The Chinese Foreign Ministry offers some additional instructions for how to approach the talks with the United States.

Zhou Enlai's instructions regarding the Sino-US talks

Feng Xuan reported to the Foreign Ministry on the release of 76 Chinese students from the US and the American invitation to a meeting on the expatriate question.

The CCP Central Committee informed Zhou Enlai that they received and agreed with his proposal.

Zhou Enlai gave a brief overview of the situation, in which he pointed out that there seemed to be disagreements between the US delegation in Geneva and the State Department over whether to talk directly with the PRC delegation. Zhou outlined what the PRC should do if either case materialized.

Huan Xiang reaffirmed that Beijing did not deny exit permits for Americans while the US prevented many Chinese nationals from leaving the US. He agreed to talk to the US either directly or through Trevelyan's introduction. Trevelyan said that he did not know the US attitude on this issue and would contact Huan Xian in a few days.

Trevelyan offered to mediate the issue of Chinese and American expatriates as a private person. Huan Xiang replied by affirming that US nationals were free to leave China while many Chinese were not allowed to leave the US. He declared to have no authority on the mediation request and would consult with related people.

Zhou Enlai talked to Raghavan about two issues in the Sino-American talks: The release of American expatriates in China and the issue of Chinese expatriates in the US. Regarding the former, Zhou reaffirmed Chinese willingness to cooperate. According to him, there was no restriction and all American expatriates who apply would be able to return to the US. In the cases of Americans who violated Chinese law, however, it was necessary to proceed case by case and it was impossible to release them all at the same time as Washington demanded. On the second issue, the US admitted that they had placed limitations on the return of Chinese expatriates in the past. These restrictions had been lifted then but due to the number of Chinese expatriates and the pressure from Taipei, the problem could not be solved at once. Both countries agreed to let India act as a proxy for China and the UK act as a proxy for the US in this issue. Zhou and Raghavan went on to discuss some wording problems as well as the attitudes of both parties and the UK.

The Foreign Ministry agreed with Wang’s observation that the US thought that China was very eager to reach an agreement and thus took advantage of it. The US’s purpose was to have China promise unambiguously that all American citizens would be released soon. The Foreign Ministry instructed Wang to stand firm in the next meeting and not to yield as China had already make necessary concession.

US Representative Johnson invited Wang to a private dinner at Johnson’s residence, stating that both would bring only interpreters and should not leak the information to reporters. Wang asked for instruction from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.