The People’s Republic of China views the Middle East as a region bullied by the Big Powers and unable to take their destiny in their own hands. Its aim is “to assist these people’s liberation from foreign intervention and to encourage them to decide their own fate,” according to Premier Chou En-lai quoted in an article published today in the Socialist daily “Avanti.” The article was written by Pietro Nenni, leader of Italy’s Socialist Party, who just returned from a visit to Peking where he had a 4 1/2 hour interview with Chou.
(The Tel Aviv daily Maariv claimed today that Chou’s attitude toward Israel is that the Jewish State should not exist but he does not foresee a “violent end” to its existence. According to Maariv, that assessment was conveyed to Premier Golda Meir in a letter from Nenni who was asked by Mrs. Meir to try to find out in Peking what Israel could expect from the People’s Republic now that it has been seated in the United Nations.)
Nenni’s article in Avanti said China’s aim in the coming months will be to try to destroy the influences of the two superpowers–United States and Soviet Russia–in those areas of the world which they have divided between themselves as spheres of influence.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
