From the Journal of A.A. Brezhnev, 'Record of a Conversation with Zhang Liguang, Chief of the PRC MFA Socialist Countries Protocol Department, 15 August 1958'

from the journal of

A. A. BREZHNEV

[written above: China]

SECRET Copy Nº 2

28 August 1958

Nº 323

RECORD OF A CONVERSATION

with ZHANG LIGUANG, Chief of the PRC MFA Socialist Countries Protocol Department

15 August 1958

At a reception held by the DPRK Embassy on the occasion of the 13^th anniversary of the liberation of Korea I talked with Zhang Liguang, who told me of some reactions in the diplomatic corps to the meeting between N. S. Khrushchev and Mao Zedong.

The publication of the communique, in his words, provoked great interest among the bourgeois diplomats accredited in Peking. Many of them are making various guesses about the substance of the Soviet-Chinese talks and directing attention to the participation of the Soviet and Chinese ministers of defense in them. However, in the majority of cases they do not express their opinion. Some bourgeois diplomats are making attempts to get some additional information about the meeting from Chinese friends.

Right after the publication in the press of a report about the meeting of Cdes. N. S. Khrushchev and Mao Zedong, Indian Ambassador G. Parthasarathy turned to the PRC MFA with a request that Zhou Enlai or Chen Yi receive him. He was told that neither Zhou Enlai nor Chen Yi was in Peking. G. Parthasarathy twice visited Luo Guibo, a Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, from whom he tried to find out what the talks were about in addition to what was said in the communique.

[Translator’s note: there is a faded handwritten note at the bottom of the first page: “To the archive. Informative material. Chief of a sector of a CPSU CC Department I. Shcherbakov 29 September 1958]

Replying to my question, Zhang Liguang said that in conversations with Luo Guibo the Indian Ambassador carefully avoided expressing his opinion about the communique and tried not to show what questions interested him most of all. Such a position of G. Parthasarathy, he explained, is completely understandable in light of the reaction in the ruling circles of India to the meeting of the Soviet and Chinese leaders. Although Nehru and other leaders of the Indian government refrained from direct criticism of the communique, however the press of India which is close to government circles is expressing an opinion in the spirit that its publication allegedly increases international tension.

Burmese Ambassador La Maung avoided any statements on this topic. Zhang Liguang connected this with the common position which the Burmese Ambassador had taken in the course of the split between the U Nu group and the groups of U Ba Swe and U Kyaw Nyein. In his words, outwardly acting in the role of a “mediator”, La Maung actually supports U Ba Swe and U Kyaw Nyein. Striving to keep his post he is trying to talk less about pointed political questions. 

The ambassadors of Indonesia and Ceylon reacted to the communique approvingly, in the words of Zhang Liguang. Back on 6 August Zhang Liguang told me that Indonesian Ambassador Wiryopranoto called the communique a document useful for strengthening international peace.

                        ATTACHE OF THE SOVIET EMBASSY in the PRC

[signature]

(A. Brezhnev)

4-vk.

1 – to Cde. M. V. Zimyanin

2 – to Cde. Yu. V. Andropov

3 – to UVI

4 – to file

Drafted by Brezhnev

19 August 1958

Nº 635