Premier’s Accusation Prompts Chinese Outcry
Beijing expressed “strong indignation” after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said communists in Mao Tse-tung’s China boiled babies for fertilizer.
Berlusconi, at a weekend election rally, cited “The Black Book of Communism,” published in 1997, as the basis for his comments.
The Chinese Embassy in Rome “expressed strong indignation for the unfounded words of Premier Silvio Berlusconi.”
Italy’s Foreign Ministry, seeking to limit the damage, said the premier’s words referred to “episodes that took place in the past.”
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