Communist China backs Pakistan and warns India<\/p>\n
April 13, 1971<\/p>\n
New York Times<\/p>\n
KARACHI, Pakistan, April 12 \u2014 The Pakistani Government announced today that it had received a note from Premier Chou En\u2010lai of Communist China strongly supporting its efforts to put down a movement for autonomy in East Pakistan.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Government said that Premier Chou had denounced the United States, the Soviet Union and India for \u201ccarrying out gross interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan\u201d and had promised China’s support \u201cshould the Indian expansionists dare to launch aggression against Pakistan.\u201d<\/p>\n [United States officials said that they did not believe that the Chinese message presaged any direct in volvement by Peking in the Pakistani situation. In Moscow, Premier Aleksei N. Kosygin met with the Pakistani and Indian Ambassadors.]<\/p>\n A Letter to Yahya<\/strong><\/p>\n In reporting Mr. Chou’s statements, the Pakistani Government’s news agency said that they had come in a letter to President Agha Mohammad Yahya Khan.<\/p>\n The message was welcomed here as China’s firmest and most specific declaration of support for Pakistan since the military crackdown in East Pakistan began on \u2018March 25. No formal comment on the message was immediately forthcoming from the Pakistani Government, but news of it was broadcast by the Pakistani radio.<\/p>\n As quoted by the news agency, the letter ended: \u201cYour Excellency may rest assured that should the Indian expansionists dare to launch aggression against Pakistan, the Chinese Government and people will as always firmly support the Pakistani Government and people in their just stuggle to safeguard their state sovereignty and national independence.<\/p>\n No details about the eventual support were given.<\/p>\n \u201cOf late,\u201d Premier Chou was quoted as having said \u201cthe Indian Government has been carrying out gross interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan by exploiting the internal problems of your country. And the Soviet Union and the United States are doing the same, one after another.\u201d<\/p>\n Since the fighting broke out. In the East Pakistan has made repeated allegations \u2014 denied by India\u2014that Indian armed infiltrators had entered East Pakistan to aid the independence forces of Sheik Mujibur Rahman, head of the Awami League, the major party in the East.<\/p>\n In his letter, the Chinese Premier praised President Yahya, saying \u201cYour Excellency and the leaders of various quarters in Pakistan have done la lot of useful work to to uphold the unification of Pakistan and to prevent it from moving toward a split.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn our opinion\u201d the letter continued, \u201cthe unification of Pakistan and the unity of the people of East and West Pakistan are basic guarantees for Pakistan to attain prosperity and strength. The Chinese Government holds that what is happening in Pakistan at present as purely an internal affair of Pakistan which can only be settled by the Pakistani people and which brooks no foreign interference whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Communist China backs Pakistan and warns India April 13, 1971 New York Times KARACHI, Pakistan, April 12 \u2014 The Pakistani Government announced today that it had received a note from Premier Chou En\u2010lai of Communist China strongly supporting its efforts to put down a movement for autonomy in East Pakistan. The Government said that Premier …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-section","category-33","category-26"],"yoast_head":"\n