Urgent Note Regarding “the Visit” of K. Mijal in Beijing

January 31, Urgent Note regarding Kazimierz Mijal’s visit in Beijing

Warsaw, 31 January 1975

SECRET

URGENT NOTE

regarding “the visit” of K. Mijal in Beijing

According to the information [broadcast by] Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, K.[azimierz] Mijal arrived in Beijing on 19 January of this year at the invitation of the CC CCP [Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party].  The Chinese media gave the visit much publicity.  They reported that “the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Poland, K.[azimierz] Mijal,” was greeted at the airport by the member of the Central Committee and the head of the Department of International Communication in the Central Committee, Geng Biao.  [The media further reported] that on 20 January K.[azimierz] Mijal “conducted a warmhearted and friendly conversation” with a member of the Political Bureau of the CC CCP, Yao Wenyuan  (on 21 January, [China’s People’s Daily], the “Renmin Ribao,” included a photo from this meeting on their second page).  [The media further reported] that on January 24, K.[azimierz] Mijal wrote a letter to Mao Zedong congratulating him on the promulgation of the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China’s] new constitution (the Chinese press printed extensive passages from this letter).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs [of Poland] assesses that we need to react to the issue of K.[azimierz] Mijal’s visit at both political and propaganda levels.  The Ministry of Foreign Affairs postulates [the following]:

1. To present a demarche to the Chinese ambassador in Warsaw or to delegate this step to Ambassador F.[ranciszek] Stachowiak in Beijing, who is about to complete his mission over there;

2. To publish an ironic essay in the “Zycie Warszawy” [Warsaw Life daily], which would include the assessment of K.[azimierz] Mijal’s activities, as well as the assessment of the Chinese attempts to interfere in Poland’s internal affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is of the opinion that in the area of trade, maritime, and technical and scientific relations [between Poland and China], no steps should be taken to limit such contacts.  At the same time, the visit from China, [which was planned to take place] at the deputy ministerial level, should be postponed indefinitely in order for cooperation in the area of science and technology to be agreed upon.

The Ministry [of Foreign Affairs] notifies that the Polish side has already expressed dissatisfaction brought about by the “visit” of K.[azimierz] Mijal and it refrained from sending congratulatory letters to the newly elected authorities in the PRC.

/-/ Deputy Foreign Minister J.[an] CZAPLA

Source: AAN, KC PZPR, V/128

[Trans. note— Following the ideological [Sino-Soviet] conflict, Kazimierz Mijal, [who was] a member of the CC PUWP [Central Committee of the Polish United Workers’ Party] from 1948 until 1959, created the Communist Party of Poland that sympathized with Maoism and which essentially was the opposition to the authorities of the People’s Republic of Poland.  In 1966, he left the country of Poland illegally to immigrate to Albania from where he carried out broadcasts in the Polish language via the Radio Tirana.]