Zhou Enlai gives instructions on how the Chinese side should respond when confronted with questions of whether China should back down in regards to the North Korean issue and the Taiwan issue. In particular, he emphasizes that the Chinese side should focus on blaming American imperialism for the invasions of North Korea and Taiwan and maintaining that China's involvement in these issues is essential.
December 8, 1950
Telegram from the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee to Wu Xiuquan and Qiao Guanhua
This document was made possible with support from Leon Levy Foundation
Wu [Xiuquan] [and] Qiao [Guanhua]:
Regarding negotiations, you should still take the approach of “he is in a hurry but I am not”; do not give them chances to reconnoiter. Do not lay our cards on the table for them too early. When representatives of India, UK, and Sweden and Lie come to urge the Chinese government to reply, you can tell them: (1) The PRC central People’s Government is just like you gentlemen from the UK, India and Sweden in that we welcome a prompt cessation of the Korean war. The Chinese government is willing to do its best so as to rapidly end the military action, into which it was forced, of the armies of the North Korea Democratic Republic and the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army.
(2) Therefore, we are eager to know the UN and USA’s positions on the conditions for an armistice.
(3) As for you, according to our understanding, [you] gentlemen are not accredited by either the UN or the USA to negotiate with anybody about the conditions of armistice. Furthermore, the UK representative together with representatives from America, France, Norway, Ecuador, Cuba, etc. have put forward a proposal to the UN General Assembly to condemn China, but this proposal is solely for the purpose of obstructing a solution to the North Korea issue.
[Chinese Communist Party] Central Committee
December 8 [1950]
The CCP Central Committee gives instructions to the Chinese representatives to the UN on how to reply to confrontation over the Korean issue. The Chinese representatives are to express willingness to end military action as well as desire to know the UN and the U.S.'s positions on the conditions for an armistice.
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Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi (CPC Central Historical Documents Research Office) and Zhongyang dang'anguan (Central Archives), eds., Jianguo yilai Zhou Enlai wengao (Zhou Enlai’s Manuscripts since the Founding of the PRC), vol. 3 (Beijing: Zhongyang wenxian chubanshe, 2008), 607-608. Translated by Jingxia Yang and Douglas Stiffler.
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2012-05-25
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