893.00/12–948: Airgram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 21—8:53 a. m.]
A–299. Since forwarding our airgram 293 of Dec. 6 in which we observed how deftly CCP foreign policy has been shifted to the new level required by recent changes in Soviet foreign policy by Mao Tse-tung’s article of Nov. 78 commemorating the October Revolution and Liu Shao-chi’s article of Nov. 9 and 10,9 entitled “Nationalism and Internationalism”, we have noticed certain evidence against the existence of an ideological division in the CCP into a Manchurian clique and a North China clique.
Mao Tse-tung is doubtless the leader of the so-called nationalistic clique, if one exists, in North China. Liu Shao-chi, who is Deputy Chairman of the CCP Politburo and a veteran of the Long March, is presumably very close in his political thinking to Mao Tse-tung. Yet it is precisely these two ranking CCP leaders who wrote the two important articles bringing CCP foreign policy up to date and in line with Soviet foreign policy.
Our only explanations in this respect are that (1) a schism in the CCP along the line indicated above may be wishful thinking on part of non-Communist elements or (2) by writing these articles Mao Tse-tung and Liu Shao-chi performed an act of recantation in the face of some unknown criticism from Moscow. In any event it appears that the so-called nationalistic or North China clique of the CCP, if it ever had different views worthy of distinguishing it as a “clique”, has completely sided with Moscow as regards foreign policy.