To Comrade Chen Yi:

This critical document is well written and deserves the attention of all overseas institutions. A thorough revolutionary transformation is needed; otherwise, the situation could become very dangerous. We might start with Vienna. Please make your own decision.

Mao Zedong
September 9, 1966

Please have the Chairman review the letter signed by “Comrades of the Austrian ‘Red Flag’ Faction.”

Chen Yi
September 9, 1966

(Enclosed is a letter signed “Comrades of the Austrian ‘Red Flag’ Faction”)

Dear Comrades:

We have read with great appreciation reports detailing the heroic actions of the Red Guards in supporting your great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. This historic revolution, founded on the wisdom of our great leader Mao Zedong, serves as an inspiration to those of us dedicated to the eradication of the bourgeois way of life and bourgeois society. However, we feel it necessary to draw your attention to something particularly troubling: the stark contrast between your revolutionary struggle at home and the conspicuously bourgeois conduct and capitalist lifestyle displayed by your commercial representatives in Vienna. Judging from their attire, it would be extremely difficult—if not impossible—to distinguish them from Chiang Kai-shek’s lackeys. Exquisite white silk shirts and expensive suits are altogether incompatible with the identity of advanced working-class representatives. Moreover, do these representatives really need not one, but two “Leyland–Mercedes” automobiles—vehicles that can almost be regarded as symbols of capitalist exploiters? The whispers and ridicule this glaring disparity has provoked among Viennese citizens have been deeply distressing to hear. Such bourgeois behavior not only undermines our communist cause but also casts a negative shadow over the great Proletarian Cultural Revolution itself. With utmost respect and urgency, we urge you to report this matter to the relevant authorities and take immediate corrective action.

Fraternal greetings,

Comrades of the Austrian “Red Flag” Faction (2-0005)
Vienna, August 30, 1966