China

First of all, I wish to congratulate Prince Wan Waithayakon upon being elected unanimously to the presidency of the Assembly. We of the delegation of China are particularly happy at this event, because China and Thailand are truly brotherly nations. 151. The eleventh session of the General Assembly meets under the shadow of two great crises, one in Europe and the other in the Middle East. Since my delegation has had occasion to state its views both in the first and in the second emergency special sessions, I will not go into details in my present statement. However, I wish to make some general observations. 152. In regard to the crisis in the Middle East, the first emergency special session has achieved a ceasefire and firm commitments of withdrawal of their troops on the part of France, the United Kingdom and Israel. In addition, we have established the United Nations Emergency Force, which in my mind is the product of creative statesmanship. Although important steps remain to be taken, my delegation believes that the United Nations has reason to be gratified at the modest measure of success that it has had. There is no doubt that the prestige of the United Nations has been enhanced by the prompt and effective action taken. 153. My delegation fervently hopes that the process of the restoration of peace in the Middle East will be completed in good time. The threat of the so-called volunteers from the Soviet Union and the Communist regime on the mainland of China must be met and removed. We cannot allow peace in the Middle East to be torpedoed by Communist intrigue at this hour. 154. The success of the United Nations in meeting the crisis in the Middle East has an important lesson for us all. It is my conviction, that we owe our success largely to the fortunate fact that the peoples of France, the United Kingdom and Israel have freedom of information, and that their Governments are responsive to world public opinion. Factually, what the first emergency special session did was to mobilize world public opinion. If the peoples in those three countries had not had full information in regard to the events in the Middle East, or if the Governments of France, the United Kingdom and Israel had been insensitive to world public opinion, we would have been lost. This crisis m the Middle East demonstrates conclusively the intimate connexion between peace and freedom. Freedom is the medium in which the United Nations can function successfully. Without freedom the United Nations would be a voice crying in the wilderness. This is my first general observation in regard to the Middle East. 155. I wish to make a second observation. It is the conviction of my delegation that we should capitalize on the mobilized public opinion of the world to remove the causes of war in the Middle East. This world Organization of ours is human, all too human. When we face political disputes or see injustices committed by one country against another, we do not regard such events as emergencies. We go about our work in a leisurely fashion. We resort to compromises and delays. If our resolutions should be unheeded, we let the matter drag. In the long run, the United Nations cannot keep the peace of the world without redressing the wrongs done as they are being-done. Any further shirking of our responsibilities in the Middle East might jeopardize the very existence of our Organization. Since at this moment world public opinion is mobilized, let us take advantage of our moral resources and make a supreme effort to settle the Palestine question and the Suez Canal question. I am glad to observe that the very first speech in this general debate, delivered by the representative of Brazil [581st meeting], made the same plea to the Assembly. 156. Let me now pass to the tragic events in Hungary. I wish, above all, to pay homage to the heroic people of that country. Their struggle should teach the world several lessons. In the first place, it teaches that Marxism and Leninism, plus or minus Stalinism, are not a substitute for bread and butter or individual freedom or national independence. Secondly, the events in Hungary show that the innate human love for a better life, for freedom and for country cannot be suppressed even through ten years of brainwashing and indoctrination. 157. The events in Hungary should teach all lovers of freedom not to be defeatists. The cause is not lost. The people in Hungary and the peoples of all other Communist lands, though oppressed, have not become non-human. They have not forgotten and will not forget these deep human yearnings. They are on our side, the side of freedom. We need not despair, no matter how dark the present prospect in Hungary is. 158. The tragedy of Hungary has taken off the mask from international communism. The armed intervention of the Soviet Union in Hungary and the brutal manner in which the armed forces of the Soviet Union have acted reveal to the whole world the real nature of contemporary Soviet imperialism. To hide Soviet imperialism and colonialism under the mask of socialism or communism is no longer possible. The expansion of the Soviet empire means the extension of communism; the extension of communism in turn means the expansion of the Soviet empire. With the Soviet Union, communism and imperialism are but two sides of the same coin, and both sides depend ultimately on brute force. 159. In recent years international communism has conducted what has usually been called a peace offensive. In that propaganda campaign, the idea of peaceful coexistence has played a large part. Hungary asks only for independence and neutrality. The Soviet Union cannot tolerate an independent and neutral Hungary. We now know the real meaning of the Soviet idea of coexistence. Deeds speak louder and more truly than words. 160. My delegation has supported every resolution in connexion with the Hungarian crisis. Unfortunately our resolutions on the situation in Hungary have been ignored by the Soviet Union. The difficulty is that the people in the Soviet Union have no freedom of information. They do not know what their Government has been doing in Hungary, or what the outside world thinks of these atrocities of their Government. On the surface, it looks as if the United Nations has been totally ineffective in regard to the situation in Hungary. It looks as if we have done nothing but make speeches and pass resolutions. In the meantime, the people of Hungary are killed and enslaved and deported to Siberia as if we had not made speeches and passed resolutions. 161. I do not believe that that is quite the total or real picture. I think sooner or later the Soviet Union must yield to public opinion. For this reason, I am not ready to quit. I believe we should press forward. 162. After these massacres in Hungary, and after these rebuffs which the United Nations has received, I believe we should make it clear, unmistakably clear once and for all, to the whole world that we representatives in this Assembly, representing peoples and countries from all parts of the world, condemn the Soviet Union for its violation of the Charter and of human rights in Hungary. We should make a solemn declaration that the Soviet Union is for this reason unfit for membership in the United Nations. Since for technical reasons it is difficult to expel the Soviet Union, we should and we can decide on moral ostracism. We should further recommend to all Member States to break off diplomatic and economic relations with the Soviet Union. 163. I now wish to turn the Assembly’s attention to Asia. Three neighbours of China — namely, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Viet-Nam — are not yet Members of the United Nations. They are entitled to membership. They are qualified for membership. My delegation presses for their admission. 164. Representatives at successive sessions of the Assembly must have noticed that the question of colonialism has played a very important part in the deliberations in the United Nations since its very foundation. Delegations from Asia and Africa have been particularly energetic in trying to remove the remains of colonialism from their respective regions. I wish to make a few observations on this anti-colonial movement. 165. My Government and my delegation have in the last ten years taken a consistent stand on this question. We have been consistently anti-colonial. So far as this is concerned, my delegation is united with the delegations of other countries of Asia and Africa. I do not wish to leave any possibility of doubt in the mind of anybody in regard to this matter. China, Nationalist China, is anti-colonial. 166. When I assumed my duties as the representative of my country in the Security Council in the autumn of 1947, the first dispute that I had to consider was a complaint by Egypt against the continued presence of British garrison troops in the Suez Canal zone. That was nine years ago. On that occasion, my delegation and the delegation of Colombia urged early negotiations between Egypt and the United Kingdom for the removal of British troops from the Canal zone [S/547 and S/530]. 167. In 1948, the Security Council met many times to consider the Indonesian struggle for independence. In relation to that question, my delegation was second to none in its support of the cause of Indonesian freedom. 168. Before the Second World War, we began to sympathize with the Korean people in their struggle for independence. Since the war, we have given Korea all the support within our means. We should like to see the United Nations complete its sacred mission of the unification of Korea. We must not forget that today, three years after the cease-fire in Korea, half a million men of the forces of aggression — the so-called volunteers — remain in North Korea. 169. Outside the United Nations, and even before the establishment of the United Nations, my Government showed the fullest sympathy for the people of India in their struggle for freedom. I know and acknowledge that the people of India won their freedom mainly and largely through their own efforts. For their part, the Indian people must acknowledge that Chinese sympathy with and support of their cause was genuine and sincere, and given at considerable sacrifice. 170. I state these facts for one purpose alone: to show that my Government has been consistently anti-colonial. Sun Yat Sen, the great leader of modern China, taught us to give help to all oppressed peoples. We ourselves, having suffered from colonialism, naturally sympathize with and support movements for national independence. 171. In regard to colonialism, however, China differs from some of the other Asian countries in several respects. The differences are as important as the similarities. 172. European colonialism in the last four centuries was divided into two movements. One movement of colonial expansion was initiated and promoted by the countries of Western Europe. Those countries crossed vast expanses of sea and ocean to dominate and control countries in Asia and Africa. In meeting this movement, the countries in the south of Asia stood in the forefront. They were the first victims. Indeed, many of the countries of southern Asia have known no other type of colonialism, and therefore their animosities are almost exclusively directed to countries of Western Europe. 173. As a matter of fact, however, parallel with the maritime expansion of Western Europe to southern Asia, there was the overland expansion of Russia to Asia, from the Ural mountains to the Pacific Ocean and from the Arctic to what is today Northern Viet-Nam. There has been no break in policy between the autocratic czarist Russia and the totalitarian Soviet Union. China, by its very geographical situation, has been the victim of both colonial movements — that from Western Europe and that from Russia — and is therefore in a better position to judge than many other countries of Asia and Africa. 174. Empire-building is highly competitive. The overseas expansion of Western Europe and the overland expansion of Russia in past centuries have reacted one on the other. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the two movements met in Central Asia, China and Korea. The First World War put a temporary stop to that world-wide rivalry. Since the Second World War, the two colonial movements have taken directly opposite directions — that of Western Europe in rapid retreat, and that of the Soviet Union in aggressive advance. This is the most important single fact facing the world today, a fact which some of the Asian and African delegations have for some strange reason chosen to ignore. 175. Since the Second World War, out of the colonial domain of the Western Powers a large number of independent nations have risen. Right in this Assembly hall there are eighteen delegations representing countries which were before the war colonies of the Western Powers. On the other hand, the Soviet empire is today infinitely larger than it ever was under the Czars. At this very moment, this Soviet empire is using brutal force to put down Hungary’s independence and is feverishly trying to extend its tentacles into the Middle East. Indeed, in the world today, there is only one colonialist and imperialist movement: that of the Soviet Union. The colonialism of Western Europe is dead — although, unfortunately, it has not yet been buried. 176. During the post-war period, while China has shown sympathy to countries of Asia and Africa that suffered from maritime colonialism, many of the countries of Asia and Africa have not appreciated the evils of Soviet imperialism, which continues czarist overland expansion, and therefore have failed to give my country that sympathy and support which we have readily given to them. I understand the situation. I appreciate the psychology of the peoples who have suffered from the colonialism of Western Europe alone. It is time that these sister-countries of China should understand and appreciate the dangers and the difficulties of my country facing Soviet colonialism and imperialism. 177. Since the countries of southern Asia had failed to stop the expansion of Western Europe on their shores in former countries, we in China had eventually to meet the same threat in the nineteenth century. In time, if China should fail to regain its entire freedom and to rid the mainland of Soviet imperialism, those countries of Asia and Africa which are geographically more distant from the Soviet Union will yet suffer. Our struggle is immediately for Chinese freedom. In the long run, our struggle is also for Asian and African freedom. 178. I wish success to all anti-colonial movements and hope that the day is not far off when the whole world will be rid of this evil. However, at this point I must issue a warning. We in Asia and Africa who have recently overcome colonialism or are about to remove the last traces of colonialism must ourselves be on our guard and not practise colonialism on our own part. The freedom which we claim from European nations, East and West, that same freedom we should grant and guarantee to our own Asian and African neighbours. Whenever we have territorial disputes among ourselves, let us come to the United Nations. Let us settle such disputes peacefully. Let us allow the people in the disputed areas the freedom of choice. I refer particularly to the Kashmir dispute. 179. There is another difference between Chinese anti-colonialism and the anti-colonialism of some of the other Asian and African countries. In China, Sun Yat Sen, father of the Republic of China and the creator of modern Chinese nationalism, had a constructive programme to take the place of the colonial and imperial relations which had prevailed between China and the West. He was as fervent in fighting against imperialism as he was in advocating a constructive approach to the economic relations of the present day. 180. Sun Yat Sen advocated the international development of China. On the surface, it might seem a paradox that this supreme nationalist and socialist leader of China should call for the international development of China’s resources. He meant that China could profit and the whole world could profit by economic co-operation. Sun Yat Sen was not afraid of foreign capital or foreign technicians. He wished the new China to welcome foreign capital and foreign technicians. 181. To be sure, China might industrialize itself by its own efforts. If that should be tried, it would take more than a century. Sun Yat Sen was in a hurry, the Chinese people are in a hurry to get industrialization. The natural accumulation of capital in China is terribly slow. The belts of the Chinese people are as tight as they could be. It would be inhuman for any government to force the people to tighten their belts still more so that China might, by a few five-year plans, catch up with the industrialized nations of the West. 182. The example of industrialization in the Soviet Union has almost no meaning for most Asian and African countries. It is frequently forgotten that Bolshevik Russia got a rich heritage from czarist Russia in the form of a vast expanse of land and a good industrial and technological base, a heritage richer than that which most of the newly independent nations of Asia and Africa have to start with. The ratio of population to land is particularly important. That ratio in the Soviet Union is three to five times more favourable than in most Asian countries. In the Soviet Union, it has been physically possible to force the population to accept bare subsistence as a standard of living. If Asian countries should try to follow the Soviet example, their peoples would be forced to live below their present bare subsistence level. Such a policy is physically impossible as well as morally reprehensible. 183. We must look colonialism straight in the face. We must know really what the essence of colonialism is. On the one hand, we must not underestimate its evil. On the other hand, we must not lump together any kind of cultural or economic relationships between industrialized and under-developed countries as colonialism. In the long run, the only guarantee of real independence for the countries in Asia and Africa is industrialization. Fortunately for us, the capitalists of the West, including Wall Street, understand and appreciate economic interdependence and are ready to meet us half-way. 184. It is to the interest of Asian and African countries as it is to the interest of Western countries to negotiate and arrange just and fair terms of economic co-operation. Let us forget the past and work for the present and the future. Along the path of economic co-operation between the industrialized and the underdeveloped countries of the world can be found progress for Asia and Africa and common prosperity for all.