Letter, Hu Yaobang to Georges Marchais

Beijing, November 20, 1983

To the Secretary-General of

the French Communist Party

Dear Comrade Georges Marchais,

I entrust Comrade Xi Zhongxun to bring you this letter to offer my sincere brotherly greetings.

Comrade Xi Zhongxun is a member of the Political Bureau and of the Secretariat of our Party’s Central Committee, he has a lot of responsibility within the Secretariat. Our Central Committee has decided he would lead a delegation from the Party in order to show the Central Committee of the French Communist Party and yourself the progress in the implementation of the resolution of the 12th Congress of our Party and the work of the 2nd Plenary session of our Central Committee that took place very recently and to thoroughly speak with you regarding problems of common interest.

For a year, thanks to our joint efforts, programme of exchange and amicable cooperation between our two Parties that we have established together for the year 1983 was implemented under very favourable conditions, which has, no doubt, strengthened the friendship and mutual understanding between our two Parties. I sincerely believe we are all delighted about it. I wish with all my heart that thanks to the current visit of the delegation headed by Comrade Xi Zhongxun, friendly relations between our two Parties develop further. I extend my sincere thanks for the attention devoted by yourself and your Central Committee to our Party’s delegation.

Dear Comrade, I have extended last year an invitation to come spend the holiday in China at a time you deem appropriate. I wish to renew that invitation, hoping that you will be able to come next year with your family to spend the holiday at our home at a date that would be suitable for you.

Hoping to see you again, I offer you my very best wishes.

Hu Yaobong (signature)

Secretary-General

of the Central Committee

of the Chinese Communist Party