The Coming Decline of the Chinese Empire PDF
Preview The Coming Decline of the Chinese Empire
ML. 327.47051 L92c Louis 2046403 Coming decline of the Chinese Empire STORAGE LIBRARY PUBLIC EORT WAYNE AND ALLEN COUNTY, iNQ, ALLENCOUNTY ^1833 00293 0763 t, JUN 7 75 THE COMING DECLINE OF THE CHINESE EMPIRE ALSO BY VICTOR LOUIS The Complete Guide to the Soviet Union (co-author) COMING THE DECLINE OF THE CHINESE ^ EMPIRE 4K victor'louis with a Dissenting Introduction by HARRISON SALISBURY E. 3D Suite* BOOKS Publishedby TIMES BOOKS, a division ofQuadrangle/The New York Times Book Co., Inc. Three ParkAvenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 Publishedsimultaneously in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd., Toronto Textcopyright© 7979 by VictorLouis Introduction copyright© 1979 byHarrison E. Salisbury All rights reserved. Nopartofthis bookmay be reproducedin anyformorbyanyelectronic ormechanicalmeans, including information storage andretrievalsystems, withoutpermission in writing from thepublisher, except by a reviewerwho may quote briefpassages in a review. LibraryofCongress Catalogingin Publication Data Louis, Victor E Thecomingdeclineofthe Chinese Empire. Includes index. 1. Russia—Foreign relations—China. 2. China- Foreign relations—Russia. 1. Title. DK68.7.C5L67 1979 327.47'051 78-20686 ISBN0-8129-0819-8 Manufactured in the UnitedStates ofAmerica Bookdesign byMargaretM. Wagner Map by BernhardH. Wagner A DISSENTING INTRODUCTION by Harrison E. Salisbury 2£46403 This book commands our attention. If there ever was a book which should be rated triple-X or perhaps double-Q as a warning to the reader that its contents present a potential peril it is this curious one by an even more curious author, Victor Louis. The X or Q rating is not a matter of pornography—that is, sexual pornography. There is no sex in Louis' book. What confronts us is political perversity seldom seen. It demands attention not because of what the author says but because of his very special credentials. Althoughhehasdeniedit,theauthorhaslongbeenknownforhisKGB connections. It is a book of spurious content, dubious logic, flagrant untruth. ButlikeHitler'sMeinKampfwereaditnotbecausewetrustthe author or believe what he writes but because Victor Louis, as a KGB man, is presenting a rationale intended to justify a Soviet "war of liberation"—God help us—against the People's Republic of China. Louis is no Hitler but as an operative of one of the most powerful organizations in the Soviet Union his words deserve our special atten- tion. When the KGB sneezes the world sometimes comes down with chills and fever. The Soviet Union may not in fact be planning to A vi DissentingIntroduction "respond" to a call from the "oppressed minorities" of the People's Republic. But the fact that Louis wants us to think she might or wants China to think so is noteworthy. Victor Louis' comments are particularly relevant in light of China's recent incursion into Vietnam. It would be only natural for Louis to cite this punitive attack on Vietnam as an example of the kind of chauvinistic expansionism which he sees in the contemporary policy of the People's Republic. Certainly antagonism between China and Vietnam has a deep historical root, going back 1,500 years or more, just as Vietnam's quarrels with Cambodia have equally deep and twisted roots. Nationalism is the common denominator of these con- flicts just as nationalism lies at the core of the Sino-Soviet conflict which has been inevitably heightened and sharpened by the Indo- chinese crisis. Certainly the Chinese hope to restore their paramount influence in Indochina at some time in the indeterminate future but that they hope to absorb this area in the manner in which Hitler sought Lebensraum in the East would be a total misreading. First a word about the author. Louis made his public appearance twenty years ago at the height of the Khrushchev liberalization. He and his English wife suddenly entered the small foreign correspon- dents' circle in Moscow—she a former secretary in the British Em- bassy and he, of uncertain antecedents, a correspondent improbably writing occasional dispatches for English newspapers. Louis, it transpired, was Soviet-born and a Soviet citizen. His west- ernized name derived from a French father who had taken Soviet citizenship. He quickly drew attention by his association with young nonofficial artists who began to make their appearance at that time, acting as a middle man in introducing them and their works to Westerners. Unfortunately, not long after Louis became acquainted with a particular artist, that artist began to have trouble with the political police. Soon knowledgeable foreigners had ample reason to believe that behind Louis' amiability (he was as fawning as a young pup) there lurked something less pleasant. Nonetheless, he made himself useful to some correspondents. He was able to provide, for a price, documents. For instance, the tran- script of a notable session of the Union of Soviet Writers at which the expulsion of Boris Pasternak was voted after he was awarded the Nobel prize for literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago. He acquired a
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