All the while, sympathetic Western journalists America's Edgar Snow and Britain's Felix Greene in particular were invited on carefully orchestrated tours so they could "refute" rumors of mass starvation.

WSJ: The Weekend Interview with Yang Jisheng: Reading Hayek in Beijing

The group was received with fanfare by the Communists, who greeted Service and his colleagues with the same spirit of contrived comradeliness that had overwhelmed Edgar Snow in 1936 (and resulted in his hagiographic scoop "Red Star Over China").

WSJ: Book Review: "Honorable Survivor"