On Diplomacy

by Mao Zedong

In order to make known Mao Zedong's contributions to China's foreign affairs, and enable people to study and inherit his ideas on diplomacy, the present book, Mao Zedong on Diplomacy, has been compiled, with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the CPC Central Committee's Party Literature Research Center.

This book is a collection of 160 of Mao Zedong's writings, speeches, talks, comments and telegrams concerning diplomacy from July 1937 to May 1974. Most are published here for the first time.

Mao Zedong was a great diplomatic strategist of modern times. As the chief leader of the Communist Party and People's Republic of China, he laid out principles of external affairs and diplomatic strategies, tactics and policies during the War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-1945) and the War of Liberation (1946-1949). For 27 years after the founding of the People's Republic he made significant contributions to forming the country's strategic guidelines on international affairs, laying down diplomatic policies, planning important diplomatic activities and opening up a new prospect in China's foreign affairs. This book records Mao Zedong's fundamental views on international situations and diplomatic strategies as well as his strategic and tactical concepts in and theoretical contributions to foreign affairs.

In compiling this book, the editors have remained loyal to the original editions or manuscripts of the articles included in this book. A few changes in language were made in the original manuscripts or articles published before. Transcripts of speeches and talks were edited, with errors of fact corrected and titles added. Notes on the sources are provided at the end of all the articles. Explanatory and editorial notes are also provided. The former can be found at the bottom of the first page of each article, and the latter are numbered and can be found in the appendix.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China Party Literature Research Center of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China June 1994

498 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung, and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, statesman and leader of the Chinese Revolution. He was the architect and founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from its establishment in 1949, and held control over the nation until his death in 1976. His theoretical contribution to Marxism–Leninism, along with his military strategies and brand of policies, are collectively known as Maoism.

Mao rose to power by commanding the Long March, forming a Second United Front with Kuomintang (KMT) during the Second Sino-Japanese War to repel a Japanese invasion, and later led the Communist Party of China (CPC) to victory against Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's KMT in the Chinese Civil War. Mao established political and military control over most of the territory formerly contained within the Chinese Empire and launched a campaign to suppress counterrevolutionaries. He sent the Communist People's Liberation Army into Xinjiang and Tibet but was unable to oust the remnants of the Nationalist Party from Taiwan. He enacted sweeping land reform by using violence and terror to overthrow landlords before seizing their large estates and dividing the land into people's communes. The Communist Party's final victory came after decades of turmoil in China, which included the Great Depression, a brutal invasion by Japan and a protracted civil war. Mao's Communist Party ultimately achieved a measure of stability in China, though Mao's efforts to close China to trade and market commerce, and eradicate traditional Chinese culture, have been largely rejected by his successors.

Mao styled himself "The Great Helmsman" and supporters continue to contend that he was responsible for some positive changes which came to China during his three decade rule. These included doubling the school population, providing universal housing, abolishing unemployment and inflation, increasing health care access, and dramatically raising life expectancy. A cult of personality grew up around Mao, and community dissent was not permitted. His Communist Party still rules in mainland China, retains control of media and education there and officially celebrates his legacy. As a result, Mao is still officially held in high regard by many Chinese as a great political strategist, military mastermind, and savior of the nation. Maoists promote his role as a theorist, statesman, poet, and visionary, and anti-revisionists continue to defend most of his policies.

Reviews

[Voyager · Rating 2 out of 5]

Likely the last volume consisting of the works of Mao to be published by the Foreign Languages Press, On Diplomacy lives up to its title, consisting of Mao's diplomatic works and works dealing with foreign affairs overall, ranging from talks with foreign delegations to articles on affairs outside of China and fragments from longer works dealing with foreign affairs. Although a few works contained within had already been published elsewhere such as in the five-volume selected works series or Selected Readings from the Works of Mao Tsetung, a lot of the contained works have never been published outside of their original Mandarin making this book especially useful for students of Chinese foreign policy during the Mao era.

That this volume deals with Mao's foreign policy by revealing the policy from the horse's mouth, or at least how Mao wanted to conduct foreign policy since things did not always go to plan, makes it all so valuable to communists since it further reveals the utter betrayal by Mao of the principles of Marxism-Leninism (although plenty enough evidence can be found in the other volumes of his works), revealing how Mao saw in the Titoites a kind of kindred spirit for they shared in Mao's opposition to Stalinism, and it is shown by word and practice that Mao's divergences with Khrushchev did not emerge from any attempt by Mao to defend the principles of Marxism-Leninism or the legacy of Stalin from the revisionists, but rather that the divergences stemmed from contradictions between the Khrushchevites and China's own national bourgeoisie (with Mao at their head) and that Mao had on the whole been in agreement with the Khrushchevites in principle. Moreover, the legend commonly presented by Maoists to the effect that Mao had not supported the theory of three worlds and had become senile by the time of its emergence is shattered as several talks by Mao reveal him to be quite lucid and in control of his thoughts speaking of the theory of three words and using its method. All of this gives this volume an immense political value since it further lays bare the "margarine communism", as Stalin described it, of Mao.

[Sinan Öner]

Mao Tse Tung's "On Diplomacy" can be useful now, in the times of questioning for the peacemaking in the world. Mao Tse Tung's "On Diplomacy" contains his a lot of articles, notes on diplomacy during wars before the 2. World War in China, after, Mao Tse Tung's comments, observations, reactions to the current questions of the world politics. Mao Tse Tung, as a practical leader, wrote a lot of articles on the international relations during his mission in the China Communist Party, "On Diplomacy" is the good source for understanding Mao Tse Tung for his practical works on the peace, for his intellectual works. Mao Tse Tung, like a lot of Communist leaders, saw the wars, but he suggested a peace which must be based on the rules of modern law. For Mao Tse Tung, the human rights, the freedom, the equal developments of societies, the ruling powers of working class and peasantry, the rationality in the international relations form the ground of world peace.