Chapter 61 Letter to Compatriots in Taiwan from the Ministry of National Defense of the People's Republic of China

(October 6, 1958) Fellow soldiers and civilians in Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu: All of us are Chinese.Thirty-six strategies, and the best strategy.The Golden Gate battle is of a punitive nature.Your leaders have been too rampant for a long time in the past, ordering planes to drill indiscriminately to the mainland, as far as Yun, Guizhou, Sichuan, Kang[1], and Qinghai, distributing leaflets, dropping spies, bombing Fuzhou, and disturbing Jiangsu and Zhejiang.Is it tolerable, which one is unbearable? Therefore, some guns were fired to attract your attention.Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu are Chinese territories. You agree on this point. It can be seen from your leaders' proclamations that they are indeed not American territories.Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, and Matsu are part of China, not another country.There is only one China in the world, not two Chinas.You also agree on this point, which can be seen in the proclamations of your leaders.The military agreement[2] concluded between your leaders and the Americans is one-sided. We do not recognize it and should be abolished.The Americans will definitely abandon you one day.Don't you believe it? The giants of history will come out to prove it.In Dulles's talk on September 30[3], the clues have been seen.Standing in your position, can you not be chilled? In the final analysis, US imperialism is our common enemy.The 130,000 soldiers and civilians in Quemoy are short of supplies, suffering from hunger and cold, and it is difficult to plan for a long time.For the sake of humanitarianism, I have ordered the Fujian front to stop shelling for seven days starting from October 6th. You can freely transport supplies, but on the condition that there will be no American escort.If there is an escort, this is not the case.The war between you and us has been going on for thirty years and it is not over yet, which is not good.It is recommended to hold negotiations and implement a peaceful settlement.Premier Zhou Enlai told you this a few years ago.This is an issue between you and us within China, not an issue between China and the United States.The U.S. occupation of Taiwan, Penghu and the Taiwan Strait is an issue related to China and the U.S., which should be settled through negotiations between the two countries, which are currently being held in Warsaw[4].The Americans always want to leave, and it is impossible not to leave.It is beneficial to go early in the United States because it can take the initiative.It is bad to be late, because it is always passive.Why did an Eastern Pacific country come to the Western Pacific? The Western Pacific is the Western Pacific of the Western Pacific people, just as the Eastern Pacific is the Eastern Pacific of the Eastern Pacific people.This is common sense, and Americans should understand it.There is no war between the People's Republic of China and the United States, and there is no such thing as a ceasefire.Isn't it a joke to talk about a ceasefire without fire? Friends in Taiwan, there is a war between us, and it should be stopped and extinguished.This requires negotiation.Of course, fighting for another 30 years is not a big deal, but after all, an early and peaceful settlement is more appropriate.Where to go, please decide.

Minister of Defense of the People's Republic of China October 6, 1958 at one o'clock in the morning Published according to Mao Zedong's manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Kang, referring to Xikang Province, revoked in 1955.When revoked, the original jurisdiction was assigned to Sichuan Province. [2] Refers to the "Mutual Defense Treaty" signed in 1954 between the United States and the Kuomintang government in Taiwan.See note [16] on page 419 of this volume. [3] U.S. Secretary of State Dulles made a statement to reporters on September 30, 1958, reaffirming the U.S. position on the Taiwan issue that the KMT and the Communist Party "renunciate force" and criticizing the Chiang Kai-shek government's actions on Kinmen, Matsu and other islands. It is unwise and imprudent to maintain a large army, and admits that Chiang Kai-shek's counterattack to the mainland is a "heavy hypothetical" plan, and believes that "only on their own strength, they will not go back there".When a reporter asked whether the U.S. policy toward Taiwan would change if the Chinese Communist Party made certain concessions, Dulles said: "Our policies in these areas are flexible and adapt to the situations we have to deal with. The situation. If the situation we have to deal with changes, our policy will change with it."

[4] 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, 1970, a total of 136 Sino-US ambassadorial talks had 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.