Comments and Revisions on the Draft Communiqué

(March 27, 1959)

Comrades Shaoqi and Xiaoping:

The news communiqué has been revised. Please convene the Standing Committee members and a few other comrades this morning to review it and refine the wording. Then, have Wu Lengxi, together with the government decree [2] and the military region proclamation [3], transmit them by telephone to Beijing, translate them into Tibetan and foreign languages, and prepare to broadcast them in Chinese, Tibetan, English, and Russian on March 28, with publication in newspapers on the 29th. The government decree should clearly indicate the time of issuance (the 27th). Both the decree and the communiqué contain names that must be verified and filled in.

Mao Zedong
3:00 a.m., March 27

[1] For Mao Zedong’s revisions to the draft of the *Xinhua News Agency Communiqué on the Rebellion in Tibet*, see sections two through five of this document, where the text printed in Song typeface represents Mao’s additions and rewrites.
[2] Refers to the draft of the *Order of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China*, later published in *Renmin Ribao* on March 29, 1959.
[3] Refers to the *Proclamation of the Tibet Military Region of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army*, signed on March 20, 1956, by Commander Zhang Guohua, Political Commissar Tan Guansan, and others of the Tibet Military Region of the PLA. It was later published in *Renmin Ribao* on March 29, 1959.

II

In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Central People’s Government has always upheld unity among all ethnic groups within the country and unity among the Tibetan people themselves, and has implemented regional ethnic autonomy in Tibet, which has been warmly welcomed by the Tibetan people. The Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region was established as early as April 1956. However, due to obstruction by reactionary elements within the local Tibetan government, little progress has been made in the preparatory work for the autonomous region. The 17-Article Agreement [1] stipulated that the Tibetan army should be reorganized and that Tibet’s social system, namely the serfdom system, should be reformed in accordance with the people’s wishes. These two important tasks have not been realized because of obstruction by reactionary elements. In order to wait for these reactionary elements to awaken, the Central Government informed them as early as the end of 1956 that within six years—that is, during the Second Five-Year Plan period—reforms would not be carried out, nor would the Tibetan army be reorganized.

III

In the spirit of ethnic unity, the Central Government has repeatedly instructed the local Tibetan government to take responsibility for punishing the rebels and maintaining public order. However, the local Tibetan government and the upper-class reactionary clique have regarded this attitude of the Central Government, which has shown the utmost patience and consideration, as a sign of weakness to be exploited. They say: The Han people can be frightened away; for nine years, the Han have not dared to touch even a hair of our most beautiful and sacred serfdom system; when we attack them, they can only parry and have no strength to strike back; they dare not suppress the rebellion and only demand that we take responsibility for doing so; as long as we bring in a large number of rebel armed forces from other areas to Lhasa and strike a blow, the Han will surely flee; if they do not flee, we will carry the Dalai Lama [1] off to the southern mountains, gather our forces, launch a counterattack, and recapture Lhasa; if that fails in the end, we will flee to India; India sympathizes with us and may provide aid; there is also the powerful United States, which may also help; President Chiang of Taiwan has already given active assistance; the Dalai is a god—who dares disobey him? The Americans have said that the people’s communes in China have aroused the wrath of heaven and the resentment of the people, that everyone is about to rebel, and that now is the perfect opportunity to drive out the Han and establish independence; and so on and so forth. The souls of these reactionaries have already soared beyond the highest heavens, as if they are about to rule the entire universe. Consequently, far from taking responsibility for stopping the harassment by the rebel bandits, they have intensified their efforts and are actively engaged in conspiratorial activities to betray the country.

IV

The Chinese Government holds that the relations between China and its southwestern neighbors, first and foremost the relations between our country and the great and friendly Republic of India, are based on adherence to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence were first put forward in the Agreement on Trade and Intercourse Between the Tibet Region of China and India signed by China and India on April 29, 1954. Now and in the future, for the fundamental interests of both countries, neither side has any reason not to uphold these principles to the end. Personages of the Chinese Government welcome the statement made by Indian Prime Minister Mr. Nehru on March 23 regarding non-interference in China’s internal affairs and consider this statement to be friendly. The Chinese side has never interfered in India’s internal affairs, nor has it discussed India’s internal affairs at the National People’s Congress or its Standing Committee, and it holds that such discussion of the internal affairs of a friendly country is impolite and inappropriate.

[1] The Dalai Lama, namely Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, was one of the former religious and political leaders of the Tibet region. He once served as Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, Chairman of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region, and Honorary President of the Buddhist Association of China. In March 1959, when the upper-class reactionary clique in Tibet launched an armed rebellion, he fled to India.