PEKING'S ROLE IN ANGOLA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP77M00144R000400100005-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 6, 2001
• Sequence Number: 5
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 200' 144R000400100005-5
'PEKING'S ROLE IN ANGOLA
Peking has had, throughout the years of the Angolan
insurgency, some association with all three nationalist move-
ments. Its modest material support, provided during the early
years of the insurgency, was primarily channeled through the
African Liberation Committee, a body established by the
Organization of African Unity to deal with nationalist move-
ments in the still dependent African nations.
After Zaire established relations with Peking in 1.973,
however, the bulk of Chinese aid went to the Zairian-backed
National Front for the Liberation of Angola. (FNLA). The first
contingent of an eventual 100-man Chinese military advisory
team arrived in Zaire in May 1974 to begin training FNLA
troops at the movement's main base in southern Zaire. The
Chinese provided some military equipment as well (e.g.,
bazookas, automatic and semi-automatic weapons), and their
overall aid--training in particular--helped the FNLA to estab-
lish its forces firmly in northern Angola. FNLA activities are
now concentrated inside Angola, and the Chinese advisory team
has returned to Peking.
During the foregoing period, the Chinese also renewed
their contacts with the National Lnion for the Total Indepen-
dence of Angola (UNITA)--contacts vhich for the most part had
Approved For Release 200 ~ M, Eflnlot, Surp. 144R000400100005-5
 Approved For Release 2001 IrrIq stri I%IM. Tr 448000400100005-5
been broken in 1967 when UNITA President Savimbi was expelled
from Zambia and subsequently set up his headquarters inside
Angola--and provided modest support to UNITA in the form of
financial aid. (Savimbi was expelled following a. series of
UNITA attacks on the Benguela. Railroad, which transits Angola
and on which Zambia was--and is-- heavily dependent for the
export of its copper.,) Some Chinese military equipment is
believed to have been en route to UNITA, but it apparently
was held up in Tanzania, whose President's sympathies are with
the Soviet-backed Popular Movement for the Liberation of
Angola (MPLA).
Although it appeared for a time--following the visit of
a high-level MPLA delegation to Peking in. spring 1975---that
the Chinese would also provide aid to the MPLA, there is no
evidence that such aid has been given.
Approved For Release 2001 Ij I s~t144R000400100005-5
3,66