Report, Zhou Enlai to the Chairman [Mao Zedong] and the Central Committee

To the Chairman [Mao Zedong] and the Central Committee:^[1]

A. The main points of our discussions at our interview with Comrade Stalin on the evening of September 19th are as follows:

1. Opposing the Three Point Mexican Proposal is correct.^[2] The Soviet Union is prepared to oppose it as the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and to make there a four-point proposal (armistice, return of prisoners, withdrawal of forces, and peaceful settlement of the Korean issue) and that Stalin would put them into a letter that I will carry back with me.

2. Agrees with the Chairman’s proposal to sign a non-aggression pact with Vietnam and Cambodia.

3. The alliance of the Asian region should proceed in parallel with the meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations but we should not reject the UN General Assembly meeting.

4. The Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting of the World Peace Council should focus on peace.^[3] The struggle should focus on the peace movement. Getting representatives from Japan, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and other countries participate is very important.

5. China should be very alert to poisonous elements from the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries who will try to wreck the conference.

We will make a more detailed report later.

B. Military discussions

On September 16th, we met with [Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union] Bulganin. On September 19th, Su Yu [the Second Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Revolutionary Army of the Central People’s Government] and other comrades met with [Minister of Defense of the Soviet Union] Aleksandr Vasilevsky.On September 20th, we met separately with comrades of the army, air force and navy. Orders for military supplies for the fighting in Korea have already begun to come together. It will take another two months for examinations of the Five Year Plan to be completed.

C. Other matters will be addressed when I make my report in person.

Zhou Enlai

Morning of September 22

^[1] The editors of Jianguo yilai Zhou Enlai wengao (Zhou Enlai’s Manuscripts since the Founding of the PRC) included several footnotes in this document that provided biographical information on the individuals mentioned. These footnotes have not been translated into English. The remaining footnotes have been translated into English and included here. – Charles Kraus.

^[2] Refers to the Mexican POW (Prisoner of War) Settlement Proposal that Mexico was preparing to offer to the General Assembly of the United Nations on the Korean issue. The proposal had three main parts: 1. Prisoners of the two sides that have expressed themselves willing to return to their country should be returned; 2. The remaining prisoners should be given temporary refugee status by other member states of the United Nations. These prisoners should be returned according to a procedure that is to be determined later; and 3. After the Korean situation returns completely to normal, their homelands should provide to those prisoners all assurances and conveniences in order to facilitate their immediate return to their countries. If some of the prisoners want to return home before the Korean situation has returned completely to normal, the governments concerned should make arrangements as above and give them various conveniences to facilitate their return to their countries. On November 11, 1952, Mexico made this proposal to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

^[3] The Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting of the World Peace Council refers to the meeting that was to convene in Beijing on October 2, 1952.