Instructions and Reply Letter Regarding Comrade Foster's[1] Letter
(January 11 and 17, 1959)
Comrades Shaoqi, Xiaoping, Qiaomu[2]: Read and forward to Comrade Wang Jiaxiang[3] for handling.
May proceed according to Comrade Xiaoping's opinion[4]. Some textual revisions[5] have been made to the reply letter.
Mao Zedong
January 11

[1] Foster, one of the founders of the Communist Party of the United States. At the time, he served as Honorary Chairman of the Communist Party of the United States.
[2] Xiaoping, i.e., Deng Xiaoping, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Qiaomu, i.e., Hu Qiaomu, then Alternate Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and secretary to Mao Zedong.
[3] Wang Jiaxiang, then Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Head of the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee.
[4] On January 10, 1959, Deng Xiaoping wrote the following instruction on the request for instructions report from the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China concerning the public release of Foster's letter: "I agree that the letter be published in 'Hongqi' (Red Flag), and the Chairman's reply letter, in addition to being sent as an open telegram, may also be published simultaneously in 'Hongqi'." Foster's letter and Mao Zedong's reply letter were both later published in the third issue of the 1959 journal "Hongqi" (Red Flag), and were carried in the "Renmin Ribao" (People's Daily) on February 2, 1959.
[5] When reviewing the draft reply letter prepared by the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong mainly made some revisions to its third paragraph.