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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.

September 28, 1970

Conversation between Comrade Mao Zedong and Other Chinese Leaders with Comrade Abdyl Këllëzi and Other Comrades on 28 September 1970

Mao Zedong and a visiting delegation from Albania discuss the history of the Albanian Party, Albania's relations with Italy, US-China relations, and other developments in Cuba, Brazil, Turkey, and Greece.

October 2, 1963

Conversation of Comrade Mao Zedong with Delegation of the People’s Army of Albania Haded by Comrade Beqir Balluku (2 October 1963)

Beqir Balluku holds a discussion with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, Liu Shaoqi, and Luo Ruiqing. The Chinese side reviews their country's revolutionary history and many years of struggle against the Kuomintang.

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.

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.

March 18, 1955

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1955, No. 2 (Overall Issue No. 5)

This issue marks the fifth anniversary of the Sino-Soviet Friendship and Mutual Assistance Alliance Treaty. It also contains telegrams that Zhou Enlai and UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld sent to each other regarding PRC participation in a UN Security Council meeting, which would discuss New Zealand. Other telegrams and reports discuss plans for the Bandung Asian-African Conference, the distribution of new renminbi currency, taxes, and postal fees.

March 12, 1955

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1955, No. 1 (Overall Issue No. 4)

This issue includes statements from Zhou Enlai about American intervention in Taiwan, the establishment of Sino-Yugoslav relations, Sino-Afghan relations, and Sino-Indonesian trade. It also condemns American, French, and KMT Nationalist activities in North Vietnam. Finally, it discusses domestic topics such as divorce and manufacturing.

March 8, 1955

Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1954, No. 3 (Overall Issue No. 3)

This issue covers a meeting between the Chinese and Burmese prime ministers. It also includes letters that a Chinese government delegation and Enver Hoxha exchanged for Albania's tenth anniversary, as well items on Vietnam, Indonesia, Taiwan, the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations. In terms of domestic policy, among other topics, it provides instructions for issuing bonds to help build the nation's economy, regulations for arrest and detention, and regulations for urban residence committees.

September 22, 1952

Report, Zhou Enlai to the Chairman [Mao Zedong] and the Central Committee

Zhou and Stalin discuss the POW issue, the United Nations and the formation of a new regional organization for Asia, and military cooperation.

September 16, 1952

Report, Zhou Enlai to the Chairman [Mao Zedong] and the Central Committee

Zhou Enlai updates Mao Zedong on the latest conversations with Stalin and other members of the Soviet leadership. Topics of discussion included Soviet technical assistance to China, developments in the Korean War, the United Nations, and the formation of a regional organization for Asia.

Pagination