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China & World Revolution


Nigel Harris

China and World Revolution


Some Notes on Foreign Policy



From International Socialism (1st series), No.78, May 1975, pp.26-27.


The Common Market

Chou En-lai (11 September 1973, Peking Review, 37, 1973):

‘We ... support the peoples of European countries in uniting themselves to safeguard their independence. We are for the view that the cause of European unity, if it is carried out well, will contribute to the improvement of the situation in Europe and the whole world’.

Teng Hsiao-p’ing (Vice premier, speech to the UN, 10 April 1974):

‘The case of the developed countries in between the superpowers ... (they) are in varying degrees controlled, threatened or bullied by the one superpower or the other In varying degrees all these countries have the desire to shake off superpower enslavement or control and safeguard their national independence and the integrity of their sovereignty’.


United States of America

From 1942, Chou and Mao made repeated attempts – with some success – to invite US officers to visit Yenan; from 1944, requests were made for US aid. Mao and Chou requested an invitation to visit Washington in February 1945 for discussions with Roosevelt, but nothing came of it.

February 1945 – Chuh Teh asks US for loan of $20m – refused.

13 April 1945 – Telegram to Truman expressing warm condolences on death of Roosevelt.

7th Congress of CCP (3 May 1945):

‘The American people, whom the Chinese people have been accustomed to consider as the inhabitants of a remote land, seem today like close neighbours. The Chinese people will co-operate with the people of the great powers, America, Great Britain, USSR and France, as indeed with all people of every other country, to create a new world peace, secure and durable’.

Foreign Minister Chen Yi, 1965:

‘Peaceful co-existence with US imperialism which is pushing ahead its policies of aggression and war, is out of the question’.

Chinese toast to President Nixon, 21 February 1972:

‘The social system of China and the US are fundamentally different, and there exists great differences between the Chinese government and the US government. However, these differences should not hinder China and the US from establishing normal State relations on the basis of the Five Principles ...; still less should they lead to war. As early as 1955, the Chinese government publicly stated that the Chinese people do not want to have a war with the United States and that the Chinese government is willing to sit down and enter into negotiations with the US government. This is a policy we have pursued consistently.’

9 May 1972 – US mines harbours of North Vietnam. China protest that two Chinese ships attacked in Vietnamese waters. US launch massive bombing campaign. From 1966 to March 1972, US announce dropped 6.2 million tons of munitions, or 262 pounds per head of the Indo-Chinese population.

12 June 1972 – China condemns US for having

‘steadily expanded the sphere of bombing up to areas close to the Sino-Vietnamese border, threatening the security of China’.

19-23 June – Kissinger in Peking for talks with Chinese government; report that received with ‘extraordinary courtesy’.

November 1974 – China reported to have sent two messages of consolence to President Nixon over the three months since he was forced out of office by the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam war.


Soviet Union

Mao Tse-tung (11 May 1964, cited in joint editorial People’s Daily, Red Flag and Liberation Army Daily, Peking Review 17/1970):

‘The Soviet Union today is under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, a dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie, a dictatorship of the German fascist type, a dictatorship of the Hitler type.’

A clique had usurped the party and government to create ‘a bureaucratic monopoly capitalist class, namely a new type of bourgeoisie’, pursuing ‘social imperialism’ abroad.

Chou En-lai (to 10th Party Congress, August 1973):

‘Over the last two decades, the Soviet revisionist ruling clique, from Khrushcvek to Brezhnev, have made a socialist country degenerate into a social-imperialist country. Internally, it has restored capitalism, enforced a fascist dictatorship and enslaved the people of all nationalities.’

Peking Review (14 April 1969):

‘Fascist white terror reigns in Soviet society today’.


Pakistan

China in longer term alliance with Pakistan, despite Pakistan’s membership of SEATO and CENTO. 1965-Chinese forces mobilised on the Indian border during the Indo-Pakistan war to divide Indian forces (something that was not done opposite Taiwan during the Vietnamese war to divide US forces). Chinese support for Pakistan’s military dictator, Ayub Khan, leads to Pakistan Left giving critical support to Ayub, and in East Pakistan, refusing to champion the Bengali right to independence.

25 March 1971 – West Pakistan begin repression of Bengali revolt. China extends considerable material support – small arms, paper to break paperworker strike in East Pakistan etc. In February 1971 China-Pakistan highway opened.

Leader of East Bengal Left, Maulana Bashani, telegram to Mao:

‘The ideology of socialism is to fight oppression ... and if Mao refuses to protest against the atrocities of the military junta, the world may think you are not the friend of the oppressed’.

Chou En’lai message to General Yahya Khan:

‘The unification of Pakistan and the unity of the people of East and West Pakistan are the basic guarantee for Pakistan to attain prosperity and strength.’

China gives full support for Pakistan’s struggle to safeguard ‘its national independence and State sovereignty’.

2 AprilNCNA cite Yahya Khan’s broadcast of 26 March justifying repression, imply Indian interference main source of revolt.

11 MayPeople’s Daily:

‘The relevant measures taken by President Yahya Khan in connection with the present situation in Pakistan are the internal affairs of Pakistan, in which no country should or had the right to interfere ...’

5-8 November – President Bhutto of Pakistan on state visit to Peking. Official Chinese government statement (16 December)

‘We hold that there can be no neutrality on the question of aggression versus non-aggression, of division versus anti-division, and of subversion versus anti-subversion.’ (Peking Review 51/1971)

31 January-2 February 1972 – Bhutto on state visit to China – China offers to convert four loans to Pakistan into straight grants, defer its 1970 loan repayment period for 20 years, and make future loans.


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