Cable from the Chinese Embassy in Cuba, 'The Problem of How to Express a Position on the Cuban-Soviet Relationship'

Special Urgency & Priority Demanded

Foreign Ministry,

In recent dealing with foreigners [we] felt that Cuban government officials spoke very discreetly, avoiding mentioning the Soviet Union. Among the masses, some were very careful, others harshly criticized [Nikita] Khrushchev. In view of the above-mentioned circumstance, the party committee of the embassy decided that when dealing with foreigners, embassy staff, exchange students, etc., [we] should not, at our initiative, mention the Cuban-Soviet relationship, and all should, in accordance to editorials from the homeland and leaders’ speeches, positively indicate our support for the Cuban people. Because of [these measures we] haven’t encountered any problem in dealing with foreigners. Last night Fidel [Castro]’s report pointed out in particular that the Cuban-Soviet disagreement ought to be left to the party and government to solve, and requested that people not discuss it everywhere. [Anastas] Mikoyan arrived in Cuba this afternoon. The Cuban-Soviet relationship is very complex. We should be very cautious when dealing with foreigners: not only should we express our full support for the correct position of Cuba, but also avoid being misunderstood that we have deep interest in the Cuban-Soviet relationship. For this reason we are prepared to abide by the following several principles when dealing with foreigners in the near future:

- to continue referring to editorials published in the past and speeches of leaders and positively indicate our support for the Cuban people

- to indicate clearly that Fidel’s speech on 1 [November 1962] is absolutely correct, and that we fully support it.

On the Cuban-Soviet relationship, we do not mention [it] at our initiative. If our counterpart first mentions it, we should express our support for Fidel’s position on the Cuban-Soviet relationship as indicated in the report on the night of 1 [November 1962]. We [should] always uphold the principle of proletarian internationalism as stipulated in the Moscow Declaration: based on genuine equality and independence, problems between fraternal parties and socialist countries should be dealt via negotiations in the form of notifying.

Please instruct [us] if the above ideas are suitable or not.

Embassy in Cuba

2 November 1962