Opinion on the Revision of a Speech Draft[I]
(October 20, 1953)

Comrade Li Kenong, and inform Premier Kim and Commander Peng[2]:

Your telegram of 19:30 on October 19 and its attachments have all been noted. Attachment[3] should be revised as follows before publication:

The passage from
“Your side has further dispatched special agents of the remnant reactionary Kuomintang, who have long persecuted our captured personnel in your prisoner-of-war camps”
to
“is utterly despicable in the extreme”
is to be changed to:

“Your side has further dispatched special agents of the remnant reactionary Kuomintang, who have long persecuted our captured personnel in your prisoner-of-war camps, to act as your side’s representatives and military interpreters, appearing inside the explanation tents and openly violating many provisions of the terms of reference and the detailed rules for explanation and repatriation work, carrying out open and direct interference in the explanation work in order to threaten our captured personnel and prevent them from daring to apply for repatriation. It must be emphasized that the remnant reactionary Kuomintang clique does not belong in any way to one of the belligerent parties in Korea. In the past, your side has already used the special agent saboteurs of this remnant bandit clique to carry out all kinds of brutal persecution against our captured personnel in your prisoner-of-war camps in order to achieve the aim of forcibly detaining prisoners of war. Now your side has gone so far as to openly dispatch these special agent saboteurs to act as your side’s official representatives entering the explanation premises, to obstruct and undermine the implementation of the explanation rules, threaten our captured personnel, and thereby forcibly detain them. This thoroughly proves that after your side’s criminal conspiracy of forcibly detaining prisoners of war has already been exposed to the world, you do not hesitate to completely destroy all principles of international public law and openly use bandit special agent saboteurs to carry out sabotage activities as your side’s principal means of handling international affairs. This is something that all just humanity cannot tolerate.”

The final sentence of the protest is to be changed to: “In response to this, I lodge the strongest protest with your side and firmly demand that your side immediately cease the above-mentioned flagrant, illegal, and criminal acts that undermine international public law and violate the agreements!”

Mao Zedong
October 20, 1953

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[I] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong to Li Kenong, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central People’s Government and head of the Chinese People’s Volunteers delegation to the Korean Military Armistice Commission.
[2] Premier Kim refers to Kim Il Sung, then Premier of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Commander Peng refers to Peng Dehuai, then Commander and Political Commissar of the Chinese People’s Volunteers.
[3] Refers to the protest draft prepared by Li Sang-jo, Chief Delegate of the Korean-Chinese Armistice Delegation to the Korean Military Armistice Commission, to be delivered at the Military Armistice Commission.