Wednesday, 17 January

I wrote to Bingkun, asking him to stop sending me Huaqiao Ribao as it costs HK$100 per month. I should be frugal for this.

I studied Spanish the whole day.

This afternoon, Beijing radio broadcast a reply to the United Nations’ proposals, declining the conditions for armistice. China raised four clauses as a counter-proposal.

• Foreign armies evacuate completely from Korean territory. The internal politics of Korea would be decided solely by Koreans.
• The American army should totally withdraw from Taiwan and the Taiwan Straits. The various issues to be settled in conferences.
• The participating countries would be the People’s Republic of China, the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States, France, India, and Egypt.
• The conference would be held in China.

On hearing this, Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, declared that Beijing had rejected the conditions of the United Nations and said the counter-proposals of Beijing are unacceptable to the United States. He then immediately sent an order to the American representative in the United Nations, proposing that he declare the Chinese Communists as aggressors.

Beijing rejected the conditions for armistice.  This was completely expected by me.