Abroad

Peking Targets in Eastern Europe China has actively begun to cultivate the Communist-bloc countries of Eastern Europe, long denounced here as “revisionists” and lackeys of Moscow, but now rehabilitated to the level of “socialist states.” Hu Yaobang, secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party, is expected shortly in Rumania and Yugoslavia, both of which have long been sympathetic onlookers in China’s struggles with the Soviet Union. At the same time, two high-ranking diplomats, one of them a deputy foreign minister, will visit East Berlin, Warsaw, Budapest, Sofia, and Prague. These visits are labeled “embassy inspections,” but the diplomats will almost certainly be holding significant talks with their opposite numbers in these capitals. Commercial, sporting, and cultural association is the immediate aim of the Chinese, but no doubt a close inter-party relationship is also in view. Care will have to be exercised, however, to avoid the impression that Peking is seeking to detach any member of the Warsaw Pact—as happened with Rumania, now sufficiently independent of Moscow that it feels free to choose its own side in Sino-Soviet conflicts.

Rome Empty Glasses Italy produces more wine than any other country, but Italians now rank only third among its consumers. Italians drink, on average, 74 liters of wine a year, so the Portuguese, whose consumption is 77 liters, have eased them out of second place, behind the perennial first-placers, the French. Part of the reason, according to Italian wine authorities, is the stepped-up pace of Italian life. People no longer have the leisure to drink a glass or two of wine with their lunch. Instead, the modern Italian gulps his meal in the form of a sandwich. And if he is young, he probably guzzles a soft drink. As for red wine, which represents the bulk of Italian production, there is the added circumstance that “working people feel it makes them sleepy”—this from an agriculture ministry official who deals with the subject.

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Peking Targets in Eastern Europe China has actively begun to cultivate the Communist-bloc countries of Eastern Europe, long denounced here as “revisionists” and lackeys of Moscow, but now rehabilitated to the level of “socialist states.” Hu Yaobang, secretary general of the Chinese Communist Party, is expected shortly in Rumania and Yugoslavia, both of which have long been sympathetic onlookers in China’s struggles with the Soviet Union. At the same time, two high-ranking diplomats, one of them a deputy foreign minister, will visit East Berlin, Warsaw, Budapest, Sofia, and Prague. These visits are labeled “embassy inspections,” but the diplomats will almost certainly be holding significant talks with their opposite numbers in these capitals. Commercial, sporting, and cultural association is the immediate aim of the Chinese, but no doubt a close inter-party relationship is also in view. Care will have to be exercised, however, to avoid the impression that Peking is seeking to detach any member of the Warsaw Pact—as happened with Rumania, now sufficiently independent of Moscow that it feels free to choose its own side in Sino-Soviet conflicts.

Rome Empty Glasses Italy produces more wine than any other country, but Italians now rank only third among its consumers. Italians drink, on average, 74 liters of wine a year, so the Portuguese, whose consumption is 77 liters, have eased them out of second place, behind the perennial first-placers, the French. Part of the reason, according to Italian wine authorities, is the stepped-up pace of Italian life. People no longer have the leisure to drink a glass or two of wine with their lunch. Instead, the modern Italian gulps his meal in the form of a sandwich. And if he is young, he probably guzzles a soft drink. As for red wine, which represents the bulk of Italian production, there is the added circumstance that “working people feel it makes them sleepy”—this from an agriculture ministry official who deals with the subject.