A Message to Be Passed On to Khrushchev\[1\]
(January 13, 1960)

Thank you for the notification in your letter of January 8, 1960, regarding the Soviet Union’s readiness to unilaterally declare a reduction of 1.2 million personnel from the Soviet armed forces within the next one and a half to two years. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China supports this step taken by the Soviet Union, which is beneficial to the struggle for world peace and against the imperialist arms expansion and war preparations. We also concur with the assessment in your letter that the imperialist camp is still far from abandoning its arrogant schemes to launch wars against the socialist countries, and that it is therefore necessary to continue vigorously strengthening the defense of the socialist camp, exposing the imperialist war schemes, educating the peoples of the socialist countries with a high degree of vigilance, and consolidating and developing fraternal cooperation among the socialist countries.

January 13, 1960

\[1\] This passage is excerpted from the transcript of a conversation between Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Xiuquan and the Soviet Ambassador to China on the evening of January 13, 1960. The transcript also contains the following passage: “I have already delivered Comrade Khrushchev’s letter to Chairman Mao Zedong. Chairman Mao has just instructed me by telephone to convey the following passage to the Comrade Ambassador and requests that you immediately pass it on to Comrade Khrushchev.” Khrushchev was then serving as First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.