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Berlinguer has accepted high political risks at home to gain long-range influence among moderates on the Continent. Ever since the Communists' losses in last year's election, "historic compromise" of a governing alliance with established democratic parties has become elusive. For one thing, the Communists were shunted into outright opposition by the new center-left coalition government of Christian Democrats, Socialists and Republicans formed two weeks ago by Premier Francesco Cossiga. For another, the Communist Party's own vaunted internal discipline has suffered; last month, for the first time, more than 30 left-wing Communist deputies rebelled against their party whips on a foreign policy vote in Parliament. By going to China, which Italy's militant left regards as a citadel of conservatism and an ally of the imperialist U.S., Berlinguer risked further alienation of his left wing. Most of all, his independent stance could lead to "a formal disowning of the Italian Communist Party by the Soviets," as Columnist Vittorio Gorresio wrote in Turin's influential daily La Stampa. Combined with Berlinguer's other heresies, such an outright break could lead to a schism within the Italian Communist party—and a strong challenge to his leadership of it.