Our Relations With All African People Are Good

OUR RELATIONS WITH ALL AFRICAN
PEOPLE ARE GOOD*
(May 1, 1963)
You are delegations from a friendly country and friendly government;
welcome. All African friends are welcomed by the Chinese people. Our
relations with people of all African countries are good, whether they are
independent or are fighting for and yet to win independence. There is now a
great revolutionary movement for national independence, against imperialism
and colonialism, going on in Africa. What's the population in Africa? Two
hundred million, I guess. There are another 200 million people in Latin
America, a billion and several hundred million in Asia, and other revolutionary
people all over the world. We have friends everywhere, so we are not isolated,
nor are you. Coming to China you may feel that you are most welcomed by
the Chinese people.
Yours is a very good party^ that maintains close links with the masses,
a disciplined party that takes anti-imperialism, anti-colonialism, and the
establishment of a national economy as its program, and a party that leads an
independent country. We feel very close to you. Our two countries, two parties
should help each other, support each other. You won't play tricks on us,
neither will we on you. Let us know if we have people doing bad things in
your country. For instance, if they look down on you, act self-important, or
have a chauvinistic attitude. Do we have such people? If we do, we'll take some
actions against them.
Are Chinese experts privileged and better paid than their Guinean
colleagues? (To Ye Jizhuang^ ) I'm afraid they are. You should check it up.
They should be treated equally, preferably lower. (Ye Jizhuang: Premier Zhou
is asking Comrade Fang Yi^ to check on it.)
Whoever acts like an overlord in your country, not abiding by your laws
and engaging in subversive activities, should be driven away. We hope to see
* These are excerpts from Mao Zedong's talks with the Guinean government economic
delegation and women's delegation.
you stand firm on your feet, not only politically, but also economically, not
to be toppled. We are happy to see you stand firm and will be unhappy if you
collapse, because your party is a revolutionary party and your government a
revolutionary government that has enormous influence in Africa. Work can
be done, through you, in many African countries, so as to secure their
liberation. You have the responsibility, too. Having won independence your
selves, you should not forget to care for others. This applies to us as well. We
should not forget to care for others just because we have won independence.
By caring for others I mean giving friendly support and friendly help. You
know, we still have difficulties, so the help we have given is not great. In five
or ten years' time we may be a bit better off, then we will be in a better
position to offer more help. China has a big shortcoming, too many people.
These people have to be fed and clothed. So we now have quite a few
difficulties, but these difficulties are not insurmountable; they can be over
come. We are now taking measures to overcome them. The Chinese economy
and culture are similar to yours in that they have developed from virtually no
legacy. You used to be a French colony, whereas we were the semicolony of
several countries.
Our circumstances are almost the same as yours, rather close, so we have
much in common. We don't feel that we bully you, or you us. We are all
colored people; none feels superior to others. Some Western countries are
trying to bully us. They think we are born incompetent, have no way out, and
are destined to oppression by imperialists for thousands of years. They think
that we are unable to administer our country and develop industry, unable to
feed and clothe ourselves, and that our science and culture are backward. But
why don't they think of who is to blame? It is they who caused the low level
of our economic and cultural development. It is they who in the past
administered our countries for us. The British said that it was all right for you
to administer, but you should learn first—for how many years? Just take your
time. But you didn't take your time; you seized political power all at once.
We, too, must learn after getting state power. Slowly we shall learn to
administer. If we make mistakes, just correct them. Is it only we who make
mistakes and not Western countries? They make even greater mistakes. They
made the mistake of counterrevolution. We are not fundamentally mistaken.
We are waging revolution. Without industry we can gradually develop it;
without modern agriculture we can gradually develop modern agriculture. Our
science and culture will be upgraded year by year.
(From the verbatim record)