Give Proper Treatment to Guomindang
and American Personnel on the Military
Mediation Operational Teams1
 (June 22, 1946)
To all bureaus, and for transmission to all relevant organizations and all relevant
military units:
A telegram of June 20th from the Beiping Office for Military Mediation reads
as follows: “With regard to the matter of guaranteeing the safety of the operational teams that come to our areas and the attitude taken toward them, much has
gone wrong recently. For example, there have been many instances of deliberately
making things difficult, investigating and detaining them, and being rude to them.
In particular, careless shootings have resulted in an American team member being
injured in Beipiao, the Guomindang team member Lei Fenqiang [?–1946] being
killed in Yancheng, and today, according to reports, the death of one Guomindang
team member and the wounding of another when the Xinxiang team was fired
upon in the Xiuwu area. Many such incidents arise out of misunderstandings, but
many others stem from simple feelings of hatred at the lower levels toward the
Guomindang and the United States. If this is not corrected, even though our side is
not completely without any grounds (especially since there have been quite a few
cases in which our team members have been detained, humiliated, or harmed), it is
a situation that is ultimately unjustifiable politically and it erodes sympathy. The
central bureaus are requested to issue directives to all strategic areas to the effect
that they must conscientiously restrain their subordinates and work on educating
them so that the kinds of incidents mentioned above do not recur. Regarding the
unfairness of the Guomindang side and the Americans in the mediation process,
our side must always adopt a serious and principled attitude, but as far as our relations and interactions with the teams are concerned, we must always take pains
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 130–31, where it is reproduced
from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this notice on behalf of the Central Committee of the Chinese
Communist Party. On the same day, Mao drafted a telegram on behalf of the Central Committee to Ye Jianying, Luo Ruiqing, and Zhou Enlai stating: “The order has been circulated
to strategic units to begin education regarding treating the Nationalists and Americans
politely, and especially to prevent anything that causes harm.”
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-181

to maintain appropriate manners and cordial friendliness to put our diplomatic
struggles in an even more justifiable, reasonable position. Whether or not this is
appropriate, the Central Committee is requested to decide and act accordingly.
And so on.” The above is very reasonable, and all bureaus are expected to issue
instructions to all relevant organs and military units to undertake widespread education measures and from now on to treat Guomindang and American personnel
with courtesy, and especially to avoid further harmful incidents. This matter is of
utmost importance.
The Central Committee