After a discussion with Prime Minister Nakasone of Japan, Chinese Leader Deng lays out points to improve China.
November 8, 1986
Cable No. 3028, Foreign Minister to Ambassador Nakae, 'The Prime Minister’s Visit to China (The Meeting with Chairman Deng - Views on Marxism)'
[…]
総理より、二年半前にお会いした時、鄧主任が今まで一番つらかったのは文革中牛小屋に入ったとき、また一番うれしかったのは国民党を打ち破ったときだったと言われたが、政治家としてもっとも重要な鍵は何であろうか、人事であろうか、と質したのに対し、鄧主任は（質問の趣旨を取り違えて）人事と言えば正に自分の問題だ。８２歳にも〇〇るので退職のことを考えているが、反対する人が多すぎ困難にぶつかっている、と述べた。
因って総理より更に追及されたところ、鄧主任は次の通り述べた。
人の団結である。それも確固たる信念があってはじめて団結が出来る。信念というのは、一人二人の信念ではなく、みんなが一〇に持つ信念である。国民党を打ち破ったとき、国民党には米軍装備の400万の精鋭部隊がいたのに対し、我々には飛行機も大砲も兵器工場もなかった。要は人的要素である。そのような人間は普通の人間ではなく、確固たる信念を持つ人間である。
（総理より、マルクス・レーニン主義は、100年たって時代も変わったが、〇〇創造的に変わっていくとみるべきなのか、それとも今までの変化は抑々マルクスやレーニンが初めから言っていることなのか、と質されたのに対し）マルクス・レーニン主義は発展しなければならない。我々は一度もマルクス・レーニン主義を教条主義化したことはない。マルクス・レーニン主義の原則を中国の現状に結びつけることによって勝利を収めたのである。例えば「農村で都市を包囲する」という考え方は、本来のマルクス・レーニン主義にはない。我々はマルクス・レーニン主義と毛沢東思想を堅持する。その中には継承するものもあれば発展させていくものもある。中国の特徴を持つマルクス・レーニン主義に発展させていくことによって、はじめてマルクス・レーニン主義の堅持といえる。国際共産主義運動のセンターなどというものはないし、「大家庭」にも賛成しない。独立自主で行く。
我々は中国人が「四つの有」すなわち理想、道徳、文化、紀律を持つべきことを強調しているが、このうち最も重要なのは理想と紀律であり、青年をこのように教育している。若い人たちは西側のいわゆる「自由」を崇拝しているが、何が自由なのかわきまえていない。彼らは規律を知らなければならない。理想と紀律がなければ、何も成し遂げられない。西側の制度の中のよいものも、中国の文化素養が劣っているためにそのまま受け入れられないことがある。例えば普通選挙は、中国ではまだ条件が整っていない。20年、30年後には実施可能かもしれないし、自分も普通選挙自体に反対はしないが、今は実施できない。
上海、広州、香港に転電した。
Received at 12:48:15, November 10, 1986
Drafted on November 8, 1986
Primary: Director General of Asian Bureau approved
[illegible]
Director of China Division approved
From: Foreign Minister
To: Ambassador to China
Title: “The Prime Minister’s Visit to China: The Meeting with Chairman Deng: Views on Marxism”
Cable No. 3028
Secret, Urgent
[…]
The Prime Minister said when we met two and a half years ago, the Chairman said that the hardest time for Deng had been when he had entered the cowshed during the Cultural Revolution, and the happiest time had been when he had defeated the Kuomintang. When the Prime Minister asked him what the most important key for him as a politician, would it be, perhaps, personnel matters, Deng said (misunderstanding the question) that personnel matters were, indeed, his own. He is thinking about retirement as he becomes [illegible] 82 years old, but facing difficulty with many opposition.
When asked further by the Prime Minister on this subject, Mr. Deng said:
It is the unity of the people. It is only with a firm belief that we can be united. A belief is not the belief of two people, but the belief that everyone has. When we defeated the Kuomintang, the Kuomintang had an elite force of 400 men equipped with U.S. weapons, whereas we had no planes, no artillery, and no weapons factories. The point is the human element. Such a person is not an ordinary person, but a person with firm beliefs.
(The Prime Minister asked whether Marxism-Leninism should be seen as changing in a creative way, even though the times have changed after 100 years, or whether the changes up to now are what Marx and Lenin said from the beginning.) Marxism-Leninism must develop. We have never once dogmatized Marxism-Leninism. We won by linking the principles of Marxism-Leninism to the current situation in China. For example, the idea of "encircling the city from rural areas" is not in the original Marxism-Leninism. We adhere to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. Some of them will be inherited and some will be developed. We can adhere to Marxism-Leninism only when it is developed into Marxism-Leninism with Chinese characteristics. There is no such thing as a center for the international communist movement, and I don't subscribe to the "big families" either. Go on your own.
We emphasize that the Chinese should have the "Four Haves," that is, ideals, morals, culture and discipline, but the most important of these are ideals and discipline, and we educate our youth in this way. Young people worship the so-called "freedom" of the West, but they don't know what freedom is. They have to know discipline. Without the ideal and the discipline, nothing is accomplished. Some good things in the Western system are not accepted as they are due to the inferior cultural background of China. The conditions for a general election, for example, have not been set up in China, and it may be possible to hold it in 20 or 30 years, and I'm not opposed to the general election itself, but I can't do it now.
[Cable] relayed to the [Japanese diplomatic missions in] Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
This cable provides an assessment of Chairman Deng focusing on this past successes and what he might do before he retires.
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2017-0638, Act on Access to Information Held by Administrative Organs, published online by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, January 12, 2017. Transcribed and translated by Yamaguchi Shinji.
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