Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China and India have been in constant friction over the border issue. The fundamental reason why China and India have different views on the border issue is due to differences in principle on the "Tibet issue." In 1960, when Premier Zhou Enlai visited India for the fourth time, when asked by reporters why Tibet is China, Premier Zhou's answer left the other side speechless. So, how did Premier Zhou skillfully answer this question from reporters?
For India, the first non-socialist country to establish diplomatic relations with New China, China has always hoped to get along with it. However, contrary to expectations, the two countries have never been able to produce a unified view on the border issue, so friction has continued. As for the border issue, to put it bluntly, it is the "Tibet issue." And this problem, in the final analysis, is still made in Britain.
During the Indian colonial period, in order to expand its sphere of influence to the north, britain wanted to take Tibet for itself, so as to obtain greater benefits in the Asian region. In stark contrast to britain, which was growing stronger at the time, was the weakening Qing government.
When the Qing Dynasty was strong, it strengthened its control over Tibet by sending ministers to Tibet and other means. Coupled with the strong economic and military capabilities of the Qing government at that time, other countries did not dare to covet it. Even those who invaded Tibet were all beaten away by the Qing army. But after 1884, the British invaded Tibet twice, and the Qing government at this time was already in a precarious situation, and it was difficult to protect itself, where was the strength to confront the British?
Seeing the strength and prosperity of the Qing government, the British did not dare to confront it at first, first sending people to take advantage of the opportunity of missionary and business to collect intelligence extensively, but gradually infiltrating, and then taking the opportunity to provoke ethnic contradictions and cause incidents. In 1888, Britain invaded Tibet for the first time and won victory. They forced the Qing government to sign a treaty to open Yadong as a trading port. In 1903, the British invaded Tibet again and directly captured Lhasa.
Later, the British forced the local government of Tibet at that time to sign an unequal treaty, pushing the Sino-Indian border northward into the "McMahon Line", thus encroaching on a large area of land in China. The territorial dispute over the Sino-Indian border has also arisen.
After the end of World War II, Britain's power declined rapidly and it could not continue to maintain its rule in India. In 1947, British rule in India ended and India and Pakistan were divided. Post-independence India inherited much of the legacy left by British India. These include areas such as southern Tibet. The British colonists of the time also said, "These areas would rather be given to India than to China." "This is the hidden danger that the British colonists planted for the two countries."
China and India establish diplomatic relations
On April 1, 1950, China and India formally established diplomatic relations. This is the beginning of the hope that China and India will get along in friendship. In June 1954, during the recess in Geneva, Premier Zhou visited India for the first time at the invitation of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
At that time, Premier Zhou's visit was warmly welcomed by the Indian side, and countless Indian people stood on both sides of the road with flowers in their hands to show their welcome to Premier Zhou. In October of the same year, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was also invited to visit China, which was also welcomed by our people. The friendly exchange of visits by the prime ministers of the two countries has also promoted the development of friendly relations between the two countries.
But the good times were short-lived. As China and the Soviet Union turned against each other, Sino-Soviet relations became tense. In the southern waters of China, there are US fleets looking at the tiger. And India's wolf ambitions are gradually beginning to show. With the support of the United States and the Soviet Union, India has launched wars of aggression against neighboring countries on many occasions, seized a large amount of land, and then began to covet China.
McMahon Line
The Indian side first used the "McMahon Line" as an excuse to invade and occupy China's territory. After seeing our country's tolerant attitude, it opened fire on it many times. However, in order to maintain peace and stability between the two countries, China still maintains an attitude of tolerance and restraint.
In order to avoid a greater conflict between China and India over the border issue, on April 19, 1960, in order to show his sincerity, Premier Zhou personally led a team to visit India, which was the fourth time that Premier Zhou had visited India. Unlike the warm welcome attitude of the Indian side during premier Zhou's visit to India three times ago, this time the Indian side showed extreme indifference, not only did there no welcoming crowd on both sides of the road, but even the scene was very casual.
In order to embarrass China, the Indian side ignored diplomatic etiquette and arranged only a dozen people to give a symbolic welcome. Moreover, at the welcoming ceremony held by the Indian side for Premier Zhou, the Indian prime minister even directly used Hindi for his welcome speech. You know, in such important situations, it is usually used in English.
It can be said that the Indian side has done the extreme perfunctory regard to Premier Zhou's visit. However, for India's attitude, Premier Zhou did not think about it, but continued to smile to show the style of a big country.
However, after more than 20 hours of intermittent negotiations with the Indian premier, Premier Zhou found that the Indian side's attitude was very tough and domineering, and it only wanted Premier Zhou to make concessions on the Tibet border issue, and had no intention of properly handling the issue.
At the end of the negotiations, the Indian side not only directly rejected Premier Zhou's proposal, but also expressed its attitude toward Premier Zhou's proposal that China and India each make concessions, and pointed out bluntly: This proposal undermines the integrity of India's national territory. At this point, the negotiations between China and India have completely reached an impasse. At this time, Premier Zhou and his party had been in India for 6 days.
6 days is not a long time, but the most critical issue has not made any progress. The attitude of the Indian side shows that they do not want to discuss this issue with China at all, but only want China to make concessions. As the date of return approaches, the border issue has not yet progressed, and it is false to say that there is no hurry.
So Premier Zhou decided to unilaterally hold a press conference on Indian territory to make China's position clear to the world. On the evening of April 25, 1960, the Chinese delegation came to the scene of the press conference.
Before the press conference even started, journalists from all over the world were already waiting. In order to create a public opinion effect, the Indian side also sent people to mix among the reporters, with the intention of creating a bad impression of China among the reporters.
As soon as the time for the press conference arrived, Premier Zhou walked into the venue. In the face of the flickering magnesium lights, Premier Zhou was still calm and composed, and his face did not change color and walked towards the venue.
Verna, a journalist who was very kind to China at the time, quietly told Premier Zhou: "Someone at the venue will embarrass you today, so you have to be careful." Werna's words touched Premier Zhou very much, and he responded very politely: "Thank you for the reminder." With that, he was going to go to the stage.
Seeing that Premier Zhou was so calm, Verna was worried in her heart, and once again reminded Premier Zhou: "You must know that this is not a simple reception, it is equivalent to a shooting range. You are the only target on the field. ”
In the face of Verna's re-reminder, Premier Zhou patted her on the shoulder soothingly and said, "You can rest assured, I will not be knocked down by their bullets, and the China behind me will not be knocked down." Premier Zhou's serious and serious attitude let Verna know that Premier Zhou had already made various preparations to face the difficulties of reporters.
In fact, Verna's concerns are not unreasonable. Because journalists in New Delhi have always been known for being "tough on things," even their own leaders have been questioned. Not to mention the Chinese that is now snubbed by them?
When Premier Zhou stepped onto the stage, a sharp voice suddenly sounded from the stage: "Chinese, get out!" For a moment, all the eyes of the audience were focused on Premier Zhou, wanting to see how he would react in the face of such blatant embarrassment.
Hearing that shout, Premier Zhou did not even give a look, but still stood on the stage fearlessly. And his calm and composure also made many reporters in the audience admire, so there was a warm applause from the audience, covering up the insult. Subsequently, Premier Zhou waved his hand to quiet down the stage, and then began his speech.
Throughout the speech process, Premier Zhou was not humble and unhurried, and his slightly hoarse voice was extremely infectious. At the same time, reporters in the audience wrote down the main points in their notebooks. After Premier Zhou's speech, there was a round of applause from the audience.
In fact, premier Zhou received "courtesy" at this press conference, which has never been seen before. Remember how difficult journalists in New Delhi are, and their own leaders have been ugly on the spot many times. They have been proud of their difficult spokesmen many times.
But this time Premier Zhou stood on the stage, and his every move deeply attracted the audience, so that everyone seriously heard the end, and no one attacked halfway. Such a thing can be called a miracle in New Delhi at that time.
After the speech, Premier Zhou picked up the cup and took a sip of tea on his side. In fact, this is also one of the perfect etiquette of Premier Zhou. He always showed respect for others in small details, such as he never drank tea directly in front of the audience.
Premier Zhou, who had drunk tea, also said humorously to the audience: "A friend told me that many of the people here are descendants of the god of war, Kumoro, and they are ready to fire shells at me." In fact, I think that if there is a fire in my heart, I should send it out, and I am willing to bear it, after all, I am your friend. ”
Kumoro is the god of war in Indian mythology, and Premier Zhou used him as an analogy to directly close the distance with the reporters in the audience. Moreover, his words also broke the careful thinking of some people, and for a while no one in the audience even made a sound.
After a while, a reporter stood up to break the silence and asked Premier Zhou: "Isn't the territorial division of the Sino-Indian border very clear?" What else is necessary to renegotiate? Is it to redivide? Premier Zhou patiently replied: "If you have studied the historical issue of the Sino-Indian border and listened carefully to the voice of the Chinese government, you would not have asked such a question." ”
With the first person beginning, the people behind them began to ask questions. A British journalist asked: "You say that the solution to the problem should be negotiated, please ask what is originally someone else's thing, what qualifications do you have to talk about the ownership of this thing?" ”
In the face of this problem, Premier Zhou's attitude was immediately much more serious. He said: "On the question of the territory of the country, the analogy you have just made is not appropriate. But we can use another metaphor to illustrate that if a person's things are taken away by robbers, shouldn't that person get them back? ”
The British reporter obviously did not expect Premier Zhou to answer in this way, and he hesitated for a while before asking: "Do you mean to say that India is a robber?" His question was clearly intended to provoke the anger of the Indian journalists present. Then, as long as Premier Zhou's answer makes them a little dissatisfied, they will be attacked like never before.
But Premier Zhou was still not in a hurry, and he said very frankly: "Of course there are bandits, but not India, but Britain, if it were not for british colonists, India and China would not have a dispute over the border issue." Premier Zhou's answer has a historical basis that makes it impossible for British journalists to refute it.
At this press conference, Premier Zhou's successive counterattacks made some malicious reporters a little flustered, and some people directly asked in panic: "When did Tibet become China's territory?" ”
Premier Zhou still replied politely: "Tibet has been China's territory since ancient times. Far from it, at least during the Yuan Dynasty, it was already China's territory. The reporter immediately retorted: "The time between the Yuan Dynasty and the present is too short. ”
Subsequently, Premier Zhou said something that left the other party speechless. Premier Zhou said: "Everyone who has known about China's history knows that China's Yuan Dynasty is more than 700 years away from now, and if 700 years is short, then what does the United States say about the United States, which has only been founded for more than 100 years?" Can't the United States be called a country anymore? ”
This press conference held on Indian territory won the praise of the people of the world with Premier Zhou's incomparably superb language skills and humorous attitude, and also let the whole world see China's sincerity in looking forward to peace. Even if the Indian side does not appreciate it, China will still unswervingly defend its national sovereignty.
Friends who think the article is good, may wish to click a free follow, your support is my greatest motivation!