COMMUNIST CHINA'S TWO FACES: THE FACTS BEHIND CHOU EN-LAI'S LATEST ADVICE TO THE OVERSEAS CHINESE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-00915R000500320001-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 5, 1956
• Content Type: REPORT

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COMMUNIST CHINA'S TWO FACES: THE FACTS
BEHIND CHOU EN-LAI'S LATEST ADVICE TO
THE OVERSEAS CHINESE
Chou Tells'Overseas Chinese to Become Citizens of Land Where
They Live
On October 3. 1956, according to a Reuters Peking dispatch,
Premier Chou En-lai of Communist China told Overseas Chinese
members of a trade delegation from Malaya and Singapore that the
Overseas Chinese should "become citizens of the land where they
live and should participate fully in the life of that country. " Chou
went on to say that in this way they could "help their adopted
countries to win independence. " Similar statements were reported
by the Periping Radio as made by Chou to David Marshall, former
Chief Minister of Singapore. on the occasion of his visit to China
in September and October 1956.
This Propaganda Stand is in Line With Current International Com-
munist Tactics
This attitude towards the Overseas Chinese an the part of the.
Chinese Communists is not surprising, even though there is a
reversal of classic China. policy. It fits very well into the general
pattern of current international tactics which emphasize the legality
and respectability of Communist parties. "national unity", coalitions,
and a disavowal of subversive intent, It is necessary for the Chinese
Communists to profess this policy in order to calm the fears of
Southeast Asian governments that the Overseas Chinese consider
their loyalty to China more important than loyalties to the country
of their residence. This step is a necessary feature of current
Chinese policy of establishing or strengthening diplomatic ties
with the new governments in the area.
Advantages to China
If Overseas Chinese can, by accepting citizenship, end economic
an political discrimination against them, they can, by virtue. of their
numbers and their business skill, become a formidable political force
in the countries In which they live. If, at the same time, a rp o-Com-
rnunist orientation can be maintained, this force would be at the com-
mand of China and might well be a more formidable instrument than
the old Overseas Chinese communities, isolated from the political
life of those countries.
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Communist Interpretation of Word "Independence"
The last sentence in Chou En-lai's remarks. to the Malayan
delegation is a particularly revealing statement of the true in-
tentions of the Chinese Comztiunists. The Overseas Chinese are
told that as citizens they could help their adopted countries win
their "independence". In Communist terms what does this mean?
Words often take on special meanings in Communist usage. Let us
see just what they mean when they talk about independence. What
countrias;,id they describe as "colonies still struggling for national
liberation"?
In the 20 November 1952 issue of Kommunist, the official
theoretical publication of the Soviet Communist Party, the magazine
referred to "France, England, West Germany and Japan, not to
mention Greece, Turks and Yugoslavia. . . colonies of American
imperialism. " Certainly these peoples would be surprised to learn
that- their countries are colonies. Another Soviet publication, the
Literary Gazette, in May, 1953, stated that "the Philippine pepple
want to turn from a 'model' colony of Wall Street into a truly free
and inde endent country " This description must have been a shock
to President Magsaysay Whe knows his country to be already free
and independent.
Liu.. Shan-chi, second only to Mao Tse-tung in the Red China
hierarchy, wrote in 1954 of the "colonial and semi-colonial countries
such as India, Burma. Siam, the Philippines. Indonesia. Viet Nam,
South Korea. etc, " Some of these countries follow neutral policies,
some of them have.chosen alliance with the West. but none of them,
according to Liu to really independent. Chou En-tai himself, at the
Bandung Conference in April, 1955, referred to Surma. India and
Indonesia as countries which were still struggling for complete inde-
pandence.
"Independence", to the Communists, we ace then, from their
own words, means a complete rejection of all ties with any non-
Communist natiou and a close alignment with the Communist bloc.
Anything lose than this, any exercise of free choice by a country
in deciding its own course, is, at best~ i-colonialism , according
to inverted Communist "logic".
When Mr. Chou tells the Overseas Chinese to work for the
"independence" of their adopted countries, he is telling them to
work for the severing of all political, military and economic ties
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with the West, the establishment of close relations with the "Peace-
loving nationd' and, eventually, joining the "socialist camp" the
Soviet bloc/--in short, the Communization of the country which, to
flee Couarnuaist, is the on1 true and complete lade endence.
Does Chou Mean what He S` 7
No government of a country possessing a community of Overseas
Chinese should be misled by Mr. Chou's words into believing that
the Chinese Communist* are really telling the Overseas. Chinese
to abandon their- Chinese nationality and be genuinely assimilated
into the national community. Like the other aspects of the now line,
emphasizing legality. respectability, and so on, this "advice" is
oz ly an attempt to set up a new and attractive smoke screen under
which the old techniques of subversion can be carried on more
effectively than ever; even while Mr. Chou is speaking these soft
words, the Chinese Communists are busy with propaganda and
organizational activities among Overseas Chinese everywhere
designed to accomplish the direct opposite. Here are some
Chinese Mfairm Cnrnrnfam&s __ ; ? ukien Overseas
In Fukien province, in September 1956 th F
addressed
m
War their Fukienese
onin. to invest their Mona in China and to send a delegation on
a vi sit so. their motherland.
u
ene
Chinese of
Phnorj
Penh. Cambodia. inviting them to re
e
i
uni within the national society and to inculcate a loyalty
to Communist Chin
In one country, where many small Overseas Chinese communities
in the outlying towns have already begun the process of assimilation,
Chinese Communist !gents. directed b members of the Chinese
Communist Embassy, .are busy trying to arrest the process and
simultaneously to reawaken the consciousness of being a separate-
r
In another, members of the Ch inane Communist Embassy and
Coniia,tse reg ar y visit e erseas CEIR'se conununities xough-
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F
ki
w
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out the country, acting as judges or referees to settle all manner
of disputes 4iaon8 the Chinese residents. This meddling in internal
affairs could be justified only on the theory that these citizens of
Chinese ancestry, are really still Chinese nationals, subject to the
jurisdiction of Chinese officials. Apparently this is exactly the
view of Communist China as shown in these. activities of official
personnelw every though Mr. Chou may have been, for his own
propaganda purposes, telling some Overseas Chinese repro-
sentatives just the.opposite.
This interference is practiced even in countries with a
Communist government. On October 3, 1956 the Hanoi radio
reported that, "according to the decisions of the Ci nese Embassy
in Vietnam", a Chinese Public Secondary School had been opened
in Hanoi to provide for the education of the children of Chinese
residents in North Vietnam. Thus, even in their- satellite state,
North Vietnam, the Chinese Communists through their official
establishment, are making sure that Oversees Chinese children,
will receive an education designed to keep them Chinese, not
Vietnamese.
Here again, as in so many cases, one has only.to look to
perceive the direct contradiction between what the 'C binese Corn-
inunists .say when they wish to present an appearance of amiabiliti
and cooperativeness, and the things which, at the same time, they
are actually doing.
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