Welcome.
We will be friends, good friends.
You are not communists, and I am not of your party; we oppose capitalism, and you perhaps oppose communism.
But, we can still cooperate.
Between us there are two fundamental common points: First, to oppose the big powers bullying us.
That is to say, not to allow any big power in the world to shit and piss on our heads.
I am speaking very crudely.
Whether it be a big capitalist power or a big socialist power, if anyone wants to control us, to oppose us, we will not permit it.
Your country's capital is greater than ours, you have already manufactured atomic bombs, perhaps they are already in mass production? I do not oppose your producing atomic bombs.
Great quantities of atomic bombs are in the United States, in the Soviet Union, and they often wave them around in their hands to frighten people.
Second, to have commercial and cultural exchanges between our two countries.
I hope you will also oppose any embargo on strategic materials.
What is sold to us now are only some civilian goods, strategic materials are still not sold, the United States does not allow them to be sold.
I say, one day this gap will be broken through.
Like petroleum, because it is a strategic material, you are still not allowed to do business with it.
Grain, we have already done business, because it is not a strategic material.
Britain sold us some airplanes, you can also do this business.
Why can't some business be done in ordinary arms? The United States frightens some countries, not letting them do business with us.
The United States is a paper tiger, you must not believe it, it can be punctured with a single poke.
The Soviet Union is also a paper tiger.
We do not believe in their ways, I am not superstitious.
Perhaps you are theists, I am an atheist, I fear nothing.
For big powers to come and control our country, that will not do.
France is a small country, China is a small country, only the United States and the Soviet Union are big countries, must everything be done according to them, must one go on a "pilgrimage" to them? In the past, we also did as they said, that was during Stalin's time.
In 1957, I went to Moscow once.
At that time, the Soviet Union was not yet openly opposing us.
Now I don't go, because it has torn up a large number of contracts, does not keep its word, openly opposes us, and coordinates with the United States to do so.
This is very good, I approve of it very much.
For big powers like the United States and the Soviet Union to oppose us, there must be some reason, and we must have something that is worth their opposition.
Now, Sihanouk〔2〕 no longer falls for the American tricks.
The country of Cambodia has only a little over five million people, but it dares to struggle against the United States.
You can cooperate with us in Asia, to stand up to the United States.
The United States is unpopular everywhere.
On the twenty-sixth of this month, more than one million people in Japan demonstrated against the United States.
I once spoke with your former Prime Minister, Mr. Faure, and I hope you will do a good job in Europe, for example, to separate countries like Britain, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, etc., from the United States, and bring them closer to you.
Didn't you say you want to establish a "Third World"? A "Third World" with only France, that won't do, it's too small, you must unite all of Europe.
Britain, I think, will change one day.
The Americans are not so polite to the British either.
In the East, you can work on Japan.
If Britain can be won over, from London and Paris in Europe to China and Japan, the "Third World" can be expanded.
You must not learn from Britain's attitude on the Taiwan issue.
We have only one disagreement with Britain, which is that it is not definite about the status of Taiwan.
First, Britain recognizes the People's Republic of China, not Taiwan, this is good; second, Britain now votes for us in the United Nations, this is also good; third, Britain, along with the United States, engages in "two Chinas," on this point it shows that it is an agent of the United States.
We have had diplomatic relations with Britain for more than ten years, and like you, it wants us to send an ambassador and it will send an ambassador.
We say no, we can go on for another fifteen years, or even several decades, we will not send an ambassador.
If we cannot enter the United Nations, that doesn't matter either.
We have survived for fifteen years without entering the United Nations, and if we let "Generalissimo" Jiang Jieshi stay in the United Nations for another fifteen, thirty, or a hundred years, we will still survive.
To ask us to recognize "two Chinas" or "one and a half Chinas," that will not do.
If you want to send an ambassador, send one, don't be like Britain, which after more than ten years, still has only a chargé d'affaires, don't fall into the American trap.
If this point is not made clear, we will not accept your ambassador, and we will not send an ambassador to you, let's be clear about this beforehand.
When I met Mr. Faure, I also made this issue clear to him.
Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement, and we have also notified you in Switzerland and reached an agreement.
Do you have any coded communications with your country? It is inconvenient to travel abroad without coded communications.
You must distinguish yourselves from Britain, you must speak clearly and straightforwardly.
I am a military man, I fought for twenty-two years, General de Gaulle〔3〕 is also a military man, we should not speak in a roundabout way, we should not engage in diplomatic maneuvering.
France is no longer the France of Hitler〔4〕, and our China is no longer the China of Japan.
In the past, from Beijing to Nanjing, more than half of China was forcibly occupied by Japan.
After the Japanese were driven out, the Americans came, and we drove out the Americans and Jiang Jieshi.
At that time, we had nothing, no airplanes, no tanks, and certainly no atomic bombs.
We just had some rifles, hand grenades, and light artillery.
We thank the Americans for transporting a batch of heavy artillery for us, and the transport captain was Jiang Jieshi.
We had no arsenals, and no foreign aid whatsoever.
Have you not been to our small place—Yan'an? It is very backward there, with only agriculture and a little bit of handicraft industry.
At that time, we said that the United States and Jiang Jieshi were paper tigers.
We also said that Hitler was a paper tiger, he collapsed in the end, didn't he, he died, didn't he.
Now we say there are two big paper tigers, namely the United States and the Soviet Union.
We will see in the future whether what I say is accurate or not.
Please remember, I told the French parliamentary delegation that they are big paper tigers, but this does not include the broad masses of the Soviet people, the broad masses of Soviet party members and cadres, they are friendly to us, and a part of the American people have been deceived, one day they will be friendly with us.
The so-called paper tiger means that the United States and the Soviet Union are divorced from the masses.
In those years, Hitler occupied almost the whole of Europe, what great power! You have all experienced this.
As for general and complete disarmament, do you believe it? There is no such thing, now it is general and complete arms expansion.
It is possible to reduce some infantry, and use the money saved to make atomic bombs.
You, France, can already detonate an atomic bomb.
We are one step behind you, our atomic bomb has not yet been detonated, but one day it will be.
There is another point we have in common with you, the so-called three-power treaty〔5〕, we will not participate in it.
That is a kind of deception, blackmail, it is to suppress us, only allowing them to have it, and not allowing us to have it.
Our two countries did not exchange views on this beforehand, you did not participate, and we did not participate either.
Some people in Asian countries oppose your coming to Asia to support Sihanouk; as for South Vietnam, they only allow the United States to occupy it, and do not let you come to help.
The U.S. Secretary of State Rusk said in Tokyo that General de Gaulle wanted to enter Asia with an olive branch, but failed to do so.
The United States holds an olive branch in one hand and a sword in the other, it has been fighting in South Vietnam for several years, and the more it fights, the more the people's struggle develops.
Its sword killed two people there, one named Ngo Dinh Diem〔6〕, and one named Ngo Dinh Nhu, the method was very vicious.
I think you are not happy about it either, are you? Why do such things! The so-called new government that has been propped up now is still no good, America's policy is too wrong.
We have a saying in Sichuan province in China, which is called trying to press down ten fleas with ten fingers, you can't catch a single one.
Our two sides can also work on Japan.
Japan will one day drive the Americans away.
I am not only referring to the Japanese Communist Party, but also to the big capitalists of Japan, now some big capitalists in Japan are very uncomfortable with the United States.
The British problem is a bit more troublesome, it would be good if one day it stops being an agent of the United States.
We do not oppose your being on good terms with the United States, for you, it is also both unity and struggle.
After the Taiwan issue is resolved, we will restore diplomatic relations with the United States.
Even if diplomatic relations are restored, if the United States still interferes and controls everywhere as it does today, we will still oppose it.
We demand that U.S. imperialism get out of Asia, get out of Africa, get out of Latin America, get out of Europe.
Europe is the Europe of the Europeans, what are the Americans doing there? There is a member of the House of Lords in Britain, Marshal Montgomery〔7〕, who opposes the American domination in the North Atlantic Treaty〔8〕.
He opposes Canada's relationship with the United States being too close.
That time I told him to go and see General de Gaulle.
That was in 1961 during his second visit to China, probably he did not go, he is a Conservative.
I asked him, are you the only one who holds this opinion? He said, no, there are others.
He is firmly opposed to American domination in Europe, he is not a Communist Party member.

Published according to the "Selected Diplomatic Works of Mao Zedong," published by the Central Literature Publishing House and the World Knowledge Publishing House in 1994.
Notes
〔1〕This is Mao Zedong's conversation with a French parliamentary delegation.
〔2〕Sihanouk, i.e., Norodom Sihanouk, born in 1922, was then the Head of State of Cambodia.
〔3〕De Gaulle was then the President of France. During the Second World War, he led the French resistance movement against the armed occupation by fascist Germany.
〔4〕Hitler (1889-1945), German fascist leader, head of the Nazi Party. In 1933, with the support of the German monopoly bourgeoisie, he became Chancellor. After the death of President Hindenburg the following year, he proclaimed himself Head of State, implemented fascist rule, and actively expanded the military for war. In September 1939, he sent German troops to invade Poland, provoking the Second World War; in June 1941, he launched a major offensive against the Soviet Union. In April 1945, he committed suicide during the Soviet liberation of Berlin.
〔5〕Refers to the "Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapon Tests in the Atmosphere, in Outer Space and Under Water" signed in Moscow on August 5, 1963, by the three sponsoring countries: the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom.
〔6〕Ngo Dinh Diem (1901-1963), former President, Prime Minister, and Minister of Defense of the "Republic of Vietnam." On November 1, 1963, in a military coup planned by the United States, he was killed along with his brother Ngo Dinh Nhu.
〔7〕Montgomery, see note 〔1〕 on page 193 of this volume.
〔8〕Refers to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. In April 1949, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Iceland, and Canada signed the "North Atlantic Treaty" in Washington. The treaty came into effect on August 24 of the same year, and the North Atlantic Treaty military bloc was established. Greece and Turkey in 1952, the Federal Republic of Germany in 1955, Spain in 1982, and Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary in 1999, formally joined the organization.