[This issue of Peking Review is from massline.org. Massline.org has kindly given us permission to to place these documents on the MIA. We made only some formatting changes to make them congruent with our style sheets.]
[This article is reprinted from Peking Review,
Vol. 9, #9, Feb. 25, 1966, pp. 11-12.]
SPEAKING in the House of Commons on February 8, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson once again revealed the Labour government as an accomplice of the United States in its war of aggression against Vietnam. His speech was also another disgraceful performance in the service of the anti-China schemes of the United States.
In addition to applauding the resumption of U.S. bombing of north Vietnam and extolling the U.S. “peace talks” swindle, Wilson openly attacked China, insinuating that it is the “enemy of peace” and the “enemy of negotiations.” He even urged M.P.s to demonstrate in front of the Office of the Chinese Charge d’Affaires in London. He said: “I would like to have seen the peace lobby on Vietnam outside the Chinese Embassy.”
This was not the first time that the British Labour government attacked China. Since coming to power, Wilson has repeatedly made anti-China outcries, each time more vicious than before. In 1964, he slandered China, claiming it was engaging in “subversion” in Africa. Last year, he called China’s nuclear strength a “threat to neighbouring countries” and accused China of “fishing in troubled waters” when China told the intruding Indian troops that they must dismantle their aggressive military installations. And it was in 1965 that this Labour Party leader told demonstrators carrying banners demanding peace in Vietnam that “the right place to take that banner is to the Chinese Embassy.” Now, Wilson, has gone further by letting loose a torrent of abuse against China in the British Parliament, and by again calling for disturbances outside the Chinese diplomatic representative’s office. For a head of government to engage in such agitation is a rarity in international relations. It only shows that the British Government is prepared to stoop to anything to fan up anti-China feelings.
It was not accidental that, in speaking of the Vietnam question, Wilson should have concentrated his attack on China.
Every time the United States finds itself in dire straits on this question, the Labour government stretches out a helping hand. This has practically become a rule. At present, U.S. imperialism, bogged down in Vietnam, is beset with difficulties both at home and abroad, and Johnson is completely at a loss. Wilson saw the need to act and he promptly stepped forward.
When he called China the “enemy of peace” and the “enemy of negotiations,” he evidently wanted his listeners to believe that the U.S. aggressors were lovers of peace and were sincerely looking forward to a political solution of the Vietnam question, implying thereby that people should not oppose the United States but should condemn China. So Wilson’s real intention is clearly to herd more countries into the anti-China group pieced together by the United States and to stir up a new anti-China campaign.
But Mr. Wilson is really too ignorant of the times and has too much confidence in himself.
U.S. imperialism is the arch criminal that has torn up the Geneva agreements, subjected Vietnam to aggression, enlarged the war and broken the peace of that country. The Johnson Administration has publicly stated that it will “see this thing [prosecution of the war] through” in Vietnam, that it will not pull its forces out of south Vietnam and that it will never recognize the South Vietnam National Front for Liberation as the sole legitimate representative of the south Vietnamese people. Does Wilson really believe he can conceal from the people of the world the bloody hands of the U.S. aggressor with a few demagogic words in Parliament?
On the Vietnam question, the Labour government long ago joined the ranks of the adversaries of the Vietnamese people. During more than the past year, the Wilson government has followed in the footsteps of Washington and has built itself an inglorious record.
It should be emphasized that the Wilson government has long outdone its predecessors in its subserviency to the United States. The British Government’s faithful service to the United States and its fixed resolve to play second fiddle have truly earned it the title of a U.S. satellite.
It is also for its own imperialist interests that the Labour government is so closely following the United States in active opposition to China. Everybody knows that the erstwhile British Empire has been falling to pieces. It has therefore formulated a so-called “East of Suez” policy to mend the disintegrating British Commonwealth, maintain its grip over the traditional sphere of influence of British colonialism, and suppress the national-liberation movement that is surging forward in Asia and Africa. But it knows full well that it simply does not have the means to carry out that policy. For this reason the Labour government is supporting U.S. aggression in Vietnam and its policy of encircling and containing China and collaborating further with Washington with a view to obtaining U.S. support in return. Hence, Britain’s “East of Suez” policy is actually an important move in aiding U.S. imperialism to build a “cordon” around China and to shift the emphasis of its global strategy to the East.
It is therefore clear that the reason why the Labour government collaborates with the United States and sets itself against the Vietnamese people is because it is afraid that the successful development of the latter’s revolutionary struggle will strike at the root of Britain’s imperialist interests in the East. Similarly, why it works for the U.S. scheme of encircling China is because the Chinese people firmly support the Vietnamese people’s struggle and unswervingly support the liberation struggles of all the oppressed people and nations. Britain sees in this firm Chinese stand a formidable obstacle and a serious threat to its counter-revolutionary “East of Suez” strategy.
But times have changed. Today, the national-liberation struggles are sweeping Asia, Africa and Latin America like a hurricane. The days when Britain ruled the roost in the world and when “the sun never set on the British Empire” have become a mere episode in history. Now even U.S. imperialism, which is said to be the most powerful of its kind, is on the decline. The Labour government will gain nothing by throwing in its lot with the United States in its aggression against Vietnam and opposition to China. Instead, it will end up as a sacrifice on the pyre of the U.S. imperialist policies of aggression and war. It can expect no better end.
(Summary of “Renmin Ribao” Commentator’s February 18 article.)
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