Press Release of a Speech [I]
(September 8, 1958)
At today's meeting, Chairman Mao Zedong spoke.
Chairman Mao Zedong said that the current situation is favorable to the people of the world who are striving for peace. When speaking on the international situation, the Chairman said that U.S. imperialism has for nine years occupied our country's territory of Taiwan, and not long ago dispatched its armed forces to occupy Lebanon. The United States has established several hundred military bases in many countries throughout the world. China's territory Taiwan, Lebanon, and all U.S. military bases in foreign countries are all nooses around the neck of U.S. imperialism. It is not others but the Americans themselves who have made these nooses and put them around their own necks, and they have handed the other end of the nooses to the Chinese people, the peoples of the Arab countries, and all the peace-loving and anti-aggression peoples of the world. The longer the U.S. aggressors stay in these places, the tighter the nooses around their heads will become.


Chairman Mao Zedong also said that U.S. imperialism is creating tensions everywhere in the world in order to achieve its objective of aggression against and enslavement of the peoples of all countries. U.S. imperialism thinks that tense situations are always beneficial to itself, but the fact is that these tense situations created by the United States have moved toward the opposite of what the Americans wish for; they have served the function of mobilizing the people of the whole world to rise up against the American aggressors. Chairman Mao said that if the U.S. monopoly capitalist clique insists on pushing its policy of aggression and war, it is bound to be hanged by the people of the whole world one day. The other U.S. accomplices will also be so.


When speaking on the domestic situation, Chairman Mao Zedong pointed out: After the great all-people rectification movement, a scene of vigorous prosperity has appeared everywhere in the country. In agriculture, industry, culture and education, as well as in other undertakings of construction, a situation of a great leap forward has taken shape. Due to the common efforts of the people of the whole country under the leadership of the Communist Party, the speed of our country's socialist construction has been greatly accelerated. Chairman Mao said that in view of the ever-increasing pressure on industry from the leap-forward development of agricultural production, and also in view of the fact that there is already a relatively stable foundation and relatively mature experience in agricultural production and rural work, the center of gravity of our leadership work needs to be shifted in a timely manner from agriculture and rural work to industrial construction. The leading organs at the central and provincial levels must grasp industry with one hand and agriculture with the other, and from now on, the focus must be placed on industry. In industry, we must first of all firmly grasp the iron and steel industry and the machine-building industry, because this is the foundation for realizing our country's industrialization, agricultural mechanization, and the strengthening of national defense power. Chairman Mao also said that agriculture and rural work cannot be relaxed; agricultural production must continue to develop greatly next year. Regarding the movement to establish people's communes, which is currently unfolding vigorously throughout the country, Chairman Mao said that an attitude of enthusiastic welcome must be adopted and leadership actively strengthened.


Chairman Mao Zedong placed hope in the upcoming ambassadorial-level representative talks between China and the United States in Warsaw[l]. He said: If both sides have the sincerity to resolve the problems, the talks may achieve some results. Now the people of the whole world are watching the talks that the representatives of the two countries are about to conduct.

--- Notes

[I] Before this press release was published, it was sent to Mao Zedong for review, and Mao Zedong made revisions.
[l] Refers to the Sino-U.S. Ambassadorial Talks. On April 23, 1955, Zhou Enlai declared at the meeting of the heads of the eight-nation delegations to the Asian-African Conference: The Chinese government is willing to sit down and negotiate with the U.S. government to discuss the issue of easing tensions in the Far East, especially the issue of easing tensions in the Taiwan region. On July 25 of the same year, China and the United States reached an agreement on ambassadorial-level talks, and the first meeting was held in Geneva on August 1. Thereafter, due to obstruction by the U.S. side, the meetings were often sabotaged and interrupted, and they continued after the shelling of Jinmen began. In September 1958, the talks were moved to Warsaw. Up to February 20, 1970, a total of 136 Sino-U.S. Ambassadorial Talks were held.