Skip to content

October 18, 1964

Cable from the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia, 'Reactions to China's Nuclear Test'

This document was made possible with support from Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY)

Cable Received by the [Chinese] Foreign Ministry

 

Level: Extra Urgent, Advanced

Received from the Indonesian Desk

Foreign Ministry Incoming (64) You (136)

 

Reactions to China's Nuclear Test

 

To the Foreign Ministry:

 

Ambassador Yao [Zhongming] met Chairul Saleh as well as Deputy Speaker of Parliament Sai-hu [sic] (of Nahdlatul Ulama), Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Su-pu-la-di-yue [sic], Deputy Foreign Minister Sudjarwo, Acting Director of the Eastern Europe Directorate Yi-sa Ma-di [sic], and Director of South America Directorate Zhuo-ge-luo [sic] etc.

 

Their reactions to our successful nuclear test are as follows:

 

1. They unanimously congratulated us heartily and said that this was the first atomic bomb of the Asian countries and an extremely happy occasion for the Asians worthy of celebration. Chairul Saleh said that he was very happy to see China possessing the atomic bomb and he embraced Ambassador Yao.

 

2. Chairul Saleh and Yi-sa Ma-di both felt that it would benefit the people of the world and especially the progressive Asian-African countries to possess nuclear weapons. Because the ultimate goal of the progressive countries is to eliminate imperialism and destroy nuclear weapons. Yi-sa Ma-di also felt that it was correct to use the same weapons that the imperialists used to oppose imperialism.

 

Sai-hu said that he hoped we could use the atomic energy on industrial development, and said that this would have a great effect on China’s economic development. This reflected the views of some of those in the center of the political spectrum.

 

Now those friendly to us are pushing the government officials and leaders of political parties to openly speak out in support of us, while the reactionary forces have yet to make any strange comments.

 

On the other hand, among the foreign missions, those who congratulated Ambassador Yao in person included the Pakistani and Afghan ambassadors and the Dutch charge d'affaires. The [North] Vietnamese ambassador telephoned to convey his congratulations. The Eastern European diplomats made no mention of this during our interactions.

 

[Chinese] Embassy in Indonesia

18 October 1964

 

[…]

 

Cable from the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia describing positive responses from Indonesian government officials and foreign government officials in Indonesia regarding China's nuclear test.



Document Information

Source

PRC FMA 106-00778-01, 98-99. Translated by Caixia Lu.

Rights

The History and Public Policy Program welcomes reuse of Digital Archive materials for research and educational purposes. Some documents may be subject to copyright, which is retained by the rights holders in accordance with US and international copyright laws. When possible, rights holders have been contacted for permission to reproduce their materials.

To enquire about this document's rights status or request permission for commercial use, please contact the History and Public Policy Program at HAPP@wilsoncenter.org.

Original Uploaded Date

2017-01-12

Type

Cable

Language

Record ID

134737

Donors

Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY) and Henry Luce Foundation