Letter to Zhang Hanfu
(September 14, 1952)
Comrade Hanfu:
Premier Zhou has informed me by telegram that the joint communiqué concerning the
China–Manchuria Railway and the exchange of notes regarding the extension of the
Soviet military withdrawal from Lushun (2) are to be signed in Moscow on the 15th
or 16th. They will be made public on the day of signing and published in the
newspapers the following day. Please arrange for a meeting with Comrades Deng
Tuo and Xiong Fu (3) to discuss this matter and immediately draft an editorial (4),
which should be submitted to me for review on the afternoon of the 15th.
Mao Zedong
September 14
[1]
Zhang Hanfu was at the time Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central People’s
Government.
[2]
The joint communiqué concerning the China–Manchuria Railway refers to the “Sino–
Soviet Communiqué on the Transfer of the China Changchun Railway to the Government
of the People’s Republic of China” (September 15, 1952); the exchange of notes
regarding the extension of the Soviet military withdrawal from Lushun refers to the
“Exchange of Notes Between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic
of China and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics Concerning the Extension of the Term for the Joint Use of the Naval Base
at Port Arthur, China” (September 15, 1952).
[3]
Deng Tuo was at the time Editor-in-Chief of the People’s Daily. Xiong Fu was at the
time Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee’s Propaganda Department
and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the People’s Daily.
[4]
The title of this editorial is “Developing the Powerful Forces of the Sino–Soviet
Alliance,” and it was published in the September 16, 1952 issue of the People’s
Daily.