Telegram to Peng Dehuai〔1〕 on the Problem of Liberating Tibet
(November 23, 1949)

Comrade Dehuai, and to be passed to He, Xi, and Liu〔2〕:

(1) The reply telegram to the Panchen〔3〕 can be published after slight modification.

(2) Regarding the management of the Tibet issue, please bring it up for discussion at a meeting of the Northwest Bureau. At present, besides striving to win over the Panchen and his group, giving them political remolding (appropriately) and looking after their livelihood, training Tibetan cadres is extremely important. The resolution of the Tibet problem should be striven to be completed by the autumn or winter of next year. Judging from the current situation, the Northwest Bureau should be tasked with the primary responsibility, while the Southwest Bureau will assume a secondary responsibility. This is because the war will end earlier in the Northwest than in the Southwest, the road from Qinghai to Tibet is, according to some people, level and easy to travel, and the Panchen and his group are also in Qinghai. To resolve the Tibet problem, it is impossible not to dispatch troops; dispatching troops, of course, will not be only from the Northwest route, there must also be a Southwest route. Therefore, after the pacification of Chuan-Kang, the Southwest Bureau should immediately begin to manage Tibet. To strike Tibet will probably require the use of three armies; how to allocate them and who will be responsible for command is still difficult to decide now. But the Northwest Bureau should now formulate a plan on the problem of preparing Tibetan cadres and other problems that should be attended to now. What are your opinions, I hope you will inform me.

Mao Zedong
November 23

Published according to the manuscript.

Notes

〔1〕 Peng Dehuai was at that time the First Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Commander and Political Commissar of the First Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
〔2〕 He refers to He Long, at that time the Second Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Commander of the Northwest Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army; in August 1949 he was appointed Third Secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and in October of the same year he was appointed Commander of the Southwest Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, but had not yet assumed either post at this time. Xi refers to Xi Zhongxun, at that time a Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Political Commissar of the Northwest Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. Liu refers to Liu Bocheng, at that time the Second Secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Commander of the Second Field Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
〔3〕 Panchen refers to Panchen Erdini Qoigyi Gyaincain, one of the religious leaders of Tibet.