After the founding of New China, many countries took the initiative to establish diplomatic relations with China, so a major problem arose. The regime of New China is the result of launching a mass armed struggle, there are many military talents, and there are many people who are good at secret work.
If it is a purely diplomatic matter, if the members of Yan'an's foreign affairs team work in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they are competent in terms of ability and language, but if they are ambassadors abroad, whether in terms of age, seniority, and prestige, they are lacking.
After detailed study, Premier Zhou finally announced at the diplomatic conference:
Ambassadors abroad must choose the most loyal, reliable, and talented people, and according to this principle, there are only three sources of ambassadors abroad:
First, it is dispatched from the army, and the cadres of the army have rich combat experience and are completely reliable.
Second, they are selected from among local cadres who have leadership experience and are also reliable.
The third is to be selected from the underground party, which has a high level of education and has experienced the White Terror, and is also infallible.
It can be seen from this that the first point of China's choice of ambassadors to foreign countries is absolute reliability.
After some discussion, the chairman finally made a decision, and the prime minister selected a group of ambassadors abroad from the troops, and it is worth noting that the first batch of ambassadors abroad are all general-level figures, ensuring reliability.
The generals selected were as follows:
Geng Ying, ambassador to Athens and minister to Denmark, Finland and Norway, was formerly the commander of staff and chief of staff of the 19th Corps of the North China Field Army.
Wang Youping, ambassador to Romania, was formerly deputy commander of the Shandong Military Region.
Tan Xilin, ambassador to Czechoslovakia, was formerly deputy commander of the Shandong Military Region.
Peng Mingzhi, as ambassador to Poland, was formerly the deputy commander of the 13th Corps of the Four Fields and the commander of the Nanjing Garrison
Huang Zhen, Ambassador of Hungary, was formerly the director of the Research Office of the Political Department.
Ni Zhiliang, ambassador to North Korea, was formerly vice president of the Military and Political University of the Central South Military Region.
Cao Xiangren, ambassador to Bulgaria, former director of the Engineering School of the Central Military Commission.
Yuan Zhongxian, ambassador to India, was formerly commander and political commissar of the Sanye Nanjing Garrison.
Ji Pengfei, head of the diplomatic mission of the German Democratic Republic, was formerly deputy political commissar and director of the Political Department of the Sanye Seventh Corps.
Han Nianlong, ambassador to Pakistan, was formerly the deputy political commissar of Sanye Shanghai Garrison.
Feng Ming, as ambassador to Switzerland, was formerly the director of the Tianjin Liaison Bureau of the Liaison Department of the Central Military Commission.
On February 10, 1950, the Prime Minister arranged them at the screen to watch the ceremony of the Romanian ambassador to China presenting his credentials to the president, so that they could watch and study carefully.
After the ceremony, the chairman received them and gave them great encouragement.
The chairman said humorously: "Hello to the general and ambassador, first, if you go out, the country can rest assured that you will not run away." The People's Liberation Army has always been a place to train cadres, and we can also learn things that we did not understand before, and all the diplomatic contingents that have been selected from the army and relied on you to practice and train a new generation of diplomatic teams for the motherland.
With regard to foreign languages, the chairman also encouraged: Some people are afraid that they will not understand foreign languages and are afraid that they will not be able to do diplomatic work well; although it is true that very few of our comrades know foreign languages, we cannot fail to send ambassadors.
Immediately afterwards, the chairman gave them another example, Zhang Qian did not understand foreign languages, but he sent to the Western Regions, not only did not fail in his mission, but also achieved outstanding merits.
The Prime Minister made a final summary: diplomatic authorization is limited, must be reported to the country frequently, diplomacy is no small matter, must not be taken lightly.
The state makes such decisions after careful consideration:
On the one hand, New China won the victory in armed struggle, and the general acted as an ambassador and was easily respected and admired abroad. On the other hand, as a senior general, after the baptism of war, the general has more advantages in strategy and cohesion.
Diplomacy between countries is actually a "civil struggle", so ambassadors must have a view of the overall situation and clear strategic thinking.
The prime minister thinks more comprehensively, the generals come from a family that advocates force and likes to do things with knives and guns, while the ambassadors are different, they must be elegant and have a city government, and use their mouths and brains more. As a general, he leads thousands of troops, and as an ambassador, he has only a few people under him.
In order to change the minds of the General Ambassador, the Prime Minister organized a special training course.
As a leader in diplomacy, the Prime Minister personally gave lectures, organized them to watch the ceremony of presenting foreign ambassadors to China, and invited well-known domestic experts to explain international law, diplomatic history, diplomatic documents, the UN Charter, etc.
People who regularly participate in high-level activities are also invited to teach them precautions, diplomatic etiquette, and Western food etiquette in diplomatic activities. Not only that, the prime minister also invited his wife out and persuaded the wives of these generals to also participate in the course training, teaching them diplomatic knowledge, etiquette, dancing, makeup, wearing cheongsam, wearing high heels, and so on.
This time, the scale of the training was unprecedented and the quality was the highest, which made these generals and their wives quickly change their thinking.
The result is obvious, this first general ambassador has created a miracle of Chinese diplomacy.