Wednesday, 26 July

Dull, rain and cold

At 9.00 in the morning we went to the military airport to see the American Minister Hamilton off.

I have been unable to sleep the past few days because I am extremely worried about the deterioration of the Sino-Soviet relationship, which has turned from bad to worse. The main reasons are the issues of Xinjiang and the Chinese Communist Party. The fault of the latter is not mine, but the various activities of Sheng Shicai are most unreasonable, and this is my fault. So I discussed with Jingchen and Shaozhou sending a secret telegram to Minister Song, telling him that the Soviet Union said that it did not want to cooperate with Sheng Shicai, and that it repeatedly expressed its discontent for Sheng’s treatment of Soviet consulates and subjects in Xinjiang. Recently, the Soviet Union took means of revenge with regard to our five Consulates on the Xinjiang border, and there were conflicts on the Xinjiang-Mongolia border, and I heard that lately it is possible it may escalate and that prospect would be extremely gloomy. Also in terms of the international situation, one can see easily how strong the Red Army is, and we need the Red Army to defeat Germany. So Britain and the United States try their best to please and cooperate with the Soviet Union, and it has realised that its international status is on the rise. We have such hard labour before us, in the future our rejuvenation needs the assistance of this friendly state. This time if we unfortunately come into conflict with the Soviet Union, even though Britain and the United States show sympathy to us, they will be unwilling to break up with the Soviet Union because of us. It is also possible that their sympathy is not completely with us. So if our Central Government doesn’t try to thoroughly rectify the activities of the Xinjiang authority towards the Soviet Union, the prospect will be extremely dangerous. For the sake of our future, it would be worthy to suffer humiliation now. So I asked Minister Song to report to the Chairman the main points and asked him to send a reply to us with regard to the issue. I was fine with Sheng Shicai, but his actions are detrimental for our future, so I had no choice but to express my opinion. I have been unable to sleep for the past few days. I thought many times if I do not tell the truth I will be unable to face my seniors, Party and country. If it arouses misunderstanding I will bear it. I will suffer even more in my conscience if I let this go.

Today the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that with regard to Polish territory the Soviet Union has no territorial intentions, and said it will change its social system.

Britain broadcast that Liang Hancao talked to foreign reporters with regard to the issue of the Chinese Communist Party. He said this May the Central Government forwarded conditions to the Chinese Communist Party, and the Yenan side proposed counter conditions yesterday. Central Government is studying them now. All in all, it is trying its best to solve the issue of the Chinese Communist Party politically.