Cable from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, 'Representations concerning the Flight of Ethnic Minority Residents from Xinjiang’s Border Areas to the Soviet Union'

[…]

To: Wulumuqi [Urumqi] […]

Level: Extremely urgent […]

Contents: Representations concerning the Flight of Ethnic Minority Residents from Xinjiang’s Border Areas to the Soviet Union

[To the] Xinjiang Foreign Affairs Department and the [Xinjiang Uyghur] Autonomous Region Party Committee:

At 6:00 p.m. on the 29th of [April], the Soviet ambassador came to meet Vice Minister Zhang [Hanfu] about the flight of ethnic minority residents from Xinjiang’s border areas to the Soviet Union and to personally deliver a document which strove make excuses and counterattack. The main contents were: that the Soviet side was pretending to look into the matter; that the incident was entirely an accident; that [the Soviets] were pretending to be puzzled and surprised by our 24th [of April] indication that the conventions for processing border crossings had been violated; that the Soviet side's [illegible] is long but the people are few and it is near [illegible], that it was powerless against such a large number of border crossers and could not use force, that the border crossers first passed through our territory and we should have discouraged [them]; that, both in Beijing and among the border defense [authorities], [the Soviets] had taken the initiative to inform our side first; that the border guards had not cut down the barbed wire fences; that helping the border crossers to settle down was [an act  of] humanitarianism; that Ma-er-guo-fu [sic] has not left Alma-Ata [Almaty] recently; that [the Soviets] can assist our side's representatives in the [illegible] necessary work in meeting with the runaways; [and] that they want us to take effective measures. Comrade Hanfu expressed [he] would respond after reporting to the government and studying [the document] and that the personally believed that: the Soviet side's document is still not a satisfactory reply; what is mentioned in the document is inconsistent with the facts; that the Soviet side has failed to take any measures, is still opening gaps [in fences] in places like Yumin [Chaghantoqay], is still helping to resettle border crossers, that, together with those people running back and forth, other [illegible] are returning to Xinjiang and Soviet people are instigating, creating difficulties for our dissuasion work, that the number of border crossers is increasing, and the situation is becoming even more serious and dangerous; that, during the meeting between the border defense [authorities] on the 23rd [of April], after our side put forth the issues the Soviet side only said it would report to higher authorities, [but] the Soviets have simply not talked about the matter [since then]; that the repatriation of these individuals is a Soviet matter because the people are in Soviet territory; [and] that the Soviets ought to quickly take effective measures.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

30 April [1962]

[…]