p Having set their sights on erecting a Chinese Wall between the national liberation movement and the socialist community, the Peking leaders are trying to make the peoples fighting for independence renounce all-sided cooperation with socialist countries.

p It is indisputable that the peoples building a new life must rely on their own strength and utilise the resources of their countries. The Marxist-Leninist teaching on mutual assistance by no means presupposes the cultivation of a spirit of dependence. But the Chinese leaders have advanced the concept of "reliance on own resources" for different reasons, one of which is to break up the alliance of the national liberation movement with the world socialist system. To this end they misrepresent the nature of Soviet assistance to the developing countries, belittle its importance and try to discredit its noble, internationalist character. Their calculation is simple: by slandering the Soviet Union and isolating the national liberation movement from the USSR they would have the opportunity of magnifying China’s importance to the destinies of the developing countries and facilitating the attainment of Mao Tse-tung’s hegemonistic ambitions.

p But the peoples of the developing countries know the scale and disinterested nature of the assistance they receive from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. They know 237 that Soviet credits to their countries exceed 4,000 million rubles, that in Asian and African countries the Soviet Union has helped or is helping to build 638 industrial and other projects, of which 260 have been placed in operation. They know that over 400 industrial and other projects have been built or are under construction with assistance from Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic, Poland, Bulgaria, Rumania and Hungary. Moreover, the USSR and other fraternal countries are doing much to help a number of young states strengthen their defence capability.

p In their turn, the developing countries are selling the Soviet Union and other socialist states traditional and "many other commodities and coming forward in a united front with socialism against imperialism and its policy of diktat and discrimination in international economic relations.

p This co-operation constitutes not only direct but also tremendous indirect assistance to the liberated countries. It is giving them a strong hand in their relations with the imperialist powers. Having lost their monopoly of granting loans and credits, of the supply of equipment, and of technological knowhow, the imperialist powers can no longer implement a policy of economic or military-economic diktat relative to developing countries.

p African and Asian statesmen and civic leaders have time and again underlined the friendly and disinterested nature of Soviet assistance and its efficacy in helping to consolidate the independence of their countries.

p “In our relations with the Soviet Union,” Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt, noted in one of his speeches, "we have always highly prized the support given us by the Soviet Union in all our battles with imperialism.” The newspaper La Depeche du Cambodge wrote on December 12, 1967 that the Soviet Government’s statement of its position (in connection with fresh United States military provocations against Cambodia) represents a positive act to Cambodia, while in certain circles it has become a “good” tone to accuse Moscow of conspiring with the US imperialists. Had this been true, the newspaper stressed, the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam would not have received modern weapons from the Soviet Union in quantities enabling it to equip entire regiments and thereby increase their fire power.

p If one were to examine what Peking is doing for the 238 developing countries one will find that its total assistance to date amounts to less than 300 million rubles. With China’s help only small industrial enterprises, and a few schools, bridges and roads have been built in Asian and African countries. But even this insignificant assistance is made dependent on the stand adopted by the recipient country, on its actions. For instance, in the summer of 1967 when the Burmese Government put an end to the excesses of the local hungweipings, China ceased her supplies of equipment to Burma and the Chinese experts working in that country did not report for work. All Chinese experts in Burma were recalled by Peking at the close of October 1967.

p The newspaper Ngurumo (Tanzania) wrote on December 1, 1967: "China has not fulfilled her promise of granting Kenya three million dollars, and nothing is heard either of the 15 million dollar interest-free loan promised by the People’s Republic of China. . . . The Chinese have slowed down credits on the grounds that Kenya has refused to allow the Chinese to pursue their activities in that country. .. . Instead of sending textbooks and technical literature, the Chinese persevered in circulating the works of Mao Tse-tung by mail.” The Soviet Union, Al Akhbar of Lebanon emphasised, has been rendering and continues to render effective assistance to Egypt, Syria and other AfroAsian countries, helping them to promote their economy and increase their defence might. "China, on the other hand,” the newspaper wrote, "confines herself to empty words and to hurling invectives at the imperialists.”

As the Chinese proverb says, a grain of dust will not sully the sea. This applies to the Chinese insinuations about Soviet assistance to the developing countries.