PEKING: China’s decision announced yesterday [Jan 5] to open an Embassy in Chile will provide Peking a foothold on Latin America. In less than three months China has succeeded in establishing three diplomatic missions in the Western hemisphere, north, east and south of the United States: Ottawa, then Cuba and now Santiago.

Washington is now in a sense surrounded by the very regime which it had traditionally tried to isolate. A comment by the official “Hsinhua” (New China) News Agency yesterday hailed the “bankruptcy of the US overlord policy” in Latin America.

After President Salvador Allende had promised to establish diplomatic ties with all countries irrespective of their regimes, China responded by promptly sending two Central Committee members to the President’s inauguration. In his congratulatory message, Premire Chou En-lai called for “new developments” in relations between the two countries.

The two emissaries later gave an enthusiastic account of their visit to Chile in the “People’s Daily” writing that the Chilean people were firmly determined to fight looting and interference by “American imperialists” and to safeguard the nations independence and sovereignty. — Agency

Published in Dawn, January 7th, 2021