Telegram to Du Yong and Wei Wenhan on Restoring Shipping Between North China and Shanghai[1]

(February 13, 1949)

Peng and Ye:

The following telegram should be sent to Shanghai via the telegraph office as a priority.

Central Committee

Chouyuan

Mr. Du Yong, Chairman of the National Association of Shipping Companies, and Mr. Wei Wenhan, Chairman of the Shanghai Shipping Industry Association:

Your telegram of February 7 has been received. The restoration of shipping between North China and Shanghai to facilitate the development of production is extremely

[1] In early January of the 38th year of the Republic of China (1949), Beiping and Tianjin were successively liberated, and the coal supply in the Shanghai area was about to be cut off. The National Association of Shipping Companies (abbreviated as Ship Association) appealed to both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, suggesting that flour be shipped north in exchange for coal to Shanghai. Leaders of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, replied by telegram expressing their welcome.