The Times Report of the Proclamation of the People's Republic of China
The Kuomintang (KMT) and the Communists (CCP) had struggled for control of the Chinese government since 1927, and a truce made in 1936 to form a united front against Japanese aggression was always a nominal attempt at a truce. With the threat of invasion removed by the Allied defeat of Japan in 1945, the struggle resumed, however, with the KMT forces largely under-supplied and war weary, while the CCP in north-western China, who largely escaped the impact of the war, were in receipt of aid from the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) they rapidly defeated Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT forces. On October 1, 1949, Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China the legitimate government of China and was immediately recognized by the Soviet Union—as reported here in The Times of October 3, 1949. Original spellings have been retained throughout.




Russia Recognizes Chinese People’s Republic

Peking Request For Recognition By Other Countries

Russia yesterday broke off relations with the Chinese Nationalists and accepted a proposal from the Government of the newly established People’s Republic of China for the exchange of ambassadors.

The Peking People’s Government had approached all diplomatic representatives in China, inviting recognition.

The new régime was formally proclaimed at Peking on Saturday by Mao Tse-tung, chairman of the Government Council.

TELEGRAM FROM MR GROMYKO

AMBASSADORS TO BE EXCHANGED

Moscow wireless broadcast last night the text of a telegram sent yesterday by Mr. Gromyko, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, to Chou En-lai, the Foreign Minister of the newly established Chinese Communist People’s Government at Peking. The telegram read:—

“The Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics hereby confirms receipt of the declaration of the Central People’s Government of China, dated October 1 this year, with the proposal to establish diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union.

“Having examined the proposal of the Central People’s Government of China, the Soviet Government, invariably striving to maintain friendly relations with the Chinese people and confident that the Central People’s Government of China expresses the will of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, informs you that it has decided to establish diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China and to exchange ambassadors.”

“PROFOUND CHANGES”

It was also stated in the broadcast that Mr. Gromyko, on behalf of the Soviet Government, had made the following statement to the Chargé d’Affaires in Moscow of the Chinese Nationalist Government:

“Owing to events that have occurred in China which have brought about profound changes in the military, political, and social life of the country, as a result of which the Chinese People’s Republic has been formed and a Central People’s Government of China has been set up, the Government of Mr. Yen Hsi-shan, located in Canton, has ceased to exercise power in the country, has become a provincial government of Canton and has lost the right to maintain diplomatic relations with foreign States on behalf of China…

“The Soviet Government, taking into account all these circumstances, considers diplomatic relations with Canton as discontinued, and has decided to recall its diplomatic representatives from Canton.”

DECLARATION BY MAO TSE-TUNG

MASS GATHERING AT PEKING

HONG KONG, OCT 2—In a brief statement read at a mass rally held yesterday before one of the massive gateways to the Forbidden City in Peking, Mao Tse-tung, who on the previous day had been unanimously elected chairman of the central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, formally proclaimed the inauguration of the new régime. It was an epoch-making moment in the history of Asia. Though not all of China is yet in the hands of the Communists, there can be no doubt that, for good or for evil, this is now the Government of nearly 500m. people, the largest single homogenous racial group in the world.

Mao declared: “The people throughout China have been plunged into bitter sufferings and tribulations since the Chiang Kai-shek reactionary Government betrayed the fatherland, conspired with imperialists, and launched a counter-revolutionary war. However, our People’s Liberation Army, supported by the people throughout the country, fighting heroically and selflessly to defend the territorial sovereignty of the fatherland, to protect the people’s lives and property, to relieve the people of their sufferings, and to struggle for their rights, has eliminated the reactionary troops and overthrown the reactionary rule of the National Government. Now the war of the people’s liberation has been fundamentally won and the majority of the people throughout the country have been liberated.” The People’s Political Consultative Conference, representing the will of the Chinese people, has enacted the organic law of the central People’s Government, had elected officers and member of the central People’s Government Council, had proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and had decided that Peking should be the capital of the new republic.

COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS

“The central People’s Government Council took office to-day in this capital and unanimously made the following decisions: To proclaim the formation of the central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China; to adopt the common programme of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference as the policy of the Government; to appoint Lin Po-chu from among the members of the Government Council as secretary-general of the council, to appoint Chou En-lai as Premier of State Administration in the Council and concurrently Minister of Foreign Affairs, to appoint Mao Tse-tung as chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Military Council, to appoint Chu Teh as commander-in-chief of the People’s Liberation Justice of the Supreme People’s Court, and to appoint Lo Jung-huan as Procurator-General of the People’s Procurator-General’s Office, and to entrust them with the task of the early formation of the various organs of government.”

Mao concluded “At the same time the central People’s Government Council decided to declare to the Governments of all other countries that this Government is the sole legal Government representing all the people of the People’s Republic of China. This Government is willing to establish diplomatic relations with any foreign Government which is willing to observe the principles of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

The Communist New China news agency reports that about 200,000 people gathered to hear this historic pronouncement. All stood to attention when Mao hoisted the new flag of Communist China, five yellow stars on a red background, and the band played the new national anthem. “The March of the Volunteers.” Guns fired 28 salvos, which echoed through the city. After the pronouncement had been read there was a ceremonial parade at which General Chu Teh took the salute. Units of the various branches of the armed forces, some equipped with up-to-date American artillery, tanks, and armoured cars captured from the Nationalists, took part in the march past, while fighters and bombers of the Communist air force flew in formation overhead. Fireworks and other demonstrations prolonged the celebrations well into the night. Some reports stated that this official inauguration of the new régime will be followed by three days of celebrations and by the important Chinese national festival of the “double tenth,” October 10, which commemorates the first successful uprising against the Manchus.

Yesterday’s celebrations were attended by a Soviet cultural and educational mission of 43 members headed by Mr. Alexander Fadeyev, who, according to some Communist dispatches, had been accorded special ambassadorial rank by his Government for this occasion. The mission had previously been given an official welcome both at Mukden and on their arrival at Peking, many of the Chinese Communist leaders going to the station to meet them. So far as is known here no foreign representatives apart from the Russians attended the ceremonies in Peking.

NON-COMMUNISTS

At its final meeting on Friday the People’s Political Consultative Conference elected the members of the two bodies which will be, in effect, the two highest organs of State in Communist China. The first is the Central People’s Government Council, which, according to Communist dispatches, “is vested with the power of exercising the State authority in the name of the People’s Republic of China.” In addition to the chairman and six vice-chairmen there are 56 members of the council, among whom are not only all the leading Communist generals and better-known civilians in the movement but also a number of non-Communists such as the former Nationalist generals Fu Tso-yi, Chang Chih-chung, and Cheng Chien (the former Governor of Yunnan, now in Hong Kong), General Lung Yun, the Singapore millionaire Shu-tung, and representatives of both the Mongol and the Sinkjang national minorities.

The second body elected on Friday was the so-called national committee of the Consultative Conference, which has been formed “to direct the work of the Chinese People’s Democratic Front and to make proposals and recommendations to the Government Council on vital affairs of State.” One hundred and eighty members from among the more than 600 delegates attending the conference were elected to this committee, 18 seats being left vacant for members representing areas of China still to be “liberated.”

COMMUNIST LEADERS’ CAREERS

EARLY PARTY MEMBERSHIP

Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, who has now become chairman of the central People’s Government Council, was born in 1893 in the province of Hunan, of peasant stock.

In his youth he was an earnest student and he worked for a time in the university library at Peking. In 1921 he joined the Chinese Communist Party, and during the period of the Kuomintang-Communist collaboration he was attached to the Kuomintang’s Shanghai headquarters. He supported the peasant movement among the Communists against the rival faction who maintained that the future of Communism in China depended upon organizing workers in the large cities. Later, when the efforts of the rival faction failed, the views of Mao were accepted both by the Communist Party of China and by the Comintern. After General Chiang Kai-shek seized control in 1927, Mao set up a Chinese Soviet in Kiangsi. He has been chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party since 1936.

General Chu Teh, the commander-in-chief of the Communist forces, who has now become one of the vice-chairmen of the Government Council, was born in 1886 in Szechwan. He attended Yunnan Military Academy and after the outbreak of the Chinese revolution in 1911 he fought for some 10 years with the Republican troops. He then went to Europe, where he studied, mostly in Berlin. There, in 1922, he joined the Communist Party. In 1926 he returned to China, took a leading part in the unsuccessful Nanchang rising against General Chiang in 1927, and then fled to Kiangsi and Fukien. In 1928 he joined forces with Mao on the Kiangsi-Hunan border and directed Communist tactics during the famous Long March of some 6,000 miles in 1934 to the fringes of Tibet. He has been commander-in-chief since 1931.

Chou En-lai, who now becomes Premier of the State Administration Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, was born in 1898. He is a member of an old Mandarin family, and had a university education both in Japan and China. In 1920 he joined a worker-student scheme, sponsored by Mao, and was sent to France. He then travelled in Europe for some four years and in 1924 returned to China to become a provincial secretary in the Communist Party. In the unsuccessful Nanchang rising he was captured, but he managed to escape and spent the next three years in Moscow. In 1931 he joined in the Chinese Soviet, under Mao. Before the breakdown of negotiations in 1947 he was the chief liaison officer between the Communists and the Nationalist Government.

Source: The Times [http://www.the-times.co.uk/]


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