Red China: Double Defection

As dawn broke over Tokyo one day last week, Chou Hung-ching decided he had no time to spare. Chou, 44, was an engineer with a seven-member scientific delegation from Red China; in five hours the group was scheduled to start back to Peking. Casually, Chou told his colleagues that he was going to take an early morning stroll. He walked slowly out of the Palace Hotel, picked up speed as he left the lobby, then ran into the middle of the street, where he stuck out both arms and desperately flagged a cruising taxi.

In faltering Japanese, Chou ordered the cabbie to take him to the Nationalist Chinese embassy. But the driver did not know the way, and for ten tortured minutes they rode around aimlessly. Finally Chou asked to be taken to the embassy of Red China’s newer enemy—the Soviet Union. That happened to be just around the corner. Chou excitedly jumped out, found the front gate locked, and scrambled over the seven-foot concrete wall—leaving behind a startled, unpaid taxi driver. Inside the embassy the Russians were equally surprised. Peking was a “terrible place,” Chou said. He had decided to escape from Red China because of the “suffocating atmosphere” of Communism. He was willing to go to Russia, but Nationalist China was really his preference. Somewhat disappointed over their guest’s political outlook, the Soviets turned Chou over to Japanese police, who say he can go to Taiwan any time.

Far more useful to the Soviets was a second Red Chinese defector who may well turn out to be a prize in the Sino-Soviet cold war to date. He was Chou Hsiang-pu, since 1957 a second secretary of Peking’s legation in London. Chou was en route back home via Moscow with his wife and two children when he decided to stay in the Russian capital. Word soon leaked out to the Western press, but Kremlin officials clammed up about their catch and refused to confirm or deny the escape. One reason for Moscow’s reticence: a man named Chou Hsiang-pu was one of Peking’s security agents during the 1954 Geneva conference on Indo-China. If he is the defector, he probably has a far more interesting tale to tell Moscow than any ordinary diplomat.