a Moscow news conference conducted by the Soviet Union's tough but soft-spoken Foreign Ministry press chief, Leonid Zamyatin. In the midst of the conference, Huang Chung-chich, the New China News Agency's man in Moscow, leaped to his feet to ask why the Kremlin had permitted publication of an article in a new Soviet industrial newspaper that referred to Taiwan as a "country." Peking had protested the reference as evidence of Soviet-American collusion against the Communist Chinese, who claim Taiwan as their very own. A tart exchange ensued:

Zamyatin: That's a question for the editors of the paper.

Huang: Why? You're the head of the press department, aren't you?

Zamyatin: Yes, but I only speak for the government. Next question.

Huang: But what's printed in the Soviet press represents the government's policy.

Zamyatin: We have 200 correspondents in this country, and they write what they want. We have freedom of the press here.

Huang (incredulously): Here? They write what the government wants.

Zamyatin (between his teeth): Well, I could say some things about your country too.

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