China Said to Want a Non-Communist Cambodian Regime

PARIS — Cambodian resistance leader Prince Norodom Sihanouk has said China wants to see a non-Communist government in Cambodia and is pressing the Khmer Rouge guerrilla group to abandon socialism.

Sihanouk, in an interview in the current Figaro magazine, quoted Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping as saying Cambodia is no longer suited to Communist rule.

“Deng Xiaoping told me just recently, ‘I know that the Cambodian people do not want communism, so our allies, the Khmer Rouge, must immediately renounce not only communism but also socialism,’ ” the magazine quoted Sihanouk as saying.

The radical left-wing Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia for four years until an invasion by Vietnamese troops in late 1978, receives military and financial support from Peking and is by far the strongest group in Sihanouk’s coalition.