Information about the Visit of the Official Delegation of the CC of the DP to the PRC led by the Vice-Chairman of the CC of the DP, the Vice-Chairman of Sejm of the PPR Coll. Marek Wieczorek, on 19-26 April 1988

Information

-----------------

About the visit of the official delegation of the C[entral] C[ommittee] of the DP to the PRC led by the vice-chairman of the CC of the DP, the vice-chairman^[1] of Sejm^[2] of the PPR col[league]. Marek Wieczorek, on 19-26 April 1988.

1. By an invitation from the president of the China Democratic League, Fei Xiaotong, the delegation of the CC of the DP, led by col. Marek Wieczorek, vice-chairman of the CC of the DP and the vice-chairman of Sejm of the PPR, paid an official visit to the PRC from 19 to 26 April 1988.

Other members of the delegation included:

- col. Jerzy Gruchalski – member of the board and the secretary of the CC of the DP, chairman of the DP Warsaw Committee, vice-chairman of the Sejm Committees for the Economic Plan, Budget and Finance, and the Extraordinary Committee for the Control of Implementation of the Economic Reform;

- col. Jan Janowski – member of the board of the CC of the DP, chairman of the DP Cracow Committee, vice-chairman of the Polish Inter-parliamentary Union, vice-chairman of the Sejm Committee for Foreign Affairs;

- col. Piotr Frankowski –   secretary of the CC of the DP;

and

- Bogusław Zakrzewski –  adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the interpreter for the delegation.

2. The purpose of the visit was to learn about:

- The activities of the Democratic League and to plan our future cooperation;

- The organization of the special economic zone.

3. The programme of the visit can be found in Attachment 1.

4. The programme was divided into three parts:

a. Political, consisting of meetings and conversations:

- With representatives of the leadership of the C[ommunist] P[arty of] C[hina], i.e. member of the Standing Committee, secretary of the CC of the CPC Hu Qili and secretar of the CC of the CPC Yan Mingfu. See Attachment 2.

- With the chairman of the Standing Committee of the N[ational] P[eople’s] C[ongress] Xi Zhongxun,

- Talks held with the leadership of the Democratic League. Attachments 3, 4, 5, i.e.: the welcome toast, the farewell toast, the Protocol on the relations of the DP and the C[hina] D[emocratic] L[eague] in 1988-90.

b. Economic, i.e. getting to know the workings of the special economic zone. Attachment 6., i.e. main points of the information.

c. Cultural, i.e. visiting historical monuments.

4a.

During the political meetings with the leadership of the CPC and the leadership of the NPC our interlocutors highlighted:

- The traditional friendship between the CPC and the P[olish] U[nited] W[orkers’] P[arty], and between the Chinese and Polish nations, marked by the groundbreaking talks and the visit of Zhao Ziyang in Poland; in this context the new relations between the DP and DL were positively appraised;

- That despite different circumstances Poland and China concur on the matters of peace and economic development;

- The determination to implement the economic and political reforms and the Open Door policy;

- The process of reforms in Poland began before the reforms in China thus they pay close attention to how they proceed in our country;

- The reforms apply to the economic sphere of life as a whole, allowing for use of the capitalistic means and methods to manage them, involving all sectors of property and giving them constitutional guarantee;

- The opportunity to earn income from the shares in a company’s profits, and even from one’s own capital;

- The leading role of the special economic zones where the economic development follows capitalist rules;

- That the entire nation supports the reforms from which everyone benefits;

- That China set out on their journey of the socialist transformation from the position of a half-colonial and half-feudal state, which explains their delay in development as compared to other socialist countries;

- The importance of the political reforms leading to the improvement of the socialist democracy and the rule of law, supported by the often critical discussion led by the democratic parties in the NPC and the C[hinese] P[eople’s] P[olitical] C[onsultative] C[onference]; this goal will be assisted by the reform of the political system based on separation of the party functions from the government functions such that the party will focus on the fundamentals while the government will deal with their everyday tasks;

- The efforts to change the electoral system (multiple candidates for a single seat).

4b.

During the talks with the representatives of the leadership of the China Democratic League out interlocutors pointed out:

- The traditional friendship between China and Poland,

- That the cooperation of the Democratic League and the Democratic Party will enrich the contacts between China and Poland,

- The participation and support the Democratic League members show for the economic and political reforms; that huge intellectual efforts are involved in the implementation of the reforms – members of the DL co-authored many innovative solutions, concerning especially the economy;

- That the Democratic League as the most substantial (80 thousand members) Chinese party after the CPC intends to play a key role in the formulation of the reforms and the opening policy;

- The readiness to exchange experiences and further deepening of the relations with the DP (which led to the signing of the protocol on cooperation, see Attachment 5.).

- The importance of the cooperation with the DP as the first and only foreign partner of the Democratic League and other democratic parties [in China].

5. To sum up the talks held during the visit of the delegation it should be noted that:

- The stay of the delegation was met with substantial interest from the leadership of the CPC,

- There was readiness to develop contacts with Poland, for instance through the intention to start a cooperation and exchange delegations of the Canton administration and Szczecin.

- The contacts between the DP and the DL will constitute a crucial factor of the Polish-Chinese relations;  signing of the Protocol on the contacts of the DP with the DL in 1988-90 was an important development which set the ground for further cooperation. The Chinese also accepted the invitation to participate in the proceedings in the XIV Congress of the DP;

- The position of the DL is becoming more prominent;

- The atmosphere of the talks was friendly, cordial and sincere;

- The press (Attachment 7.) and other mass media (TV) were interested in the visit.

6. The goals of the visit were realized thanks to the well-prepared materials from the Department I of the MFA as well as the assistance and commitment of the PPR embassy in Beijing.

^[1] Pol. wicemarszałek

^[2] Sejm, pronounced /sɛjm/, is the lower (and during the PPR times, the only) chamber of the Polish parliament.