Tuesday, 10 January
Twenty-eighth day of the eleventh lunar month, Yiwei year
Bitter cold, snow
Today was a day-off for Zhongxiong, so we went to the restaurant instead. As it was quite cold outside, business was really very poor. I got up so early I did not feel well for the whole day.
Tabouis reported in L’Information that the report of [Valerian] Zorin[1] advocates the Soviet Union should stop immediately its support to the Communist Party in West Germany, so that the leaders of West Germany would not have any reason to be suspicious towards the Soviet Union. Then it could gradually improve its relationship with the latter. West Germany would gradually become neutral. The Soviet Union wants to make West Germany think that its close connection with the Western group would become the biggest bulwark to its unification. For this neutral unification, Germany would have a quite big impact on Europe as well as the whole world. The article also said that the Financial Minister of West Germany, Dr. Schäffer, could succeed Adenauer. So it advocated Bulganin and Khrushchev could visit Germany at the same time on their way to visit Britain. This report seems to have been accepted by the Soviet authority. The plan of Zorin really has insight. I really think that the talents of the American side have no counterpart with the Soviet Union.
[1] Valerian Zorin was the first Soviet ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany.