893.00/6–2747: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in China (Stuart)
781. Dept desires preliminary telegraphic report any info available to Embassy regarding existing and potential factional alignments Communist China.
Fully recognizing party discipline and extent solidarity Communist China under present circumstances, Dept nevertheless desires analysis existing and potential cleavages, however slight, between (1) old line Communist military and military absorbed during and since war, (2) civil and military leaders of CCP, (3) so-called nationalist and “comintern” CCP members, and (4) CCP and fellow travelers as well as report on any other manifestations of factionalism regarding which Embassy may have pertinent information.
Dept would also be interested in names any leaders Communist China, whether Communist or not who might be inclined either assume uncompromising nationalist position in possible showdown [Page 203] over Soviet influence and control or “betray the revolution” as Gimo did in 1927.
In addition telegraphic analysis on basis present info, Dept desires Embassy undertake intensive study this subject and submit earliest possible basic despatch setting forth its estimate and conclusions. It is suggested Clubb be asked his views and that apostate Communists and Trotskyites Hong Kong as well as China not be overlooked as sources information.79
- The Ambassador in China on July 9 transmitted the substance of this telegram to the Consuls General at Tientsin (Smyth), Mukden (Ward), and Changchun (Clubb), and the Consul at Peiping (Freeman).↩