Secret Telegram No. 3267/IV - From Beijing to Warsaw

Secret Telegram No. 3267/IV

From Beijing to Warsaw, December 11, 1980

Urgent

To Comrade Fijalkowski

Based on the conversation with the Chairman of the Friendship Society with Foreign Countries, Wang Bingnan:

1. He made broad references to 1956 (he was China's ambassador's to Poland at the time) in the context of Khrushchev's arrival to Warsaw, as well as China's position at the time that “averted the USSR intervention.” This reference was clearly planned to start a discussion on “the current situation” in Poland. He also referred to his recent trip to Europe where “he was always asked about a possibility of the Soviet intervention [in Poland].” He especially referred to his conversation with [British Foreign Secretary Peter] Carrington whom he had allegedly told: “Poland is not Czechoslovakia, the Pope is also an important factor. The USSR military maneuvers on the Polish border are only demonstrations of force. The USSR will not decided to take [military] action since it is already engaged in Afghanistan…” At the same time, Wang reiterated the well-known Chinese theses: “the Chinese society is closely following the development of the situation [in Poland]. We believe that your party, as before, will overcome the difficulties. We are against any outside intervention.”

I interrupted him and strongly rebutted his statements in the spirit of the VII Plenum, the Moscow meeting, and the recent instructions of [Foreign] Minister [Józef] Czyrek. I am reporting this in more details since I think that Wang's statements were based on instructions from the Chinese Foreign Ministry. The fact that their best translator from the Foreign Ministry, who is exclusively used for “important talks,” took part in our meeting attests to this.

2. Wang talked a lot about the internal events in China – which are known from other talks, but here are the main points:

- they understood that too much power concentrated in one hand will lead to distortions. “This is why,” he said, “we decided to ask Hua Guofeng to resign from his post as prime minister.”

- There is much opposition to the CCP's new line and their activities are becoming illegal. “All of these people,” he said, “held responsible posts during the cultural revolution and they are now forming an opposition, but they are not able to create tensions. This is not a great force.”

3. He talked about the possibility of going to Warsaw. However, as he said, he fully understood that the current visit would be out of question since “you are busy with your own problems at the moment.”

My remark: I propose to react with an official communiqué in the Polish Press Agency, since the Chinese statements on the Polish matters mean an attempt to drive a wedge between Poland and the Soviet Union, as well as interfere in our internal affairs. We have already submitted a demarche regarding the statements of the PRC ambassador in Warsaw.

/-/ Czyrek

Received by: Comrades Kania, Pinkowski, Barcikowski, Grabski, Jagielski, Jaruzelski, Moczar, Olszowski…