Chapter 32 The border between China and Nepal shall be peaceful and friendly forever[1]

(March 18, 1960) Mao Zedong: We had some awkwardness with India, it doesn't matter, it will be over soon.Our interests are the same, we are both underdeveloped countries.It is untrue to say that China invaded India.We don't want an inch of land from other people. We have quite a lot of land, 9.6 million square kilometers, most of which are not developed.If you can't win the affairs of your own country, how can you ask for other people's land? It is a crime to ask for other people's land.Have we invaded your Nepal? We don't want a single inch of your land in Nepal.We can make a boundary agreement and set up boundary markers, isn't that right?

Koirala: Yes, I have talked with Premier Zhou Enlai. Mao: Do ​​you agree or not? Ke: There needs to be a formal demarcation. Chairman Mao: It is necessary to draw a boundary. After the demarcation, the two sides can have a section of the area that will not be patrolled. The width of the area can be discussed.India has concluded such a treaty with Pakistan. The area that they do not patrol is very small, only one kilometer.We once proposed to India that the two sides will not patrol the area of ​​20 kilometers. If we do not go, they will not go, and they will not do it.If you want, we can make a clause in the treaty, and the width of the non-patrolling area can be negotiated.If each side has 20 kilometers, it will be 40 kilometers. If both sides have 10 kilometers each, it will be 20 kilometers. If both sides have 5 kilometers, it will be 10 kilometers. This is according to your convenience. Is it possible to do this?

Ke: It can be considered. Mao: You can think about it.Administrative management can be managed by civil affairs personnel from both sides in their respective regions. Whether it is possible to have a little police and militia, it can be composed of local people.Just don't need a formal army, and the formal troops of the two sides will be separated by a distance, so that both sides can feel at ease.The purpose of demarcating borders and not patrolling is to keep the border peaceful and friendly forever, so that both sides can feel at ease and not be afraid of the other party's aggression.If you are interested, you can make a friendly non-aggression treaty like we did with Myanmar.There is a treaty, and if we break it, we lose.We are a big country, and we never doubt that you will invade us, but you may suspect that we will invade you.If a treaty is made and we break it, we have made a mistake.

Ke: During this meeting, Premier Zhou Enlai proposed a draft friendship treaty, which we will bring back to discuss with the cabinet, and individual revisions may be required.It will be signed in Kathmandu when Premier Zhou Enlai visits India at the end of April when he arrives in Nepal. Mao: Very good. We have invited your two prime ministers to come here one after another. Our prime minister should also go. This is equal.We are very grateful to you.This year we are going to build an embassy in your capital, which is great.You can also build an embassy here, not too many people, three or four people, seven or eight people will do, and it will not cost much.Can't you draw a few out of eight million people?

Ke: When preparing to distribute, there will not be too many people, because we cannot afford to distribute. Chairman Mao: I heard that you built a road directly to our country? Ke: No.Two years ago, a road was to be built, but later there was no funds, so it could not proceed.Now it is being surveyed with the help of Soviet technicians, preparing to build a road from east to west. Chairman Mao: When you come to our country, you have to pass through foreign countries. Ke: No, there is a mountain pass between Nepal and Tibet, but it is not an official road. Chairman Mao: One year, ten years, twenty years, one day we will have a direct highway.

Ke: The places in our country where roads are being built are places with promising economic development.Nine hundred miles (approximately 1,300 kilometers) are planned to be repaired nationwide. Mao: Very good. Ke: This time I invited Nehru[2] and Premier Zhou Enlai to Kathmandu for talks, but failed. Chairman Mao: Because Nehru wanted our prime minister to go to their capital, New Delhi.At first we advocated talking in Yangon, but Nehru disagreed.Now we have agreed to go to New Delhi, so we cannot go to your place.Thank you for your kindness, it's a very good kindness.The Prime Minister of Myanmar also thought the same way. He asked the prime ministers of China and India to go to Yangon, but Nehru said it was inconvenient for him, so we gave in and agreed.

Now the Prime Minister of Myanmar invites our Prime Minister to Yangon, and His Excellency the Prime Minister invites him to your country.This time Premier Zhou Enlai went to Burma first, then to India to negotiate with the Indian Prime Minister, and then to your country.The fourth country he is going to is Cambodia. He has been invited several times, and we are in debt to them.There is one more country to go to, which is the country of Ho Chi Minh[3], there are five in total.In this way, the wave of opposition to China last year can gradually subside. We quarreled with India for a year, but we are still friends.It is common for friends to quarrel, between husband and wife, and between brothers.We have never quarreled with you, Burma, Ceylon[4] or Cambodia.There is only one country in the world that is really quarreling with us, and that is the United States.It occupies our Taiwan and names us an "aggressor", so we will also call it an invader.We have never occupied an inch of American land. Honolulu and China are still separated by Midway Island, and we have never invaded Japan, but the United States has invaded and occupied our Taiwan.I don't know how we became invaders?

Now a country wants to "jointly defend" us with you, but I heard that you have not agreed.We are very happy about that.You said that the relationship between China and India should be resolved by themselves, and you will not interfere.India said we invaded you, you have issued a statement saying, no aggression.There are rumors that our troops have invaded your borders, is it true? Ke: This statement is made precisely because there is no such thing. Chairman Mao: Our countries should focus on self-reliance, supplemented by seeking foreign aid.Foreign aid must be won, but which one is the main one must be considered.Self-reliance, easy to handle, and proactive.

Your policy is about the same as ours.Our large enterprises were designed and installed with the help of the Soviet Union. This has been done for ten years from 1950 to 1959.During this decade, we have made some progress and are now self-reliant.During the first five-year plan period, we always copied it.We didn't understand, so we had to copy the Soviet Union.In the Second Five-Year Plan, we stopped copying it. In 1958 and 1959, we found a set of methods ourselves.You also have to go through this process.It is necessary to copy foreign works for a period of time, and stop copying after a period of time.When students receive education in school, they copy the teachers, and after a few years they graduate and become teachers.Some of you must be teachers.Really, this is not a lie, there is no reason to be a student for a hundred to a thousand years.We were students in the past, and we are still students now. For example, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom have cutting-edge science, but we don't, so we have to learn from them.Every nation has strengths and weaknesses.So is your country.Cambodia also has many strengths.So learn the strengths of each nation, regardless of their size.It would be better to exchange experience with these countries.We Orientals have a sense of inferiority, we always feel that we are not good enough, and that Caucasians are better than us.This is a superstition that needs to be broken.It is necessary to get rid of superstition and learn from the West.There is no contradiction between getting rid of superstitions and learning from them. For example, we can send overseas students and import their equipment.

I am not opposed to everything in the West, but only those imperialist things that oppress and bully people.We have to study their cultural science.Easterners must learn from the West, and learn from the West under the condition of breaking away from superstition. Ke: There are still differences on the border issue between Nepal and China.From our point of view, based on the historical situation in the past fifty years, we believe that there are four areas of controversy, and it is time to settle them down. Mao: Good. Ke: During the talks with Premier Zhou, several principles were decided: 1. Demarcation should be based on the existing traditional customary line; 2. Consider the actual situation of the jurisdiction of both sides of the border; , can not be resolved, handed over to the joint committee.

Mao: All right! Ke: In principle, it is good, but in terms of specific places, the two sides have differences, which makes us not very at ease.When I came to Hangzhou, I told Premier Zhou Enlai that I did not come to Hangzhou with peace of mind.Premier Zhou Enlai told me that I should be completely at ease. Mao: You should be completely at ease.Myanmar used to be very afraid of us, but now it is completely at ease.They already know our hearts. Ke: I met Prime Minister Ne Win[5] when I came here, and he told me that I should have frank talks with Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai.So I utter these words. Chairman Mao: Well, those disputes are easy to resolve, and those Yamaguchi people don't.Some differences on the Himalayas can be settled by a joint committee. Ke: For you, the current disputed location doesn't matter, but for us it does, it's a matter of prestige. Mao: It can be resolved, don't worry. Ke: There is another problem, which is the problem of feelings.We are called Sakya-Mata, the west is called Ephesus, and you are called Everest.This place has always been in our territory, but Premier Zhou Enlai said it was in your territory. Chairman Mao: Don't worry about this. Ke: It's about feelings. Mao: It can be solved, half and half.The south of the mountain belongs to you, and the north of the mountain belongs to us. Ke: What about the top of the mountain? Mao: The peak is also half and half.no? If you can't solve it, it's okay to procrastinate.The mountain is very high, and the mountain can guarantee the security of our border.You don't suffer, and neither do we.Give it all to you, we can't make it through emotionally; give it all to us, you can't make it through emotionally.A boundary post can be erected on it. Upadhyaya[6]: Who is going? Mao: Difficult! It can be written on words.When someone of us climbs a mountain from you, we notify you; when someone of you climbs a mountain from us, you notify us. Wu: In the past, when climbing mountains, you always needed a Nepalese visa. Chairman Mao: If people from a third country climb the mountain, they can climb from your side, and you will get the visa from you. Pan Zili[7]: In the past, some people had to get permission from the Tibetan local government to climb mountains, and some climbed through Tibet. Luo Guibo[8]: In the past, some foreigners climbed mountains with visas from the Chinese embassy in Switzerland. Ke: No. Chairman Mao: It has been a long-standing habit that, to climb mountains from Tibet, one must have permission from the Tibetan region. Ke: There are other controversies. Mao: Easy to solve.It is easy to solve with you, but it is different from India.The dispute with India is an issue of tens of thousands of square kilometers. Ke: We are only a few square kilometers. Chairman Mao: This mountain can be renamed.It's not called Effiers, that's a name given by Westerners.Don't call it Sakya-Mata or Everest, just call it "China-Nepal Friendship Peak". This mountain is the world's first peak, more than 8,800 meters.The United States, the Soviet Union, and India don't have it, only our two countries have it.You hold an internal meeting to discuss it and put forward your opinions.If you don't agree, just drag it down and solve it in the future. Ke: Yes.There are five other disputed locations, but there are three main ones. Wu: The question is whether the boundary line is one mile north or one mile south. Chairman Mao: That’s not easy to solve. There are no people, so it’s easy to solve! Ke: If it cannot be resolved during the Beijing talks, how can we bring it up to the chairman? Chairman Mao: Don’t talk to me anymore, but still talk to Premier Zhou Enlai.Talk again when he goes to your country, he will telegram me.In joint committees, the consent of both parties is required.If you disagree, stick to it.You insist, what can we do? Can we fight? We are optimistic. Ke: We are also optimistic. Chairman Mao: We want your friendship, and you want our friendship. This is the core of the problem.With this center, any problem can be solved, isn't it? Ke and Wu: Yes. Mao: It is to be at ease so that we can build our country's modernized industry, modernized agriculture, modernized science and culture, and modernized national defense.You also have to settle down and engage in modern industry, agriculture, science and culture, and national defense. Isn't that good? According to the "Mao Zedong Diplomatic Selected Works" published in 1994 by Central Literature Publishing House and World Knowledge Publishing House. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is the main part of the conversation between Mao Zedong and Nepalese Prime Minister Koirala. [2] Nehru, then Prime Minister of India. [3] Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969), then Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Labor Party and Chairman of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. [4] Ceylon, today Sri Lanka. [5] Ne Win, that is, U Ne Win, born in 1911, was the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Myanmar at that time. [6] Upadhyaya, then Minister of Internal Affairs and Justice of the Kingdom of Nepal. [7] Pan Zili (1904-1972), a native of Hua County, Shaanxi.At that time, he was the Chinese ambassador to India and Nepal. [8] Luo Guibo (1907-1995), a native of Nankang, Jiangxi.Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs at the time.