Telegram to Huan Xiang[1] Regarding Opportunely Disclosing Mao Zedong’s Preparation to Resign from the Post of State Chairman
(July 31, 1958)

I

To be sent to the Embassy in Britain
·
Comrade Huan Xiang:
I have read the telegram you sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 20. The matter of resignation that has been rumored is true. I am determined to resign from the post of State Chairman; comrades at the central, provincial, and municipal levels all believe it to be advantageous. This is now being communicated to cadres at the prefecture, county, district, and township levels, and debates are being unfolded, so as to avoid appearing sudden when the time comes. The democratic parties within the country have been notified and have been deliberating for over a year. Foreigners in China, such as the new Soviet ambassador and the former Indian ambassador Nehru, have also been spoken to. I ask that you, through the Xinhua News Agency correspondents, opportunely and gradually release some feelers among the journalists in London. It must be unofficial, put forth in the manner of a casual chat. Through a British Communist Party journalist might be even better. Gradually make it so that people do not take it as a rumor, but as a fact.

Mao Zedong
July 31

Published based on the manuscript.

II

For Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Lin, Chen, Deng[2] to read and dispatch.

Published based on Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

--- Notes

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