Telegram Regarding the State Chairmanship to Huan Xiang[1]
(July 31, 1958)
To Comrade Huan Xiang at the Embassy in Britain:
I have read your telegram of June 20 to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The matter of resignation that was conveyed is true.
I am determined to resign from the post of State Chairman. Comrades from the Center and from the provinces and municipalities all believe this to be advantageous. This is now being communicated to cadres at the prefecture, county, district, and township levels, and debates are being launched, so as to avoid appearing sudden when the time comes. The domestic democratic parties have been notified and this has been under deliberation for more than a year. Among foreigners in China, I have also spoken with the female Japanese, Soviet, and new envoys, as well as the former Indian Ambassador Nehru and others. I ask that you, through a Xinhua News Agency reporter, find opportunities to gradually release a bit of air among London journalists. It must be unofficial, put forth in the manner of a casual chat. Through a British Communist Party reporter might be even better. Gradually make it so that people do not treat it as a rumor, but as a fact.
Mao Zedong
July 31

Read and dispatched by Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Lin, Chen, Deng.[1]
[1]
Huan Xiang, at the time serving as chargé d'affaires of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom.
[1]
Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Zhu refers to Zhu De. Lin refers to Lin Biao, at the time Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Committee. Chen refers to Chen Yun, at the time Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Committee. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, at the time General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee.