Memorandum of Conversation between comrade Enver Hoxha and a Delegation of Chinese Red Guards

Memorandum of conversation between comrade Enver Hoxha and a delegation of Chinese Red Guards^[1]

8 July 1967

Comrade Enver Hoxha: How is your health, comrades? Are you tired?

Yao Wenyuan: Thank you. We are all doing well and have not grown tired.

Comrade Enver Hoxha: The Red Guards never grow tired. They are always carrying out the revolution and revolutionaries never tire.

Yao Wenyuan: We have been greatly touched by the feverish and revolutionary feelings that the Albanian youth and the Albanian people nurture for the Chinese youth and the Chinese people. Because of this, we have not felt tired at all.

Comrade Enver Hoxha: During the past few days, you have seen with your own eyes the great love Albanian youth and Albanian people have for you.

Yao Wenyuan: The Albanian people are a great people and the Albanian youth is a heroic youth.

Comrade Enver Hoxha: Where did you visit during these past few days, comrades?

Yao Wenyuan: We visited many regions of Albania. We were in Durrës, Shkodër, Vlorë, Fier, and in Berat, at the “Mao Zedong” combine.

Comrade Enver Hoxha: Did you meet with our youth in these locations?

Yao Wenyuan: Everywhere we went, we took notice of the great enthusiasm of the Albanian youth. We saw young people working in the construction of the Rrogozhinë-Fier railroad. We saw them building terraces in the mountains, and everywhere else. Young people work with great enthusiasm all across the country.

Comrade Enver Hoxha: You helped our country a great deal with your visit. Our youth and our people will never forget your visit, because you brought with you the pure revolutionary feelings of the heroic Chinese youth, the sincere love of the Chinese people, of the Communist Party of China, and of comrade Mao Zedong. This serves as major encouragement for us. During the time you spent in Albania, you also had the opportunity to witness the extraordinary love nurtured by our youth, our people, and our party for the Chinese youth, for the great people of China, for the Communist Party of China, and for our dear comrade Mao Zedong. The more contacts there will be between our youth, our people, and our communists, and the Red Guards, the Chinese people, and the Chinese communists, the more this great and sincere friendship of ours will be tempered.

Modestly, we can say that our country boasts a glorious, heroic, revolutionary, fearless, hard-working, educated youth that is inspired by the party with the principles of our Marxist-Leninist ideology and proletarian internationalism, tempered for every kind of work and in every kind of area. Unified in a union of steel with our party, our youth is prepared and stands fearless in front of every danger, even if it comes to war. This is one of the greatest victories, and it is thanks to the great attention that our party has shown and continues to show to the education of our new generation.  

You saw for yourselves how closely our youth is bound to our party. This also reflects the healthy ties between our people and our party. Like our great classics of Marxism-Leninism teach us, and like it is also written in Mao Zedong’s little red book of quotations, above everything else is the party, the existence of a true Marxist-Leninist party, because without the party there can be no victory. It is the vanguard of the working class and the leader of the working peasantry. Our people have a saying: The party is the heart and the brain of the people. Without the heart, the brain cannot survive, whereas without a pure brain, the individual is always in the dark, disoriented. The heart of steel and the pure brain represent the party. Thus, the party is central, something about which Mao Zedong has written in his books, and which Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin have continuously emphasized.

This is the reason that our people and our youth, as you also observed, love our party above everything else. Without the party, there would be no free, independent, and sovereign Albania today. Albania would once again be a colony run by foreigners and the bourgeoise; the reactionaries would be ruling here. It was the party, with its clear, correct, and revolutionary line, that incited the people to rise up against the fascist occupiers and the traitors, and led the country towards the path of socialism.

Our enemies—which is to say the reactionary bourgeoise, the imperialists, and the modern revisionists—know very well that if they manage to weaken and destroy our Marxist-Leninist parties, then, their goal can be achieved sooner. That is why their primary present objective—the objective of the imperialists and the modern revisionists – is the weakening, disintegration, and destruction of Marxist-Leninist parties. If they manage to weaken, disintegrate, and destroy the Marxist-Leninist parties, to deform the Marxist-Leninist principles of the constitution of the party, of the party’s ideology, of the revolutionary class war of the party, then, they have achieved their goal of throwing it into chaos. This is why we have tried and will continue to try, first and foremost, to keep our party clean, revolutionary, and in a leading position in our country.

Many enemies have worked against our party, and they have always directed their arrows at the most critical junctures, so as to steer our party away from revolutionary Marxist-Leninist principles. But we have never allowed them to achieve their goals, regardless of whether they have been internal or external enemies. We have always brought them to the forefront, forced them to pick up a pickaxe and go work where we need them to work and how we need them to work, and we have forced them to expose their rot, and then we have fought against them ruthlessly. We have done this because it was necessary to protect the major interest of the people, the interest of socialism and communism, the interest of the revolution.

If two, or three, or four, or five traitors are exposed within the party, we do not deem it acceptable to fail to punish them, to allow the worm to infect the good apple, all the way, until it is completely rotten. Thus, this uninterrupted, principled, and revolutionary war that our party has conducted against all enemies has ensured that our party remains beloved above all else by our people and especially by our youth.

In our country, the youth established the foundation of our party. When we talk about the youth, we do not mean only the students but also the working youth and the peasant youth. Mao Zedong has emphasized that the alliance of the working class with the peasants plays a major role in the conduct of revolution and, through an analysis of the conditions of the Chinese village, he has pointed out that the working youth and the peasant youth, together with the students, have played an important role in the entire revolutionary war of the Chinese people.

By applying these important principles, we observe that the unity within the ranks of the party, in addition to the unity of the people and the youth with the party, is as strong as steel. The issue now is to ensure that this unity is preserved and strengthened, that we remain vigilant that this unity is not weakened by the enemies, because, as our popular saying goes, “the river sleeps, but the enemy does not sleep.” Therefore, the people and the party should never close their eyes.

Organization and a discipline of steel have been of great importance to us. The reactionaries would say that the Albanians lack organization, that they can never come together, so they thought that it would not be possible for us to achieve unity, an ideology, and a strong discipline in revolution. But this was achieved through the application of the principles of Marxism-Leninism. Our party has always kept and continues to keep issues of organization and discipline on the agenda, because where there is no discipline, where there is anarchy, the enemies can infiltrate more easily. The experience we have gathered during wartime and through work has shown that where there is depravity, where there is ideological and political weakness, soon there will be swamps and mosquitoes. On the contrary, where there is organization and iron discipline, the mosquitoes die and the swamps turn into fertile lands. This is shown by the experience of our party and our proletarian revolution, which continues uninterrupted.

Our youth, as you observed yourself, through constant struggle and work under the guidance of the party (but by preserving the unique characteristics of the youth in its organization, without the ferocity of the labor organizations of the party) has been able to draw from the party the characteristics of the revolutionary struggle in consistently defending the principle of Marxism-Leninism. Therefore, the Central Committee of our Party has always shown and continues to show special care for the revolutionary education of youth.

Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Zedong teach us that revolution is a very serious matter. Our party has tried to embody this lesson of Marxism-Leninism and not permit anyone to fish in troubled waters. Our party has never allowed the waters of revolution to become muddled. It has quickly and severely assaulted all those elements who have tried to do this, because if we had allowed waters to become muddled, especially in specific situations that have developed within our party, we would have faced grave dangers. The party has hit them in the head and has demolished them a long time ago, because when there is a troubling situation, enemy elements and traitors, and the revisionists try to organize themselves. Our experience shows that the more negotiations and talks one undertakes, the more one employs certain organizational forms which impede the advancement of the revolution, the more one allows this situation to go on, the higher the number of difficulties for the revolution.

Why does this happen? Because these are expressions of antagonistic contradictions, aspects of the development of class war, and we know that class war is a revolutionary Marxist-Leninist war, and therefore our war against all enemies, in whatever form and color they may appear, must be ruthless. There can be no allowances to class enemies. During this struggle, there might be tactical acts, but these tactical acts serve the goal of liquidating as soon as possible the enemy group working towards the destruction of the party. The sooner such a group is eliminated, the better it is for the revolution. This is why, in your Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, you are employing all means and forms: the political and ideological mobilization of the masses; the organization of an iron discipline; and the employment of criticism and the dazibao in an organized fashion, according to the lessons of Mao Zedong, so that enemies are demolished and liquated as soon as possible.

You have seen very clearly how enemies were able to take over the factories in Shanghai, how the old Shanghai party committee behaved, how economism reared its head there, and how, after that, you mobilized, rose up, and hit in the head all the counterrevolutionary elements, so that they may never rise again.

By acting this way, you defended the party, which Mao Zedong has placed above everything else. Those who support Mao Zedong Thought (and all working and peasant youths support it) know only too well that the party is their heart and soul. It is true that the enemy was worked within your party, but we are confident that they can never liquidate the party, because the communists are behind Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought.

You have established the revolutionary committees—this is very important. Unless I am mistaken, the task of these committees is to lead the revolution, to wipe out the revisionists, led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, and to organize the party cells. Millions of communists in China are consequential warriors. Some bad ones might have been able to join those ranks as well, but war and revolution will bring them forward and reveal their true faces.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, led by comrade Mao Zedong, teaches us a lot of things. You are fully familiar with the Sixteen Points of the decision of the plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China from August 1966. Among other things, they deal with the classification of cadres. This issue is of great importance. These Marxist-Leninist lessons of Mao Zedong Thought constitute an instruction for action, in the further development of the Proletarian Cultural Revolution.

Our party is small and its experience reflects as much. During its history, there have been party committees that, for a brief period of time, lacked in revolutionary vigilance and, as a consequence, bad elements were able to penetrate some party ground organizations. In that situation, our party adhered to some key principles. The main one was to cleanse the party organizations from enemy elements but not liquidate them. Our party emphasized that the cleansing must be especially severe with the chiefs. One of our popular sayings puts it this way: “The fish rots from the head.” Thus, the leaders are the ones who become bureaucratized, not the workers or the peasants. Therefore, the party immediately expelled from its ranks those who had bureaucratized and steered off course, and whenever it was necessary, in fact, it even liquidated an entire party committee. Then, the party raised this problem in the ground organization and saved the day, differentiating between bad and good elements and by raising the political and ideological awareness of the communists, whereas it threw out of the party those who would not comply and selected a new committee, sometimes overlooking the forms and rules laid out in the Party’s Statute, without, of course, violating it. In this case, the best and most revolutionary people were placed at the top of the committee and then elections were held, because the situation was such that it was not possible to do otherwise. In this fashion, we improved the situation quickly. This happened to us with the party committee in Lushnje, where you have seen beautiful and fertile fields, but also in Gjirokastër and Shkodër.

We greatly admire the distinguished Marxist-Leninist, comrade Mao Zedong. It is a great fortune that Mao Zedong lives and is in great health, and that he will go on to live much longer, so that he can lead the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the glorious Communist Party of China, the great, heroic, hard-working, smart and agile Chinese people in a colossal revolution.

Comrade Red Guards—you have risen to defend the Communist Party, Chairman Mao Zedong, and socialist China. All the peoples of the world know that the principal enemy of imperialism and revisionism is the great socialist China of Mao Zedong, and therefore the enemies formulate the most diabolical plans to defeat People’s China, because they think that by doing so, they can more easily fulfill their goals to suppress the peoples. If this were to happen, then revolution would be thrown back by centuries. Therefore, the Party of Labor of Albania and the Albanian people, as well as all Marxist-Leninist parties and the world’s revolutionaries, support and forcefully endorse People’s China, the Communist Party of China, and comrade Mao Zedong.

The imperialists and the Soviet revisionist traitors think that China is getting weaker now that the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution is developing with such fury and according to a correct line. They think that it has lost its prestige and international position. All of these are the slogans of enemies and traitors of Marxism-Leninism, because they are the ones who will go down into the abyss and destruction, and not China or Albania or the other peoples who march towards revolution. Socialist China has an international, ideological, economic, and military position that frightens its enemies. And they are right to fear it, because, in the end, those who deliver these slogans know very well that when the revolution is brewing, the situation is good, that where the Marxist-Leninist ideas rule, the enemy’s activity will not take root, because the revolution squashes the enemies, just as the Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China has squashed the group of the traitors of Marxism-Leninism. The imperialists and the revisionists put their hope in the revisionist elements that held positions within the party and the state, in the group of Liu Shaoqi, but now he has been brought down and completely disarmed.

We see that the development of the socialist economy in China is moving forward at great speed. China’s industry has made colossal progress. This means that Mao Zedong Thought and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution have not slowed down the development of industry and technology, but, on the contrary, have moved them forward at greater speed. Whereas in the Soviet Union, where the revisionists are in charge, the smallest industrial products are brought in from the capitalist world, in China they are produced domestically and at an increasing rate from day to day.

The same goes for agriculture. Whereas the Soviet revisionists import bread from Canada, agriculture makes continuous progress in China and the markets are fully stocked.

Last year, the European revisionist countries were starving for meat, so they kept coming to us asking for it. There is one particular type of fish we extract that our people do not eat, but foreseeing that the Bulgarians would come around asking for it, we increased the fishing quantities and cured it. The Bulgarians came asking for this kind of fish. This is the situation in all of the revisionist countries.

Important successes have also been achieved in China in the military sphere. You have managed to develop a strong defense. Based on the teachings of Mao Zedong, his close comrade-in-arms Lin Biao has been able to lead and develop an untarnished, strong, and united army, which has terrified the imperialists and the Soviet revisionists.

The army plays a decisive role in the defense and consolidation of the victories of the revolution, because it is the main weapon of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Precisely for this reason, Mao Zedong has devoted special attention to this weapon of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has received a political, ideological, and military education based on the ideas of Marxism-Leninism. It is armed with the most modern weapons, including rockets, and atomic and hydrogen bombs.

All of this shows that People’s China, guided by the Marxist-Leninist ideas of Mao Zedong, has achieved and will continue to achieve successes in the socialist revolution, and this is important not only for China, but for all the peoples of the world.

The political, economic, and military power of the People’s Republic of China is felt everywhere. People’s China helps and vigorously supports the heroic war of the Vietnamese people. China has become a secure backline of the war in Vietnam. China’s help is lifesaving for the people of Vietnam. The Vietnamese people know this, as does the rest of the world. But most important of all is the correctness of the political and military line of Mao Zedong Thought, which animates the struggle of true Marxist-Leninists in Vietnam, whereas the revisionist elements, though they labor and attempt to, cannot put off the great flames of the war.

Now the war has started to expand into India. The communist Marxist-Leninists who led this war have come to power in several areas. In Burma, the partisans fight 30 kilometers from Ne Win’s villa. Revolutionary forces are fighting in Thailand. The same in Indonesia. Although the Communist Party of Indonesia made mistakes and suffered a great defeat, it will overcome these difficulties. In Latin America we can see that the revolutionary war is growing every day. Marxist-Leninist revolutionary groups in Europe are uniting and creating new Marxist-Leninist parties. The strikes are growing in number, as are the worker demonstrations, and so on.

All of this revolutionary struggle, which is increasing, shows the nervousness of the imperialists and the revisionists, because their goal has been and continues to be keeping everything quiet, letting betrayal take over the world, which would mean that revisionist peaceful coexistence prevails. Wherever the flames and revolutionary war of the peoples grow, we can see American imperialists and Soviet revisionists intervene to put off these flames. This shows that they are nervous and weak, that they are losing ground. In this revolutionary situation that developed all over the world today, Mao Zedong’s China plays a great role, and that is why the peoples of the world turn their eyes to China and its great power and wish that it may grow stronger every day under the leadership of Mao Zedong.

Dear comrade Red Guards: The Albanian people and the Party of Labor of Albania are bound for life, like flesh to the bone, with Mao Zedong’s great China, and there will be no force in this world that can weaken even a tiny bit this great friendship. But why is there such a close friendship between us? What is its origin? It is because our parties are nourished by Marxism-Leninism and because our goals are the same: the triumph of communism all over the world. In front of this higher goal, we are strongly bound to one another, like flesh to the bone. This friendship flourishes and will continue to flourish at all times and in all spheres of society.

For the Albanians, the dearest comrades and brothers are the comrades and warriors of Mao Zedong. During the days you were here, you felt everywhere the pulse of our people, the force of this sincere love, in the fields and in the mountains, in the midst of workers and peasants, amidst the youth and the students, amidst the soldiers and the sailors. At the foundation of this friendship is our common ideology, Marxism-Leninism, which guides both of our parties. That is why our friendship is strong and unbreakable. Each of our victories is also yours, and each of your victories is also ours. We are friends in both good and bad times. But there will always be good times for our people, who are guided by Marxism-Leninism. Of course, along the path and during our common struggle there will also be difficulties, and these are inevitable, because they are part of the revolution. But they will be overcome. This way, the revolution seems even more beautiful to us.

Nothing that is old and reactionary can be eliminated without war and revolutionary overthrow. But this seems strange to the Soviet revisionists. They do not correctly understand the sacrifices we are making during these times, because they have degenerated and lost the revolutionary spirit of the Lenin and Stalin years. Fitting to their bourgeois nature, they ask for comforts and everything else only for their clique, despite the fact the ordinary people are suffering. They do not like the revolution because it would entail the elimination of their privileges.

It is a completely different matter with us Marxist-Leninists. By means of fighting and making sacrifices, we produce abundance for the people. We—in fact, not just us, the Albanians, but the whole world—look at Mao Zedong’s great China and see that it has become not only a shining ideological and political beacon, but also a great economic and military patron and supporter for all the peoples and the revolutionaries. If the Chinese people give something to their friends, instead of keeping it for themselves, they do so because they feel themselves going through revolution, because they have been educated with a high internationalist spirit. This is why the Chinese people helped with everything they had the Albanian people at a difficult time of a blockade put up by modern revisionists, and they continue to help the Albanian people without sparing anything at all, enabling them to throw themselves into action in all areas. The assistance provided by the People’s Republic of China to the Albanian people has been politically, economically, and militarily very significant. It has strengthened our economy and our army. Without China’s assistance, we would not have a strong army today, equipped with all the necessary tools, to the point that our people are intimidated neither by the Greek monarcho-fascists, nor by the Yugoslav Titoites or the Italian fascists. The people and the army in our country are one and they are always prepared. The enemies know very well that if Albania were to be attacked, they would suffer defeat. Just imagine what would happen if People’s China was violated! Then, it would be a complete catastrophe for imperialism and the treacherous revisionists! Because of all of this, the Party of Labor of Albania and the Albanian people nurture great and unlimited love for the distinguished Marxist-Leninist Mao Zedong. He is beloved not only by you, but by all of us, and that is why we wish a very, very long life to comrade Mao—may he live as long as our mountains!

Comrade Red Guards: We are as enthusiastic as you are. The Red Guards, which play a very important role in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, have great tasks ahead of them. You must always remain, as you have already decided to be, loyal soldiers of Mao Zedong. The Red Guards must go on with the revolution until the very end, in a unity of steel with the party. They must understand and execute Mao Zedong Thought in all directions: economic, political, ideological, and military.

We—and especially our youth—love you and admire you, the Red Guards. Our central task is to strengthen this love even further, under the guidance of the Communist Party of China and comrade Mao Zedong. We have been tied and will be tied even closer with Mao Zedong, and we will work to make our people love him even more, because he is saving China at a difficult moment. The generations that will come after us will be grateful to him for this.

Let us make this toast to our dear comrade Mao Zedong—may he live as long as our mountains! Long live the glorious Communist Party of China, the great Chinese people, our friendship of steel! Long live the Red Guards of Mao Zedong! Kambe!

Yao Wenyuan: Dear comrade Enver! Thank you very much for the heartfelt hospitality and for the great support you have shown to the Chinese Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the Chinese Red Guards. Thank you very much for the extraordinarily warm and friendly hospitality shown to us everywhere by the Albanian comrades, the comrades of the Central Committee of the Youth, and all other comrades of the party.

During our visit to Albania we observed up close the high enthusiasm and the determination of the Albanian people and the Albanian youth in the construction of socialism and the revolutionizing of life in the country. We observed that the Albanian people and the Albanian youth nurture great love for the Party of Labor of Albania, under the leadership of comrade Enver Hoxha. We also observed that they nurture great love, which pours out of their hearts, for the Chinese people, the Chinese youth, and comrade Mao Zedong. Departing from your country, we would like to emphasize that we take with us this love and revolutionary enthusiasm of the Albanian people and the Albanian youth – the great love they have for the Chinese people, for the Chinese youth, and for Chairman Mao Zedong. We will try to turn this great militant friendship that exists between our peoples, our parties, and our youths, into a great force, like the Great Wall of China, insurmountable for our common enemies: American imperialism and modern revisionism.

As soon as we return to China, we will jump back into the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This revolution, which was started and is being led by our great leader Chairman Mao Zedong, has already achieved great victories, but it must be brought to the end. Thus, we understand our historic duty.

During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, we have exposed a group of individuals holding high-level party and government positions, who took a capitalist and revisionist road, who tried to take over the leadership of the party, to transform its spirit from a party of the proletariat, and to restore capitalism in China. We vigorously rose against these elements that took the capitalist road, to defend the leadership of the Communist Party of China and Mao Zedong’s line, so that the correct line of the Central Committee, represented by Mao Zedong, can continue to function in all areas. This is why we crushed and threw them on the ground so that they may never rise up again. As stated in the Sixteen Points of the last decision of the plenum of the Central Committee of our Party, we will continue the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution with determination in the area of culture and across the whole superstructure that does not correspond to the economic base of socialism, and we will destroy the old ideology to leave no opportunity for the emergence of modern revisionism, so that our socialist country will never change color.

We would like to inform you, comrade Enver, about a dazibao that will be published according to a decision by comrade Mao Zedong. This dazibao was brought out by the physical education and sports department of the Lu Sin [?] Regiment in Shanghai, and it concerns the improvement of the style of labor. This dazibao presented the task of struggling to improve the style of labor. It emphasized, moreover, that the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution does not merely concern itself with dishonoring certain individuals advancing incorrect positions and taking the capitalist road, though these must be thoroughly unmasked as revisionists, but that it must also transform the worldview of the people, uproot the manifestations of bourgeois and revisionist ideology from their consciousness, including the continuous education of our Red Guards.

There are still many mistakes in our work, and therefore we ought to improve our study of Chairman Mao’s works and seek new ways to move forward. We will undoubtedly win because we are determined to remain loyal to the dictatorship of the proletariat, to proletarian revolution. While at war, while conducting this revolution, we will become even more severe; we will study and execute the lessons of Mao Zedong, by connecting them closely to life, and we will fight with determination against all acts that go against them, so that the cause of the proletarian revolution advances constantly in the right direction, so that the flag of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought is proclaimed victorious in all of China and the rest of the world.

The Red Guards and the Chinese youth nurture great and sincere love for the Party of Labor of Albania, for the Albanian people, and for the Albanian youth, which is under your leadership, dear comrade Enver. This great love and friendship was born and grew out of our common revolutionary struggle against imperialism and revisionism. Our visit to Albania served to strengthen even further this feeling of friendship and we will also communicate this to the Chinese youth and the Chinese people.  

During our visit to Albania, we also went close to the border, 70 kilometers from Italy and 2 kilometers from Yugoslavia. Albania is geographically encircled on all four sides by imperialists and revisionists. But we were vastly impressed by the determination of the Albanian people to defend the dictatorship of the proletariat and the building of socialism. This is a matter of great importance. We are convinced that with the Party of Labor of Albania and comrade Enver, with this great force of the people, the youth, and the military, and with this unity of steel, should the imperialists and their spawn dare to touch Albania, the whole Albanian people will rise to their feet, grab their weapons, and wipe them from the face of earth. The Red Guards and the Albanian youth, who stand in close unity with each other, will fight together and will win together.

Comrade Enver Hoxha: Let them try! It would be a massive earthquake for all of our enemies.

Yao Wenyuan: Waving high the flag of Marxism-Leninism, heroic Albania is undefeatable.

I propose that we toast to the militant friendship between the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese people and youth on the one hand, and the Party of Labor, the Albanian people and the Albanian youth on the other! To the dear leader of the Albanian people Enver Hoxha! To ever greater victories in the building of socialism in Albania! To the victory of Marxism-Leninism all over the world!

Comrade Enver Hoxha: To comrade Mao Zedong’s health! To comrade Lin Biao’s health! To the health of the comrades Zhou Enlai, Chen Boda, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, and others! To comrade Yao Wenyuan’s health! To your health, comrades!

Long live comrade Mao Zedong! May he live as long as mountains!

(The Red Guards rise to their feet and frenetically applaud and exclaim in the Albanian language: “Miqësia – garancia!” [“Friendship is the guarantee!”])

[Signed by stenographer]

^[1] Trans. note—The Chinese delegation of the Red Guards, which participated in the Fifth Congress of the Labor Youth Union of Albania (Bashkimi i Rinisë së Punës të Shqipërisë, BRPSH), was led by Yao Wenyuan, member of the Central Cultural Revolution Group, and one of the principal radical activists in Shanghai. Other members of the Chinese delegation included Tan Houlan, from the Beijing Normal University’s Red Guards, and representatives from the revolutionary committees of factories, schools, and army units in Beijing and Shanghai. The Albanian side included Politburo member Hysni Kapo, Central Committee member Behar Shtylla, and Central Committee Foreign Section chief Piro Bita.