Telegram of Congratulations from Mao Zedong et al. on the Nineteenth Anniversary of the Liberation of Czechoslovakia (May 8, 1964)

To Comrade Antonín Novotný, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and President of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic; to Comrade Josef Lenárt, Prime Minister of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic; and to Comrade Zdeněk Fierlinger, Chairman of the National Assembly of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic:

On the occasion of the nineteenth anniversary of the liberation of Czechoslovakia, we wish to extend our warmest congratulations to you and to the fraternal people of Czechoslovakia. The peoples of China and Czechoslovakia have forged a profound friendship through their long revolutionary struggles and their common endeavor in socialist construction. It is the shared aspiration of our two peoples to safeguard and strengthen this friendship.

The Chinese people will, as always, on the basis of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism, and in accordance with the revolutionary principles set forth in the 1957 Declaration and the 1960 Statement, continue to strive for the consolidation of the friendship and solidarity between our two peoples, for the strengthening of the unity of the socialist camp, and for the struggle against the imperialists’ policies of aggression and war, so as to defend world peace.

We wish the people of Czechoslovakia new successes in their socialist construction, and we hope that the friendship between the peoples of China and Czechoslovakia will be further consolidated and developed.

Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China  Liu Shaoqi, President of the People’s Republic of China  Zhu De, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China  Zhou Enlai, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China

May 8, 1964  Printed from the People’s Daily, May 9, 1964.