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August 16, 1957

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1957, No. 35 (Overall Issue No. 108)

This issue contains Mao Zedong's congratulations to Habib Bourguiba for being elected as president of Tunisia as well as content on China-Hungary economic exchanges, China-Hungary science and technology cooperation, agricultural tax collection, creation of committees to for management of market prices, preventing pest from getting into cotton, and strengthening leadership of grassroots health organizations. 

March 26, 1965

Palestine Delegation in Peking

Formed in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was not the first Palestinian organization after the nakba (catastrophe), the escape from violence and the Israeli expulsion of a good half of Palestinians in 1948. The two most important earlier organizations were Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-‘Arab (Arab Nationalists Movement [ANM]) and Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini (Palestinian National Liberation Movement [Fatah]).

Founded in 1951 in Beirut, ANM became committed to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) and his version of pan-Arab nationalism, which it saw as the means to liberate Palestine, opening a separate Palestinian branch in 1959. (In 1967, it would give rise to the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which split in 1968, one wing forming the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP)).

Rejecting Arab states’ tutelage, Fatah was officially born in 1959, though organizational activities began in 1956 and though it built on military cells operating from Egyptian-ruled Gaza from the early 1950s. After Arab armies’ crushing loss against Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 killed any remaining hopes, weakened since the early 1960s, that Arab armies would liberate Palestine, Fatah grew in strength. In 1969, it took command of the PLO. The latter had been founded in 1964 for several reasons. Nasser hoped to weaken Fatah and Syria, a state then in competition with him. Also, the PLO served (upper) middle class Palestinians some of whom—like Ahmad al-Shuqayri (1908-1908), Palestine’s representative to the Arab League and the PLO’s founder and first chairman—had played a Palestinian political role until 1948 and wished to do so again. And these men and women believed Palestinians needed their own statist entity, as Yezid Sayigh’s monumental Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (1997) notes.

In 1965, PLO delegates led by Shuqayri for the first time visited the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as reported in the English issue of the multi-language international organ Peking Review. Already in 1964 a small Fatah delegation led by Yassir Arafat (1929-2004) had accepted an invitation to visit Beijing, founding an office there. Sure, upon its establishment in 1949 the PRC had de jure recognized Israel, following the lead of the Soviet Union that acted as its older brother in the communist camp. (Israel in turn was the first Middle Eastern state to recognize the PRC, in 1950.) But after the PRC and the USSR split in 1960, Beijing amplified its anti-imperialist rhetoric and policies versus the Soviet Union and the United States, as Gregg Brazinksy’s Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War (2017) has shown. It was in this context that it from the mid-1960s delivered arms especially to Fatah and the PLO—it soon also would train fighters—and that it politically embraced the Palestinian cause. The PRC framed this policy as that of one “revolutionary people” helping another one, a story strand in Paul Chamberlin’s The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order (2012). By the early 1970s, however, Chinese support became more lukewarm. Moreover, after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976), relations with Israel cautiously warmed, though remaining surreptitious until the establishment of full diplomatic ties in 1992.

November 15, 1956

Communist Party Central Committee Notice on Implementing Support for Egypt in Its Fight against Aggression

The CCP Central Committee outlines how the PRC can support Egypt during the Suez crisis.

December 20, 1963

Transcript of Conversation between Zhou Enlai and Reporters in Cairo

Premier Zhou and Chen Yi answer questions from reporters in Cairo. Zhou and Chen were asked about issues such as their visit to Arab and African countries, China's support for national liberation movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the United Arab Republic (Egypt) and Sri Lanka's perspective of the Sino-Indian border conflict, the purpose of the Chinese delegation's visit to Arab and African countries, issues that will be discussed in potential second Bandung Conference, the Sino-Soviet split, and the Pakistani national movement. Zhou also explains why China opposed the ban on nuclear test treaty.

December 8, 1956

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 44 (Overall Issue No. 70)

This issue begins with a joint statement from Zhou Enlai and Cambodian Prime Minister San Yun. It also covers Sino-Egyptian trade, the national budget for 1957, and various provincial administrative matters, such as renaming counties in Heilongjiang Province.

November 17, 1956

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 41 (Overall Issue No. 67)

This issue commemorates the 90th birthday of Sun Yat-sen and continues to decry British and French aggression in Egypt. It also affirms Sino-Burmese relations after former Burmese Prime Minister U Nu visited China as Chairman of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League. Other sections cover the need for labor protection, establishing and expanding local people's committees, and problems with work assignments for university graduates.

November 10, 1956

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 40 (Overall Issue No. 66)

This issue begins by denouncing British and French aggression against Egypt during the Suez Canal Crisis. It also includes a Chinese statement about the Soviet Declaration "to Strengthen Friendship and Cooperation [with] Other Socialist States," which acknowledges tensions between socialist countries and the need to address people's demands in Hungary and Poland. The next sections feature a message from Zhou Enlai to János Kádár, who would lead Hungary after the failed Revolution of 1956, and Sino-Nepali correspondence.

October 31, 1956

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 39 (Overall Issue No. 65)

This issue begins with a joint statement from Premier Zhou Enlai and the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. It also covers Sino-Egyptian trade and outlines organizational guidelines for the "expert bureau." Other sections discuss relaxing the rural market, problems related to rural finances, and managing teachers' benefits.

October 10, 1956

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 36 (Overall Issue No. 62)

This issue begins with a Sino-Egyptian agreement to promote cultural cooperation. It also outlines organizational guidelines for the Preparatory Committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Other sections cover emergency relief for professional folk art performance troupes, holding performances, and various provincial administrative concerns.

September 29, 1956

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 35 (Overall Issue No. 61)

This issue first discusses the problem of the Suez Canal in Egypt. It also addresses Sino-Nepalese relations, the establishment of Sino-Yemeni relations, and whether the Sino-American ambassadorial talks should consider the US-China trade embargo. Other sections cover domestic topics such as disaster relief and student dropouts.

Pagination