GEORGE JOCHNOWITZ
441
There are restrictions on personal choice that many people in China
find painful: one cannot choose one's place of residence or one's job.
Consequently, many married couples are separated, sometimes for
decades, when assigned jobs in different cities. This is an extraor–
dinary policy for a nation that prides itself on the stability of its
families. Nevertheless, no one protests against this policy, mainly
because protest is not allowed, but also because there is no real ac–
ceptance of the idea that people have a right to make individual
choices, even on so personal a matter as living in the same part of the
coun try as the rest of their family.
Totalitarian countries have always imposed severe and un–
necessary restrictions on the liberties of their citizens. In a society in
which the philosophy of the country demands that the needs of in–
dividuals be subordinated to those of the state, people's rights are
taken away in order to exercise and strengthen the state's power to
take away rights. When I lived in China, popular support for
China's lack of freedom was always expressed to me in terms of fear
of sexual liberty and subsequent chaos, despite the fact that Mao's
Cultural Revolution has brought China more chaos than any other
important country ha known since the end of World War Two.
China's opposition to Zionism is quite difficult to explain. It is
not deeply felt and seems to be moderating. In October 1984 there
were new stories about arms deals between China and Israel. The
January 6, 1986, issue of
Near East Report
informs us that China re–
quested that "Israel send it experts in breeding dairy cattle; it also
wants Israeli-made irrigation equipment." A headline in the Oc–
tober 2,1987, issue of
China Daily
says, "[Foreign Minister] Wu
meets Israeli minister." The fact that the Chinese mentioned this
event is as significant as its occurrence. Moreover, both countries
have experimented with agricultural communes; both use a woman
driving a tractor as a national symbol; in both places it never is
necessary to wear a necktie.
Israel recognized the People's Republic of China in January of
1950, a fact that very few Chinese citizens are aware of. In
September of 1954, Zhou Enlai addressed the First National Peo–
ple's Congress and said, "Contacts are being made with a view to
establishing normal relations between China and Israel." Why does
the Chinese government hide this information from its people?
Somehow, the question seems silly - everybody knows that Marx–
ism is anti-Zionist. How could a communist society ever concede
