793.94119/703: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Johnson) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 1—10 a.m.]
595. Following is English text furnished the Embassy by the Foreign Office of statement issued by the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs on November 30:
“The conclusion by Japan with the puppet organization at Nanking of what purports to be a treaty is but the culmination of series of aggression acts on her part designed to overthrow law and order not only in China, but in the whole Pacific. Having set up a regime to suit their own purposes, the Japanese have now signed with it [Page 123] the so-called treaty to facilitate the execution of their policy of domination and expansion in the Far East. Such a regime is in reality a part of the Government at Tokyo planted on Chinese soil, to be used by the Japanese militarists as an instrument for the realization of their scheme.
The National Government of the Republic of China has repeatedly declared, and desires to reiterate most emphatically, that Wang Ching-wei is the arch-traitor of the Republic and that the puppet regime at Nanking is an illegal organization whose acts of whatever character are null and void in respect of all Chinese citizens and all foreign countries. The so-called treaty just signed at Nanking is totally devoid of legality and has no binding force whatever.
Should any foreign country choose to accord recognition to the puppet organization, the Government and people of China would consider it a most unfriendly act and would be constrained to discontinue their normal relations with such a country.
Whatever Japan may attempt or conspire to do in China or in the Pacific, China is determined to fight on till victory is won, and she is confident of victory because to freedom and right and justice victory inevitably belongs.”
Sent to the Department, repeated to Shanghai, Peiping, Nanking. Peiping mail to Tokyo.