Chapter 16 On the Tibet issue and the Taiwan issue[1]

(May 10, 1959) We have two unresolved issues, the Tibet issue and the Taiwan issue.Now start to solve the Tibet issue.The area of ​​Tibet is not small, with 1.2 million square kilometers, which is equivalent to twelve GDRs.But the population of Tibet is only 1.2 million.Some people ask why the Chinese Communist Party has not resolved the Tibet issue for a long time. This is mainly because our party had little contact with Tibetans in the past, and we intentionally postponed social reform in Tibet.The verbal agreement we reached with the Dalai Lama[2] in the past was that after 1962 we would carry out democratic reforms in Tibet.It is too early and the conditions are not ripe, which is also related to the serfdom in Tibet.Ninety-five percent of the working people in Tibet and five percent are exploiters, which means that 60,000 people are exploiters.We have to divide them and fight for a part.Now the conditions are ripe, don't wait until 1963.This is thanks to Nehru[3] and Tibetan rebels.Their armed rebellion gives us a reason to carry out reforms in Tibet now.The insurgents took up guns and beat us so that we could see who was on our side and who was rebelling.

The entire Tibetan population is not 1.2 million, but 3 million.1.2 million are in Tibet, and 1.8 million are distributed in western Sichuan, southern Gansu, Yunnan and northern Qinghai.Among the 1.8 million people, there was also a rebellion. We have suppressed the rebellion, and now we have basically solved the problem.Foreigners armed the reactionary Tibetan rulers, and many lamaseries were once the bases of the rebels.Now in this area where 1.8 million Tibetans live in concentrated communities, a party organization has been established, land reform has been carried out, serfs have been liberated, and agricultural production cooperatives have been established.In the past lamas did not participate in the production, but now 90% of the lamas participate in the production.The people organized armed self-defense forces.

Now that the Tibet issue is easily resolved, the first step is the democratic revolution, distributing the land of the serf owners to the serfs, and the second step is to organize cooperatives.About 10,000 of the 60,000 serf owners have fled to India, and the rest can be divided into three factions: the left, the center, and the right. We will treat them differently according to their different political attitudes.For some, it depends on what they are, and we can observe them in the struggle.In short, we must win over the majority and make them support the reform. We have established party organizations in the villages and cities of Tibet.The Tibetan people are very nice and hardworking. Together with the People's Liberation Army to fight against the rebels, they can be organized very quickly.We have trained nearly 10,000 Tibetan cadres.Over the past ten years, we have trained young Tibetan cadres who have learned Chinese.Cadres of the Han nationality working in Tibet also learned Tibetan.In Tibet, Marxist-Leninists and laborers can cooperate, and cooperate very well.

Now let's talk about the Taiwan issue. The Taiwan issue cannot be resolved for the time being. The problem is occupied by the United States. The people of Taiwan don't like Americans very much, and they don't like Chiang Kai-shek either.But is it better to want Chiang Kai-shek, or not to have him? Now he is better, he is a pro-American faction, but he still wants to rule by himself.Another group of people are also pro-American, but want to completely surrender to the United States. A specific question now is whether Chiang Kai-shek will still be president next year.America doesn't want him to do it, but we think he should.He wants to have his own army.You know, on May 24, 1957, the people of Taiwan smashed the US "embassy"[4].The Americans suspected that Chiang Kai-shek's son, Chiang Ching-kuo, did it. They believed that Chiang Ching-kuo could not be trusted because he lived in the Soviet Union for more than ten years and married a Soviet wife.

Last year, when we fought in Jinmen [5], there was no American army there, but only a working group from the United States, with more than a dozen people.This place does not have a treaty relationship with the United States, while Taiwan does have a treaty relationship with the United States[6].We hit the Golden Gate is a civil war issue.The policy of Dulles[7] was to keep us from fighting with Chiang Kai-shek.We said, you don't care, this is our place in China, and whether we fight or not is our business, so don't worry about it; we have only one relationship with you, the United States, and that is to ask you to withdraw your troops from Taiwan.It is precisely because of this that we negotiated with the United States in Geneva and Warsaw[8].The United States wants to sign a statement that Chiang Kai-shek will not fight us, and we will not fight Chiang Kai-shek.We said no, the issue of gold, horses, Taiwan, and Penghu [9] is our internal affairs, and you have nothing to do with it. The only issue is asking you to move.

It seems that we have to continue talking with the United States.It doesn't approve of us, and we don't approve of it, for how long we don't know.It has been negotiated for three and a half years, and I am afraid it will be negotiated for another ten years. This is the longest negotiation in the world.Don't be afraid that we will attack Taiwan.We fight gold and horses to help Chiang Kai-shek, because the United States wants to give us gold and horses and occupy Taiwan by itself.We gave up gold and horses and gave them to Chiang Kai-shek.When Chiang Kai-shek is in trouble, we will fight for gold and horses, and the United States can let Chiang Kai-shek continue to be president.

The United States has a "marginal policy"[10], which is mainly thought up for the Taiwan issue.Last year we also adopted "brinkmanship".When we hit Jin, Ma and Chiang Kai-shek's reinforcement ships, Chiang Kai-shek asked the United States for help.The Americans were coming, but only twelve miles away.We only hit Chiang Kai-shek's ships, not American ships.The American ship raised the flag and told us not to hit it.The United States did not hit us with a single shot, nor did we hit it. So everyone is on the brink of war. The US Air Force is very disciplined, it always keeps a certain distance from our shores.Once we shot down an American plane because it crossed the border, but the United States kept silent and didn't want us to pay.The United States is a powerful country, and the territory it occupies is too wide. It can hold ten fleas with ten fingers and cannot move, nor can it catch a single flea.Once the power is dispersed, things will be difficult.

Published based on the transcript of the conversation kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is the main part of the conversation between Mao Zedong and the delegation of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic. [2] Dalai Lama, that is, Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso.See note [4] on page 46 of this volume. [3] Nehru, then Prime Minister of India. [4] On May 20, 1957, Reynolds, a U.S. soldier stationed in Taiwan, shot and killed Liu Ziran, a Chinese who passed by the U.S. military residence.On the 23rd, Renault was acquitted by a court-martial of the US military advisory group.On the 24th, tens of thousands of people in Taipei and other places held anti-American demonstrations and demanded that the murderer be punished.The demonstrators attacked and destroyed the US "Embassy" and the Information Office in Taiwan, and surrounded the headquarters of the US Military Advisory Group and the Taipei Police Station.

[5] See note [2] on page 23 of this volume. [6] Refers to the "Mutual Defense Treaty" signed by the US and Taiwan authorities.After the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, U.S. President Truman ordered the Seventh Fleet of his Navy to invade the Taiwan Strait while publicly declaring armed intervention in the Korean Civil War.In order to "legalize" its invasion of Chinese territory, the United States signed the Mutual Defense Treaty with the Taiwan authorities on December 2, 1954.The treaty stipulates: the United States helps the Taiwan authorities maintain and develop the armed forces; when Taiwan is "armedly attacked", "the United States will take action" to deal with "common dangers"; the United States has deployed land, sea, The rights of the air force can also be extended to "other territories" determined by mutual agreement.The treaty entered into force on March 3, 1955.On December 15, 1978, the US government issued a statement on the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China, announcing that the US-Taiwan Mutual Defense Treaty would be terminated.The treaty was formally abolished on January 1, 1980.

[7] Dulles, served as US Secretary of State from January 1953 to April 1959. [8] Refers to the Sino-US ambassadorial talks.On April 23, 1955, Premier Zhou Enlai stated at the meeting of the heads of eight delegations to the Asian-African Conference: The Chinese government is willing to negotiate with the U.S. government to discuss the issue of easing tension in the Far East, especially the issue of easing tension in the Taiwan region. .On July 25 of the same year, China and the United States reached an agreement on holding ambassadorial talks, and held the first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland on August 1.Since then, due to the lack of sincerity on the US side, the talks were interrupted.After the shelling of Quemoy began in August 1958, the U.S. government publicly stated that it was ready to resume talks, and the two sides resumed talks in Warsaw, Poland on September 15.As of February 20, 1971, a total of 136 Sino-US ambassadorial talks have been held.As the United States persisted in its stance of interfering in China's internal affairs, the talks failed to make any progress in easing and eliminating tension in the Taiwan region.

[9] Jin, Ma, Taiwan, and Penghu refer to Kinmen, Matsu, Taiwan, and Penghu. [10] See note [5] on page 24 of this volume.