Reply to Ambassador of the Confederation of Switzerland
(April 22, 1957)

Source: Kau & Leung, The Writings of Mao Zedong 1949-1976, Vol. II
Pages 503-503
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Reply to Ambassador of the Confederation of Switzerland
(April 22, 1957)

Source: RMRB (April 23, 1957), 1. Other Chinese Text: XHBYK, 108 (May 25,
1957), 63. Available English Translation: NCNA, Daily News Release (April 23,
1957), 6.

Fernand Bernoulli had been minister of the Confederation of Switzerland to the PRC since
September 13,1954. At this time, the status of his legation was upgraded to ambassadorial
rank.

Mr. Ambassador:

I am very happy to receive the letter of credence from the Federal Council of
Switzerland that you have presented and thank you for the greetings that you have
conveyed to the people of the People’s Republic of China and to me from the
President of the Confederation of Switzerland.

The Chinese people have always borne a friendly feeling toward the Swiss
people. The Chinese people and government have always valued the contribution
which Switzerland, as a permanently neutral state with a long historical tradition,
has made to the defense of peace.
--- Notes

32. Here again the Japanese text is very elusive. The translation is the best approximation
of what it might have meant.

33. This refers to the contradictions in opinion with regard to the Hundred Flowers
Campaign in China since late 1956. See text Jan. 27, 1957(1), and text Feb. 27, 1957.

34. See text April 16, 1957.

35. Here Mao is referring to, and discussing at some length, the proposition that class
struggle, as a particular stage and form of the socialist revolution, had basically come to an
end. This proposition was made at the Eighth Congress of the CPC in 1956. See texts Feb.
27, 1957, source note; text Mar. 17, 1957(2), source note; text Mar. 18, 1957; and text Mar.
20, 1957(1), source note and note 7. It should be noted that this is probably the first time
that Mao brought this subject into a discussion with “foreigners.”

36. See text Feb. 27, 1957, section 1.

37. See text Feb. 27, 1957, note 22.

38. This appears to be an unusual manner of expressing the slogan that is conventionally
rendered as “unity-criticism-unity.” In the absence of a Chinese version of this conversation,
it is impossible to ascertain if Mao made this semantic deviation himself, or if the deviation
occurred in the translation to Japanese. See preceding note.

39. See text Autumn 1956, note 1.

40. For democratic parties, see text Sept. 21, 1949, vol. I, note 1; the “coming together”
that Mao speaks of here is the goal and responsibility of the United Front Department; see
text Feb. 18, 1951, vol. I, note 13.