795A.00/10–2750: Telegram
The Consul General at Hong Kong (Wilkinson) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 27—8:38 p. m.]
904. Reliable source informed Consul General Chinese Communist observation group in Korea recommended against open military intervention because:
- (1)
- Chinese unable cope with UN air power;
- (2)
- UN artillery also greatly superior; and
- (3)
- Even if USSR provided air support, group fears UN air power could disrupt transportation in China and make supply problem very difficult.
Same source says Chinese Communists now have 2 divisions China (not Manchurian-born Korean) troops in Korea. Troops if captured will claim to be part of Korean army and Chinese Communists believe UN forces will not retaliate against China in absence intervention by [Page 1004] troops openly part of Chinese PLA. However they have no intention of sending in more Chinese troops. Source also says in addition Hsiao Ching-Kuan, previously reported killed in Korea, Hsiao K E also killed there.1
Consul General uninformed as to means by which above information reached sub source in Hong Kong and therefore feels it should not be rated too highly. However it would explain how there could be Chinese troops in Korea as reported today’s press despite reliable reports that Chinese Communists have decided against open military intervention.
Sent Department repeated information Taipei 110.
- Presumably, the references are to Hsiao Ching-kuang and Hsiao K’o, both veteran officers of the People’s Liberation Army of the People’s Republic of China, neither of whom was killed in Korea.↩