893.00/3–1245: Telegram
The Chargé in China (Atcheson) to the Secretary of State
[Received 10:33 a.m.]
409. Following message has been received via United States Army radio from General Chou En-lai with the request that it be transmitted to Ambassador Hurley as soon as possible:
“Dear General Hurley: Your kind message of 20 February46 has been received.
“Under instructions from the Central Committee of my party and from Chairman Mao Tse-tung, I have sent a letter on 9th March to Dr. Wang Shih-chieh, representative of the National Government, containing the following two points of which I specially would like to inform you about:
Number 1. “The Central Committee of my party was originally planning to draft our proposals in answer to Dr. Wang Shih-chieh’s proposal of calling a political consultation conference, in order to facilitate the discussions. So it was all the more unexpected that President Chiang Kai-shek, on March 1, should have made a public statement opposing the abolition of one-party rule, the convening of an inter-party conference and also the establishment of a coalition government, announcing instead that the one-party Kuomintang Government is preparing to call on November 12 of this year that one-party controlled, deceitful, China splitting, so-called National Congress, based on conditions to which the people have no freedom, in which political parties and groups have no legal status, arid in which large areas of the country have been lost, making it impossible for the majority of the people to take party [part]. This clearly demonstrates that the Kuomintang Government is obstinately insisting on having their own way alone, thus on the one hand showing that they have not the least sincerity in wanting to carry out democratic reforms, and on the other it leaves no basis on which negotiations between the Communist Party and the other democratic parties and the Kuomintang Government can be continued in these circumstances. The Central Committee of my party considers that there is no longer the need to draft proposals in answer to Wang Shih-chieh.
Number 2. “The Central Committee of my party and Chairman Mao Tse-tung are decidely of the opinion that if China’s delegates are to represent the common will of the whole Chinese people at the San Francisco Conference in April, then they must consist of representatives of the Chinese Kuomintang, the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Democratic Federation; and definitely there should not be [Page 269] only Kuomintang Government delegates attending the meeting. America and England both have announced that their delegations will consist of representatives from all important political parties while your Honorable President has made known that the American delegation will consist of an equal number from both the Democratic and Republican Parties; but since the Chinese situation is so lacking in unity, then, if the Kuomintang should try to monopolize the entire delegation, this would be not only unjust and unreasonable but it would show that their standpoint is for wanting to split China. My party has already officially put forth the above demands to the Kuomintang Government and suggested that Chou En-lai, Tung Pi-wu and Chin Pang-hsien, three members of our Central Committee, to join the Chinese delegation. If this is not accepted by the Kuomintang Government, then my party will determinedly oppose the Kuomintang’s splitting measures and reserve the right of expression on all opinions and actions of the monopolized delegation of the Kuomintang Government at the Conference of the United Nations at San Francisco.
“Please inform your Honorable President of the above two proposals as soon as possible and also express my deep appreciation for his interest on behalf of Chinese unity. I extend to you my deepest personal regards. 9th March, 1945, Yenan. Signed, Chou En-lai.”