1893-1976
Eastern Europe
(372) documents
1953
Mao Zedong discusses the significance of the signing of the Sino-North Korean Economic and Cultural Cooperation Agreement at a banquet for a North Korean government delegation. Dismissing that China's aid to North Korea is one-sided, Mao notes that North Korea "helped" China by being in the front line of the struggle against imperialism. North Korea protected China by preventing the imperialists from crossing the Yale River.
1955
The Chinese ambassador to Burma reported to the Chinese Foreign Ministry about the estimated itinerary and security conditions in Burma for Zhou Enlai’s visit.
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.
The Foreign Ministry agreed Wang to accept the invite from Johnson and asked for more details about the dinner arrangement.
Wang drafted certain issues that might be touched upon during the private dinner with Johnson and asked for permission from the Foreign Ministry. The US might: (1) Explain the current situation and wish to improve Sino-US relations; (2) Continue searching China’s bottom-line with soft methods; (3) Want to test China’s attitude on improving Sino-US relations; (4) Test China’s opinion on the second agenda.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry claims that the US wants to test China’s bottom-line regarding the release of US citizens in China.
The Foreign Ministry instructed Wang that China would not have a determined time to release all the American citizens, as the US requested. However, China could agree to deal with the issue “as soon as possible” in the amendment.
The US proposed to postpone the twelfth meeting from 27th to 31st. Wang conjured that the US needed to change their strategy since they had not got their way of having China promise a time for the release of US citizens. Wang suggested some possible changes of US strategy and requested further instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed the postponement of the twelfth meeting. The Ministry instructed Wang to invite Johnson to a private dinner immediately on receipt of this telegram.