Tirana's Tirades

Albania's best friend since its 1961 split with Nikita Khrushchev's liberalized Communism has been Red China, half a world away. Peking provided Tirana with everything from light bulbs to a giant hydroelectric dam that generates power for them. Albanian Party Boss Enver Hoxha in return offered the Chinese relentless praise for their brand of unswerving Marxism.

Lately, to Hoxha's displeasure, Peking has swerved. The Albanians were upset over the Nixon visit to China. In a pointed comparison of U.S. and Soviet policies, the Tirana ideological journal Rruga e Partise (The Party's Road) warned that "it is wrong to rely on one imperialism to oppose another."

Malta's Prime Minister Dom Mintoff was welcomed on a recent Peking visit as an anti-imperialist champion. The Albanian press meanwhile lambasted "Maltese ruling circles" for selling out to Britain by negotiating a new military base agreement. The two allies disagree on the European Common Market (Tirana is opposed) and on Chinese overtures toward the Communist parties of Italy and Spain (in Albanian eyes both are revisionist). So far, the Chinese lion has ignored the roars from its Adriatic mouse.

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