Mao Zedong (hereinafter referred to as Mao): China is similar to you African countries.
Imperialism all over the world oppresses us. Now we also call the Soviet Union imperialist
because it also oppresses us.
Zhou Enlai (hereinafter referred to as Zhou): We call it social imperialism because Lenin said
that what is cloaked in socialism is actually imperialism.
Mao: We hope that all of your African countries and regions will become independent one
by one. Secondly, unite, gradually. Even if you rush things, you won't be able to achieve
unification. We also hope for Latin America and all of Asia—except Japan—to achieve this.
Why is Japan excluded? It doesn't belong to the so-called Third World.
Mao: I don't know if our embassy has made any mistakes in African countries, and I don't
know what neo-colonialism is. If the Chinese act as hegemons in your country, in any
independent African country, and think they are so great, then this attitude is wrong. The
second question is, what is neo-colonialism? I'm not quite sure.
Zhou: It's like American imperialism, which doesn't have colonies but does have privileges.
Actually, the Soviet Union was similar, but it didn't directly rule like the communists. If
communism doesn't support the world's people's revolution, is it still a communist party? I
said, you (referring to Ngouabi) should also adopt this attitude, that is, stand on the side of
the people of all countries.
Ngouabi (hereinafter referred to as Ngouabi): That's right.
Mao: In short, we should favour a government that represents the majority. If we favour a
government that represents the minority, that's not quite right. Sometimes, we have to do
this in foreign policy. For example, American imperialism is a minority ruling the majority,
hence the name imperialism. But we interact with it because right now, the left is good, but
it has no power. The centre also has no power. It's the right, the most anti-communist Nixon,
who has power.
Mao: Don't believe that the world is peaceful right now.
Zhou: The world is in chaos. Chairman Mao often described it as chaos.
Mao: The current situation is like "a storm brewing." But the storm hasn't arrived yet. But
the wind has come, and it's coming hard! I wonder how you Africans feel about this?
Zhou: We must remain vigilant, because there's a superficial peace now, but it's not really
that way. Everyone talks about "security," but it's just a superficial appearance. That's why
we are skeptical about world peace.



Mao: We don’t believe in “peace” or “security” at all.

[1] This is part of a conversation between Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and President Ngouabi of
the People's Republic of Congo.