Telegram from Beijing, No.059.658, Urgent, SECRET

To Comrade Gheorghe Diaconescu

We would like to inform you that the Chinese mass media on June 25th published the following things:

First of all, the statement of Premier Zhou Enlai in support of the new proposals for the unification of Korea made by president Kim Il Sung. The declaration was made by Premier Zhou Enlai at the fare-well reception offered by Moussa Traoreé, the head of state in Mali, during the evening of June 24th.

The main article in Renmin ribao [People’s Daily] for June 25th, written on the occasion of 23 years since the war of liberation in Korea, revealed the following important aspects in addition reiterating the support the People’s Republic of China is offering to the DPRK:

1. Countless facts show that the peaceful and self-reliant reunification of Korea has already become a powerful historical trend which nobody could stop. There is a conviction that the Korean people are capable of eliminating all obstacles it encounters and, if there is no interference from the outside, they can achieve their national aspiration.

2. Twenty three years ago, American imperialism launched its war of aggression against Korea and later on it occupied Chinese territory, namely the Taiwan province. It is noteworthy that even if the article makes references to “the aggression of American imperialism in Korea” and the occupation of Taiwan, the liberation of Taiwan as well as the withdrawal of American troops from South Vietnam are not conditioned by Sino-American relations. As a matter of fact, the article talks about the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea as a request of president Kim Il Sung, while the presence of American troops in Taiwan is overlooked. References to Taiwan are allusive and they are meant to draw the attention of the United States, in an appropriate language, to this major unsolved problem in Sino-American relations.

 Signed: Octavian Gavris