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September 9, 1957

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1957, No. 39 (Overall Issue No. 112)

This issue contains Mao Zedong's congratulations to the supreme head of the Malayan Union for its declaration of independence and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai's acknowledgment of the new state. It also features sections on China-Vietnam economic exchanges, extending the China-Finland economic trade agreement, recommendations to ministry of supervision on dealing with civil affairs, public and private joints need to verify liquidation and capital ventures, and foreign loan control methods.

July 20, 1957

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1957, No. 30 (Overall Issue No. 103)

This issue contains content on the boundary between China and Myanmar, the establishment of autonomous regions in Guangxi and Ningxia, China-Romania economic exchanges, a Ministry of Supervision investigation natural disasters, commemorating the PLA, heatstroke prevention, pest control, and taxation policies.

August 2, 1958

Third Conversation of N.S. Khrushchev with Mao Zedong, August 2, 1958, in Fengziyuan

Mao and Khrushchev have a conversation about about international affairs, including NATO, CENTO, and SEATO, relations with the USA and Japan, and the situation in the Near East. They also expressed their views on the situation in Latin America, and preparations for a third world war. According to the Soviet record of the conversation, they also discussed domestic problems in the two countries. Specifically, Mao spoke at length to Khrushchev about the successes of the Great Leap.

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.

February 15, 1957

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1957, No. 6 (Overall Issue No. 79)

This issue contains content on China's relations with Ceylon (Sri Lanka). It also has sections on the five year plan, cotton, construction bonds for farmers, electricity fees, rural commercial taxation, coal production, agricultural loans, and village name changes.

January 28, 1957

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1957, No. 4 (Overall Issue No. 77)

This issue features content on China's relations with the Soviet Union, Hungary, Afghanistan, and Hong Kong. It also has sections on tax relief and loan assistance for poor production teams and military, prevention and treatment of Kashin-Beck Disease, the collection of revolutionary history archives, regulations on production, business, infrastructure, and Soviet activities, and village transfer and reassignment.

January 16, 1957

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1957, No. 2 (Overall Issue No. 75)

This issue features content on China's relations with the German Democratic Republic, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. It also has sections on bonds for economic construction, the handicrafts industry, sports records and achievements, and heating in workers' dormitories.

October 24, 1964

Transcript of Conversation between Zhou Enlai and Philippine's Journalists' Delegation

Premier Zhou and Philippine journalists' discuss obstacles to establishing friendly Sino-Philippine relations. One obstacle is that Philippines is part of the U.S. led alliance camp in Asia. Zhou believes that despite China and Philippine being part of two different camps, this should not prevent China and the Philippines from establishing bilateral relations. The second obstacle is that thee Philippines still maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Zhou also says that Philippines-Taiwan relations should not prevent the Philippines from establishing relations with the mainland. Reporters ask for Zhou's perspective on U.S. military deployment in Philippines and Filipino people's fear that China might use friendly Sino-Philippines relations to incite communist revolution in their country.

September 21, 1961

Transcript of Conversation between Zhou Enlai and Bernard Law Montgomery

Premier Zhou speaks with Viscount Montgomery of Alamein about propositions to ease international tensions. Zhou agrees with Montgomery's three propositions one of which is withdrawal of foreign troops from other countries territory. Zhou proposes withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea and Taiwan cross straits. Also, on the Taiwan issue, Zhou says that there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of China. Zhou believes that Taiwan issue is a internal domestic issue that should not be discussed by the UN.

October 19, 1956

Transcript of Conversation between Zhou Enlai and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy

Premier Zhou and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, debrief about the Bandung Conference. They discuss their views regarding international tensions in Asia and the rest of world. Suhrawardy praises Zhou on his attitude during the conference which gave Pakistan more clarity about China's position on international issues. Suhrawardy also says that he felt Zhou's sincerity and enthusiasm in getting along with other countries. Zhou says that he understands why other countries fear China and explains that China's goal at the moment is industrialization, not colonial expansion. Zhou tells Suhrawardy that the current generation of Chinese political leaders will make sure that future generations will not commit war and aggression. Suhrawardy disagrees with Zhou that current generation can control future political leaders decisions. Zhou calls for countries that are skeptical of China to engage with China to see for themselves China's intentions.

Pagination