Source: Jun Zhengping Studio, PLA News and Communication Center Rong Media
Author: Pond Fish
In August 1949, on the eve of the victory of the Chinese Revolution, U.S. Ambassador to China Stuart Layden took a suitcase and boarded a plane to the United States.
Why would this "friend of the Chinese people" who was born in Hangzhou, China, who spoke fluently Chinese, who made certain contributions to China's education, who spent three years in Japanese prison during the War of Resistance Against Japan, and the U.S. ambassador to China who stayed in Nanjing with the expectation of establishing diplomatic relations with the new regime, have to leave China with regret?
It is true that in the later period of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the US government provided large-scale material assistance to the then Chinese Nationalist Government, and the "Flying Tigers" composed of US volunteer air force personnel also dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese army in the joint operation against Japan with the Chinese Air Force. However, the aim was to strike at its rival Japan and turn China into a vassal of the United States, which had then developed into a stage of monopoly capitalism, and it was in its national interest to acquire commercial privileges in China to ensure capital exports.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in order to win the capital of the civil war, the Kuomintang government signed the last unequal treaty in China's modern history, the Sino-US Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation. The signing of this treaty, which opened its doors and in fact turned China into a dumping colony of American goods, has brought great damage to China's sovereignty, political and economic interests. The US military is stationed in Chinese territory and acts recklessly; AMERICAN commodities flood into the Chinese market like a tidal wave, forming an exclusive position and dealing a devastating blow to the national bourgeoisie; a large number of industrial and commercial enterprises have collapsed and gone bankrupt, workers have lost their jobs, and the industrial system in the nationally controlled areas has tended to disintegrate. Some US officials boasted smugly that they had since gained "the privilege" of exploiting China "in a clear and legal form."
At the end of the Liberation War, all three major battles were over, and the political situation in China became very clear: the overall situation of the defeat of the Kuomintang regime was decided, and the Chinese Communist Party would gain national power. Regime change is inevitable, and all along, the United States has been aiding China with "an unpopular government" and "a dictatorship that does not represent the will of the people.", and the US China policy has entered a situation of "dilemma." As ambassador to China, Stuart Redden was deeply disappointed by the dictatorship, corruption, and incompetence of the Kuomintang regime, and as the Nationalist government gradually collapsed, he had new plans for the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and the United States.
On April 22, on the eve of the liberation of Nanjing, Kuomintang Foreign Minister Ye Gongchao personally visited Stuart Layden and asked him to lead the U.S. Embassy in China to move south to Guangzhou with the Nationalist government. Situ Leiden, who had always been close to Chiang Kai-shek and had a close personal relationship, refused this request, and instead chose to stay in Nanjing, hoping to contact the top level of the CCP and ease relations.
After the liberation of Nanjing by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Huang Hua, director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Nanjing Military Control Commission, who graduated from Yenching University in his early years, had many carefully arranged informal contacts with Situ Leiden.
In his dealings with Stuart, Huang Hua unequivocally expounded the diplomatic position of the Chinese Communist Party, urging the United States to withdraw its troops from China, sever diplomatic relations with the Kuomintang, and do things that benefit both China and the United States. Stuart Also put forward the expectation of "dispelling misunderstandings" and "understanding each other".
But what he expects is a one-way, U.S.-based understanding that allows American democratic influence to permeate Communist Party-led China to "mitigate its authoritarian power." What he wants, or what the U.S. government wants, is to force the Chinese Communist Party to accept the old treaty signed between the Nationalist government and the United States, and to maintain reconciliation based on China's privileges. This is absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese Communist Party, which seeks to break the unequal mechanism of foreign exchanges and create a new independent sovereign diplomatic relationship. On the most fundamental issue of sovereignty, the Communist Party of China and the United States have their own views, the interests of the two sides are irreconcilable, and the Nanjing talks have ended in fruitlessness.
In modern times, the US government has flaunted its traditional "friendship" and "goodwill" toward China through a series of propaganda on China policy, refund of gengfu, open doors, and Assistance in World War II. In fact, instead of saying that China and the United States are friendly, it is better to say that the United States regards China as a testing ground for its "transformation of backward countries" to reflect the "greatness" of the United States, and its essence is still the ghost of imperialism and hegemonism.
On June 30, Mao Zedong issued "On the People's Democratic Dictatorship," which clearly stated that it was necessary to re-examine the various treaties signed between the Kuomintang government and foreign countries, and that the new regime should be recognized and inherited if it was beneficial to the Chinese people and world peace; and that it should be abolished if it was unfavorable to the Chinese people and world peace. The "Sino-US Agreement" has since become a pile of waste paper.
Stuart Layden had no more reason to stay in China. On August 5, 1949, on the same day that Stuart And his party arrived at Pearl Harbor, the U.S. State Department issued a white paper entitled "U.S.-China Relations —Focusing on the Period 1944-1949," which exposed the fact that the United States interfered in China's internal affairs and had to openly admit its fiasco in China, but did not forget to falsely claim that the Chinese Communist Party was "zero points" economically, believing that New China was bound to be unable to solve the big problem of the economy.
Some US politicians have such self-confidence: Sooner or later, the Chinese Communist Party will compromise with the United States because of its economic interests. Truman believed that sooner or later the CCP would turn to the United States for help. The U.S. National Security Council noted that "in the field of economic relations with China, the United States has the most effective weapon against the Chinese Communist regime."
The United States wants a puppet government controlled by itself, but the Chinese Communist Party is going to disappoint those in power. They despise the independent and autonomous characteristics that our Party has developed in various forms of suppression, encirclement and suppression since its birth; even in the environment of encirclement and military threats on all sides, the Communist Party of China can still guarantee its own construction and development, and the new China to be established is not afraid of the hostility, blockade, and encirclement of the United States.
On August 14, Comrade Mao Zedong, in his article "Throw Away Your Illusions and Prepare for Battle," exposed the true face of the American authorities in providing assistance to the Kuomintang and supporting it in fighting a civil war, which led to the destruction and displacement of ordinary Chinese families. Criticize some of the party's disillusioned with the "recognition" of U.S. diplomacy.
On August 18, Comrade Mao Zedong, in "Farewell, Stuart," denounced that the United States had been in China for more than 20 years in order to achieve the real goal of "turning China into an American colony." As a microcosm of the US China policy, Stuart Layden's departure marks the complete failure of the US policy of aggression toward China.
Countless facts tell us that the unscrupulous American "hegemony" has created countless disasters in the world for decades, the logic of hegemonism has never changed, and the bullying nature of the hegemon has never changed. Seventy-two years ago, the weak New China never succumbed to the threat and temptation of imperialism; over the past 72 years, the Chinese people have relied on self-reliance to create world-renowned achievements and embarked on a correct path of national rejuvenation; 72 years later, we are still fearless of any challenge, and no one should fantasize about letting China swallow the bitter fruit of harming its own interests.
(Produced by Jun Zhengping Studio and PLA News and Communication Center)