A Strange Alliance of Convenience

China agrees to back a united resistance inside Cambodia

More than two years after the Soviet-backed Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia (Kampuchea), Hanoi's puppet regime, led by Heng Samrin, is firmly installed in Phnom-Penh and has restored a measure of order to the wartorn, famine-stricken country. Even so, stubborn resistance continues in the countryside, spearheaded by the Khmer Rouge, the fighting force of the ousted Pol Pot regime. An estimated 40,000 strong, the Khmer guerrillas have managed to hang on to crucial sanctuaries with the help of substantial political and military aid from Viet Nam's hostile neighbor to the north, the People's Republic of China.

Peking regards the Vietnamese occupation as Soviet expansionism by proxy, and has sought to drum up international support for the Khmer Rouge. It has successfully persuaded the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Na tions (ASEAN) and other anti-Soviet countries to back the Khmer Rouge and its shadow government, called Democratic Kampuchea in the United Nations. The U.S. and other Western countries have gone along, but with extreme distaste. The reason: Democratic Kampuchea is the outgrowth of Pol Pot's four-year reign of terror, in which as many as 3 mil lion Cambodians are believed to have been murdered or starved to death before the Vietnamese moved in to stop the slaughter.

The Khmer Rouge's reluctant inter national patrons have long sought a more acceptable alternative to what is at best the lesser of two evils in Cambodia. Chi na has quietly prodded the Khmer Rouge to link up with anti-Communist resistance forces led by Son Sann, a 70-year-old for mer Prime Minister. Simultaneously, in a stunning reversal, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, 58, who has lived in exile in China and North Korea since he was initially overthrown in 1970, agreed to make peace with the Khmer Rouge and lead a united front against the Vietnamese.

The backstage maneuvering is now beginning to pay off for the Chinese. Last week, in an interview with TIME in Peking, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Wenjin disclosed that China was prepared to back a Sihanouk-led movement against the Vietnamese on the condition that the Khmer Rouge would be included. Moreover, he said China was willing to provide both political and military support to non-Communist resistance, which has been Sihanouk's main concern. "China's attitude is nonfaction-al," said Zhang. "We are willing to aid all the anti-Vietnamese forces of Kampuchea, and this includes providing arms." Added Zhang: 'We hope that other countries will assist too. The U.S. and Japan should help."

There are major obstacles that will almost certainly dissuade the U.S. from taking China's advice. First of all, there is a serious question whether the Cambodian guerrillas, even if truly united under Sihanouk and even if aided on a large scale from the outside, could dislodge the Vietnamese. In addition, even if an alliance of convenience were eventually to triumph over the Vietnamese forces in the country, which are estimated at 200,000, there is the danger that Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge might then turn its guns against Son Sann and Sihanouk. Moreover, not even the firm anti-Soviet predisposition of the Reagan Administration is likely to dispel American reluctance to get involved in another conflict with the Vietnamese.

But the toughest obstacle may be whether Sihanouk and the Khmer Rouge can come to any agreement on the creation of a united insurgence force. Sihanouk and Khmer Rouge Leader Khieu Samphan will meet this week in Pyongyang, North Korea, to begin negotiations. But Sihanouk told TIME last week that he doubts there can be much immediate progress in what for him remains a very distasteful undertaking. Said he: "Personally, I do not like to cooperate with the Khmer Rouge. They have killed many of my compatriots, my children, my grandchildren, and my in-laws. It is terrible to have to cooperate with such monsters, with such murderers. But the non-Communist Cambodians in West Europe, in North America, in Thailand and also the Cambodians fighting the Vietnamese inside the country are putting heavy pressure on me."

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