French Communist leader fans old ties in China

Georges Marchais, leader of the strongly pro-Soviet French Communist Party, arrived in Peking Thursday for the party's first top-level contact with the Chinese Communist leadership in over two decades.

Mr. Marchais, his wife, Liliane, and his entourage received an official welcome by Hu Yaobang, general secretary of the Chinese party. The Marchais program is expected to include a meeting with elder statesman Deng Xiaoping and Premier Zhao Ziyang.