On October 1, 1949, the People's Republic of China was established in Beijing. On the tower of Tiananmen Square, in the midst of the world's attention, the chairman pressed the button to raise the national flag of the People's Republic of China - the five-star red flag, and read out the "People's Republic of China **People** Announcement" (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement") in a sonorous tone, solemnly declaring: "This ** is the only legitimate ** on behalf of the people of the People's Republic of China." This is ready to establish diplomatic relations with any foreign country that wishes to abide by the principles of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect for territorial sovereignty. ”
On the same day, the Prime Minister and Minister of the Government Council of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the People's People) promptly sent the Announcement to various countries in the form of official letters. The founding of the People's Republic of China has attracted extensive attention from the international community, and all major powers are extremely concerned about the diplomatic trends of the People's Republic of China and are thinking about their future relations with the People's Republic of China. On the day of the founding ceremony of the People's Republic of China, a message from the United Press of the United States stated: "The establishment of the People's Republic of China and the founding of **the people** will be announced at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday. The Guardian said: "October 1 is an epoch-making moment in Asian history. In the cable, AFP noted: "The declaration of the readiness of the People's Republic of China to establish diplomatic relations with other countries has been sent to foreign countries by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the New Republic." The message also contains an excerpt from the cover letter from ***: "I believe that it is necessary to establish normal diplomatic relations between the People's Republic of China and the countries of the world. ”
The day after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union announced its recognition of the People's Republic of China.
On October 2, Soviet Deputy Minister Gromyko sent a telegram to the New China *** Minister *** The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ** had received a proclamation from the ** people of the People's Republic of China ** on 1 October this year, in which it was recommended that the People's Republic of China establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and the Soviet ** after studying the proposal of the ** people of the People's Republic of China **, because of its unswerving will to strive to establish genuine friendly relations with the Chinese people, and was convinced of the ** people of the People's Republic of China ** As the representative of the will of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, I hereby inform you that the Soviet Union has decided to establish diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China and to send ambassadors to each other. ”
In this way, the USSR became the first country in the world to recognize the People's Republic of China. On the same day, on behalf of the Soviet Union, Gromyko issued a statement to the chargé d'affaires of the Kuomintang "embassy" in Moscow, severing diplomatic relations with the Kuomintang and recalling its diplomatic representatives.
On October 3, the chairman presided over the second meeting of the People's Committee in the Qinzheng Hall of Zhongnanhai, and the meeting listened to the report of the Prime Minister and the Minister of the People's Republic of China on the recognition of the People's Republic of China by the Soviet Union and the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet UnionStudying the principled stand of the Soviet Union in severing diplomatic relations with the former Kuomintang, it was decided to agree to diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and China and to exchange ambassadors, and it was decided to appoint Wang Jiaxiang, member of the Communist Party of China, as the first ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Soviet Union. The meeting agreed to issue a statement informing the former Kuomintang embassies abroad to cease their activities and wait for the handover.
The appointment of Wang Jiaxiang as the first ambassador of New China to the Soviet Union shows the high trust of the chairman and the CPC in Wang Jiaxiang. Wang Jiaxiang, a native of Jing County, Anhui Province, is the first person who put forward the famous "Liusu School" and "Thought" in China. In November 1925, Wang Jiaxiang, as a student selected by the Communist Party of China, entered Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow with Zhang Wentian, Qin Bangxian (Bogu), Bu Shiqi, Zhou Dawen, Shen **, etc., and soon mastered and proficiently used Russian. After returning to China, Wang Jiaxiang successively served as director of the General Political Department of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, provisional director of the Chinese Soviet Republic, vice chairman of the Revolutionary Military Committee, member of the Sixth CPC National Committee, alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC, member of the three-member military group, representative of the CPC to the Comintern, vice chairman of the CPC Military Commission and director of the General Political Department, president of the Military and Political College of the Eighth Route Army, member and secretary of the Seventh CPC Congress, etc.
On October 3, Chairman ** drafted a press release for Xinhua News Agency on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union. The press release said: The Soviet Union sent a telegram to the Chinese Minister in the name of Deputy Minister Gromyko, stating that the Soviet Union had decided to establish diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and China and to exchange ambassadors." On the same day, at the second meeting of the People's Committee, he made a report on the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union, and read out the appointment of Wang Jiaxiang as Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union by the People's Committee. On the same day, Deputy Minister Gromyko of the Soviet Union welcomed the immediate establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union and the exchange of ambassadors, and expressed infinite joy that the Soviet Union had become the first friendly country to recognize the People's Republic of China. After the two countries exchanged notes and expressed their willingness to establish diplomatic relations, the Soviet Union appointed Tsikhvinsky, former consul general of the Soviet Union in Beiping, as counselor and chargé d'affaires of the Soviet Embassy in the People's Republic of China, and Ge Baoquan as counselor and chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Soviet Union.
TASS broadcast an official letter from New China to the Soviet consul, and the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse all reported that the Soviet Union had announced the establishment of diplomatic relations with New China. ** The Prime Minister and Foreign Minister met with the Counsellor and Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the Embassy of the USSR in the People's Republic of China at 4 p.m. on October 3.
On the issue of establishing diplomatic relations with Western imperialist countries, New China adopted the strategy of "waiting and seeing". ** The Chairman believes that although we are willing to establish diplomatic relations with some countries in accordance with the principle of equality, the imperialist countries that have never been friends of the Chinese people will never be able to treat us as equals anytime soon, and as long as they do not change their hostile attitude towards New China, we will not give imperialism a legal status in China for a single day. ** The chairman believes that if the people's power is to harm the sovereignty of the country, sacrifice ** to cure the disease. While Wang Jiaxiang was treating his illness, he led Ge Baoquan, Xu Jiefan, and several confidential communications personnel to begin the work of taking over the Chinese Embassy in Moscow left by the Kuomintang. Since the Kuomintang ambassador Chiang Ting-huang and the embassy personnel had already left the Soviet Union for Europe, they left without any documents, only various materials, books, etc., and Ge Baoquan, Xu Jiefan, and others carried out ethnic independence in exchange for the recognition of the imperialist countries, so they preferred to shelve the issue of recognition. **The President stressed that respecting China's sovereignty and territorial integrity is a basic principle that all foreign countries must recognize and abide by when establishing diplomatic relations with China.
At the time of the founding of the People's Republic of China, coinciding with the convening of the Fourth United Nations General Assembly, the ** people of the People's Republic of China have become the sole legitimate ** representing the entire Chinese people since the day of its founding, and naturally enjoy China's legitimate seat in the United Nations.
On September 29, 1949, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference unanimously adopted the special content of the presidium's examination report on denying the qualification of the Kuomintang ** to attend the United Nations. Although this article was not included in the "Common Programme" at that time, it was proposed by the Chairman of the General Assembly to be adopted unanimously by the General Assembly in the form of a resolution on the review of the report by the Bureau. The founding of the People's Republic of China declared that there was only one China in the world, and the remnants of the Kuomintang that had fled to Taiwan after the defeat no longer had the legitimacy to represent the will and will of the Chinese people.
In fact, the takeover of the Kuomintang embassy in the Soviet Union began in July 1949. At the end of July, Wang Jiaxiang visited the Soviet Union with the first delegation of the Communist Party of China, and then stayed in the Soviet Union to seriously clean up. All this work was carried out smoothly with the strong support and tacit cooperation of the Soviet Union. With the announcement of Wang Jiaxiang's appointment as ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Soviet Union, Ge Baoquan and Xu Jiefan were appointed as counselors of the embassy, and other confidential communications personnel remained in the embassy.
On October 5, the Soviet Union appointed Roshin as the Soviet ambassador to the People's Republic of China. On the 6th, the front page of "People**" reported on the appointment of the first ambassador of China and the Soviet Union, and published a bust of Wang Jiaxiang and a half-length woodcut of Luo Shen during the Yan'an period.
On the 10th, the premier, Dong Biwu, and the responsible persons of various democratic parties went to Beijing's Qianmen Railway Station to greet the first Soviet ambassador to China, Luo Shen, together with more than 3,000 people in the capital. ** In his congratulatory speech, the Prime Minister said that the diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union and the profound friendship between the Chinese and Soviet peoples will be further developed and consolidated in the future through the efforts of Ambassador Luo Shen. On the 13th, Soviet Ambassador to China Roshin, accompanied by Counselors Tsykhvinsky and Wang Jiaxiang, called on Prime Minister *** to discuss matters related to the presentation of credentials.
In the two weeks from October 2 to October 14, the Soviet Union's recognition of New China brought about a huge shock to the international community, and the international community focused on the issue of diplomatic recognition of New China, with Eastern European socialist countries establishing diplomatic relations with New China one after another, while Britain, France, and the United States and other countries cautiously studied the issue of recognition of New China"Washington is concerned about the issues of recognition", but "is in no hurry to act." The British side said that due to the "establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party......This makes it necessary for Britain to reconsider the issue of recognizing the CCP regime. Britain doesn't want to be hasty".
** The President accepts the credentials presented by Roshin, the first ambassador of the Soviet Union to the People's Republic of China.
The remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang were so discouraged that they preemptively sued the Soviet Union at the United Nations for violating the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, and "breached" the recognition of New China. The United Nations General Assembly began to discuss this. In September 1949, representatives of the Kuomintang Taiwan authorities were instructed to submit a "bill against the Soviet Union" to the Fourth United Nations General Assembly, demanding that all member states "not recognize the CCP regime supported by the Soviet Union." Because the United States was hesitant on the issue of recognizing New China at that time and was trying to abandon the Chiang Kai-shek clique and get close to the Chinese Communists, this so-called "bill against the Soviet Union" failed to pass at the UN General Assembly.
On October 16, the President accepted the credentials of the first Soviet Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, Roshin.
On October 20, the chairman of the People's Republic of China hosted a banquet to welcome Ambassador Luo Shen, and Wang Jiaxiang, the ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Soviet Union, attended to accompany him.
After the banquet that night, Wang Jiaxiang led Zeng Yongquan, the minister counselor, and others to leave Beijing by special car to take up their posts in the Soviet Union. Prime Minister and Governor of the Government Council Vice Premier Guo Moruo, Secretary General of the People's Court Lin Boqu, President of the Supreme People's Court Shen Junru and Peng Zhen and Li Li.
3. Cai Chang and Liu Ning.
1. Shao Lizi, Li Dequan, Qian Junrui, and other responsible persons of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Beijing Municipal People, as well as more than 100 representatives of workers, women, young students, and faculty members in Beijing saw off at the Qianmen Railway Station. On the occasion of seeing him off, he said to Wang Jiaxiang that we have too little experience in establishing the country's diplomatic relations, and you should sum up more experience after you take office to promote the development of China's diplomatic work.
Wang Jiaxiang went to his post this time with a handwritten letter from Chairman Wang Jiaxiang to Stalin, in which he said: I hereby introduce Comrade Wang Jiaxiang to you, Comrade Wang Jiaxiang's mission to the Soviet Union, in addition to serving as China's ambassador to the Soviet Union and taking charge of general foreign affairs with the new democratic countries in Eastern Europe in his capacity as China's vice minister, and at the same time, in his capacity as a representative of the Communist Party of China (he is a member of our party), he will contact you and the Communist Party of China on matters related to the affairs between the two parties. The comrades stood on the standpoint of a comrade and gave him guidance at any time, so that he could achieve more achievements in his work.
In the early morning of October 31, Wang Jiaxiang and his entourage of 11 people arrived in Moscow after a 10-day long-distance train journey. At the Yaroslavl station, he was welcomed by Soviet Deputy Minister Gromyko, Chairman of the Moscow Soviet Popov, Commander of the Moscow Military District, Colonel-General Artemyev, Commander of the Moscow Garrison, Lieutenant General Sinilov, and other Soviet party, government, and military, as well as envoys to the Soviet Union from North Korea, Mongolia, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and other countries, as well as Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Soviet Union, Ge Baoquan, and others.
Wang Jiaxiang delivered a speech on the platform, and he said: I am very honored to be appointed as the first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and to be the first representative of the People's Republic of China to a foreign country and to arrive in the capital of your country. On behalf of China, I would like to express my gratitude to the Soviet Union for immediately establishing diplomatic relations with New China, and I will do my utmost to consolidate the friendly relations between China and the Soviet Union. After the welcoming ceremony, accompanied by Ge Baoquan and the Soviet Union's Protocol Department, Wang Jiaxiang drove to the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union at No. 13 Kropotkin Lane.
At 12:30 noon on November 3, the Soviet Union came to greet him in the car of the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union, and Wang Jiaxiang led the embassy counselors Zeng Yongquan, Ge Baoquan, Xu Jiefan, and military attache Bian Zhang.
5. First Secretary Zhang Guan went to the Kremlin. At 1 p.m., the presentation ceremony officially began. On the Soviet side were Gorkin, secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Lafrentev, deputy minister of the Soviet Union, Kurdyukov, director of the First Far Eastern Department of the Soviet Union, and Bushuev, director of the Department of Communications of the Soviet Union. After Bushuev introduced Wang Jiaxiang to Shvernik, chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, Wang Jiaxiang, the first ambassador of New China to the Soviet Union, read out a congratulatory speech and presented his credentials.
By the end of 1949, 10 countries, including the Soviet Union, had established diplomatic relations with New China, mainly countries in the socialist camp. This completely smashed the conspiracy of certain hostile forces in the West and Chiang Kai-shek to rely on the United States to isolate New China. The CPC's continuous expansion of establishing diplomatic relations with countries that recognize New China, as well as establishing commercial and trade relations with capitalist countries that have no diplomatic relations for the time being, is conducive to serving New China's economic and national defense construction.
In December 1949, the President visited the Soviet Union for the first time. On January 7, 1950, Vyshinsky, the head of the Soviet Union, accompanied by Wang Jiaxiang, the Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union, came to the Villa of Sister River to visit the chairman. Foreign Minister Vyshinsky exchanged three things with the chairman: First, the Soviet side could meet China's request for the purchase of aircraft, second, the Soviet side could meet China's request to send Soviet hydropower station work experts to China to help build the dam of the Xiaofengman hydropower station, and third, it was suggested that China send a statement to the UN Security Council denying that the representatives of the Kuomintang bloc entrenched in Taiwan should continue to be the legitimate seats of the Chinese representatives on the Security Council. Vyshinsky said that after China issued this statement, the Soviet Union would take resolute action to show its support, that is, if the representatives of the Kuomintang bloc continued to occupy the United Nations seat as China's representatives, the Soviet Union would refuse to attend the United Nations Security Council. With regard to the statement, the Chairman immediately agreed.
As early as July 1949, when he secretly visited the Soviet Union, Vyshinsky exchanged views with the United Nations on the issue of New China's representation in the United Nations, although he only briefly introduced the trend of the international situation at that time and some experiences in the diplomatic struggle, but when talking about several important lessons and lessons of the Soviet Union's diplomatic struggle in international activities, he was extremely excited to talk about their long-term encirclement by the United States and other Western countries in the international struggle, and expressed the need to cooperate closely with New China in the international arena in the future. The urgent desire to act together and exert their strength together.
On the afternoon of 7 January, the chairman sent a telegram to ***: "Please handle the matter as soon as you receive the telegram, and strive to send a telegram of this statement before *** leaves for Moscow on the 9th, in addition to sending it to the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council, and inform the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States, France and other countries by telegram of the handling of this matter, and inform them whether they will be able to send it out in time on 9 January." In order to prevent delays in the revision of the domestic reciprocal telegrams, at 12 p.m. local time in Moscow on January 7 (5 a.m. on January 8 in China), he personally drafted a statement to the United Nations, and then telegraphed *** to send a statement message to the President of the General Assembly, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, and the 10 member states of the Security Council** (not to Yugoslavia). ”
On January 8, ** sent a telegram to the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Romulo, Secretary-General Ley, and forwarded to the members of the United Nations Security Council: **The people of the People's Republic of China believe that the representative of the reactionary remnants of the Chinese Kuomintang remains in the United Nations Security Council illegally, and advocate that he be expelled from the Security Council.
On 13 January, the UN Security Council voted on the Soviet Union's proposal on "expelling the Kuomintang clique and restoring the legitimate seat of the People's Republic of China." The result was that the Soviet Union, India, and Yugoslavia were in favor, the United States, France, Cuba, Egypt, Ecuador, and the Kuomintang bloc were opposed, Britain and Norway abstained, and the Soviet Union's proposal was vetoed under the manipulation of the United States. The Soviet Union believed that since there were representatives of the Kuomintang regime in the Security Council itself, which were not legitimate, and which the Soviet Union no longer recognized diplomatically, the Soviet Union would not recognize any decision it adopted as legitimate and would not participate in its work, and the Soviet delegation immediately announced its withdrawal from the daily work of the UN Security Council.
On 16 January, the Soviet Union, together with the representatives of the republics Belarus and Ukraine, Poland and Czechoslovakia, withdrew from three other bodies, namely, the UN Economic and Social Council's Procedural Committee, the Subcommittee on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of National Minorities, and the Special Committee on Stateless Persons and Related Issues, in a sign of their opposition to the Chiang Kai-shek clique's misappropriation of China's seat in the UN.
The Soviet Union's opposition to the participation of the Kuomintang clique in the United Nations and its affiliated bodies was undoubtedly a strong support for the People's Republic of China, and greater attention was paid to the question of China's representation within and outside the United Nations. UN Secretary-General Lie began to take action on the issue of the representation of the new China out of consideration for many factors.
On March 8, 1950, in his capacity as Secretary-General of the United Nations, Lie issued a "Legal Memorandum on the Question of China's Representation" to the members of the Security Council, and made it public. The basic idea of this memorandum is that, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, when a revolution claims to represent a country against the existing one, the question to be ascertained should be whether one of the two has the de facto status to use the resources of the State to direct the people in fulfilling their obligations as a member state, and whether the new one is able to exercise its effective rights within its territory and be subject to its own people. If the answer is yes, then the United Nations agencies should act collectively to give the United Nations the right to represent their own countries, even if some Member States have reason to refuse to recognize it in accordance with their national policies and insist on denying it legitimately.
It can be seen from the text that Lie is clearly inclined to accept the **people of the People's Republic of China** as the sole legitimate representative of China and the United Nations, and the logic he wants to show is very clear: since the People's Republic of China** has controlled most of the territory of China and effectively leads the Chinese people, it should occupy its seat in the United Nations, regardless of whether other countries have diplomatic recognition of him. Obviously, this is a positive expression of Ley's support for the restoration of the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China in the United Nations.
From 22 April to mid-May, Lie visited Washington, London, Paris, The Hague, Geneva, and Moscow to further actively mediate on the issue of China's representation in the United Nations. Clearly, there is a positive point in this action.
On May 15, Stalin met with visiting Rey, Molotov and Vyshinsky in Moscow. At the same time, Wang Jiaxiang, the new Chinese ambassador to the Soviet Union, met with Soviet Deputy Minister Gromyko to find out whether Lie could take drastic measures to get out of the deadlock of the United Nations shutdown. The Soviets were skeptical, believing that Ley's courage, courage and ability in the face of the United States were not enough. Gromyko also made it clear that the Soviet Union's principled stand in the United Nations and in various organs is very clear, that is, the Soviet representatives are absent from all organs that are illegally represented by the Kuomintang clique and do not have the legitimate representatives of the People's Republic of China.
At 12 noon on May 16, at Lai's request, Wang Jiaxiang held a half-hour meeting with him. During the talks between the two sides, Lai said that he had always tried his best to get New China to participate in various UN meetings, and although it had not yet achieved success, he hoped that this issue would be resolved this summer. Lai told Ambassador Wang Jiaxiang that he had received a telegram from Premier Xi on the issue of China's representation in the United Nations and was doing his utmost to resolve the issue of China's representation in the United Nations as soon as possible.
In response to the fact that the Kuomintang had given up sending representatives to the Red Cross at that time, Lai suggested that the Chinese people could take advantage of this opportunity to send their own representativesIt is hoped that China will conclude the negotiations with Britain as soon as possible, because if the Sino-British negotiations are delayed, it will have a detrimental impact on the position of many countries that have been slow to recognize the People's Republic of China, and on the contrary, once the negotiations on the establishment of diplomatic relations with Britain are completed, it will have a favorable impact on the settlement of the issue of China's representation in the United Nations. Lai's suggestion is clearly intended to reduce the resistance for New China to enter the United Nations.
Ley's diplomatic mediation was warmly welcomed in Paris and London, and eased relations between the Soviet Union and other permanent members of the UN Security Council, and the Soviet Union also said that it would return to the UN, greatly reducing the resistance for New China to enter the UN. Although New China was excluded from the United Nations for a long time due to political and historical reasons, it has never given up its efforts to build its own national strength and diplomatic efforts, and has persisted in working together with all peace-loving countries and peoples to uphold justice, safeguard the national independence and sovereignty of all countries, safeguard international peace, and promote the cause of human progress. It was not until October 25, 1971 that the People's Republic of China finally resumed its lawful seat in the United Nations.
Looking back at the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the Sino-Soviet exchanges, we cannot but sigh with emotion: With the first hoisting of the five-star red flag by the New China in the Soviet Embassy in the Soviet Union, it showed the world that the new China appeared on the world stage as a hopeful power. Since then, China's diplomacy has continued to forge ahead and overcome difficulties, forming a series of fine traditions and distinctive characteristics, and achieving a historical transformation from consolidating independence and integrating into the world to leading the times.
*: "Spring and Autumn of Literature and History" 2023 Issue 01, author Wu Yuenong.