I wish to join Sir Leslie Munro's numerous friends in expressing to him the hearty congratulations of my delegation on his election to the presidency of the twelfth session of the General Assembly, an honour which he and his nation so well deserve. My delegation pledges to him its full and whole-hearted support.
22. One of the very recent good tidings from Asia is the independence of the Federation of Malaya. My delegation, both in the Security Council and in the Assembly, has expressed its satisfaction in connexion with the admission of Malaya to membership in the United Nations. The independence of Malaya is important in itself. It is also important as a part of that general movement which has, since the end of the Second World War, conferred freedom and independence upon many nations in Asia and Africa which are now sitting in our midst as our fellow Members.
23. Unfortunately, in the contemporary world, in contrast to this movement of national liberation, there has been the opposite movement of national enslavement. Many countries in Europe and Asia have been deprived of their human freedoms and national rights. We in the United Nations can never forget the fate of these enslaved peoples.
24. In the resumed meetings of the eleventh session of the Assembly, we discussed the report of the Special Committee on the Problem of Hungary [A/3592]. My delegation is moderately satisfied with the resolution [1133 (XI)] which was then adopted by an overwhelming majority. I wish we could have done more.
25. Today, I wish to pay a tribute to the freedom fighters of Hungary in the form of a report on the great repercussions which the Hungarian uprising has produced on my people on the Chinese mainland.
26. The Chinese people on the mainland seemed to have learned a great deal about the Hungarian uprising, and have been greatly excited by it.
27. Even in the official Communist Press, the Chinese people could find a number of important documents published in full. One of those published documents was the Soviet declaration of 30 October 1956, which gave great joy to the Chinese people who sympathized with the cause of Hungarian freedom. For, as we all recall, in that declaration the Soviet Union was telling Hungary and the entire world that the Soviet Government had ordered its military command to withdraw the Soviet units from Budapest and that the Soviet Government was prepared to begin negotiations with the Hungarian Government on the question of Soviet troops on Hungarian territory.
28. What was most exciting to the imagination of my people living under communist tyranny was the clear and indelible impression that the powerful and ruthless communist dictatorship in Hungary, after ten years of absolute political control and ideological remoulding, had suddenly been swept away by the spontaneous uprising of ill-armed students and factory workers. That regime had suddenly found itself deserted by the people, by its own army and its own police force, and was restored only by the intervention of Soviet troops.
29. Moreover, the Hungarian revolution appeared to look beyond communism and to aspire to a democratic revolution, abolishing the secret security police, discarding the one-party system, restoring a free Press and a free radio, and pledging to hold free elections in the near future. It was these anticommunist and democratic manifestations that made the Hungarian uprising so exciting to my people on the mainland.
30. Even Mao Tse-tung himself admitted in his speech on 27 February 1957: "Certain people in our country were excited when the Hungarian events took place. They hoped that something similar would happen in China, that thousands upon thousands of people would demonstrate in the streets and oppose the People's Government."
31. The events in Hungary have given rise to two important anti-communist movements on the Chinese mainland during the last few months. One of these has been a nation-wide outbreak of anti-communist feeling among the students in the universities, colleges and middle schools. The other has been one full month of outspoken criticism and attack on the Communist Party by many Chinese intellectuals in the universities and in the so-called "democratic parties".
32. There are about 5 million boys and girls in the middle schools, colleges and universities. These millions of Chinese youths come from all walks of life and know the real conditions of the people. The acute suffering of the vast farming population, the universal impoverishment of the Chinese nation through the so-called socialist construction, and the large-scale enslavement of the people in all forms of economic and political regimentation — all these cannot but be most deeply felt by every sensitive young student daily witnessing the hardships of his or her own family life.
33. It is absolutely untrue that the communist regime hi China has won over the minds and the hearts of the young. What happened in Hungary last October has proven beyond doubt that the young students and workers of Hungary had not been captivated by fully ten years of communist rule and indoctrination. The recent student revolt in China furnishes us the best proof that, after eight years of absolute rule and ideological moulding, the students in China are almost unanimously in opposition to the communist regime.
34. The recent student revolt began in the Peking university on 4 May, a date made memorable thirty-eight years ago by the historic "4 May" student movement of 1919, which was also started by the students of Peking university.
35. On that evening of 4 May 1957, 8,000 students gathered at a commemoration meeting, at which nineteen student leaders made fiery speeches openly attacking the communist regime for suppressing freedom and democracy in the schools and in the country. From that evening on, the wall-newspapers of the Peking university became the open forum of the free opinion of the students.
36. The Peking university student leaders edited and printed a periodical entitled "The Relay Cudgel of Democracy", which they mailed to all colleges and schools throughout China as a clarion call to all students to join the common fight for freedom and democracy. They also sent their representatives to contact the students in the thirty-odd universities and colleges in the Peking and Tientsin area. As one of the student leaders put it: "The call is for the mobilization of an army of one million youths to fight communism, to oppose the so-called revolution, and to overthrow the real enemies of the people. We must fight for democracy, for freedom, and for the rights of man."
37. The response was unanimous from all student bodies in every part of China --from Mukden in the north to Canton in the south, from Shanghai and Nanking in the east to Chungking and Chengtu in the west.
38. By the first week of June, the student movement was threatening to break out into a popular uprising of the Hungarian type. On the evening of 6 June, a few university professors and "democratic" politicians met and talked over the situation, and their general impression was that the students in Peking and Shanghai — the two most important and largest centres of student population -- were on the verge of declaring a strike and going into the streets to demonstrate against the communist regime. One of the professors said: "This situation resembles the eve of the Hungarian revolution."
39. But the communist regime, realizing the gravity of the situation, took repressive measures in all the large centres of student population to isolate the student groups, arrest the ringleaders and prevent all street demonstrations.
40. The most serious case of student rioting took place in the industrial city of Hanyang in central China. Nearly a thousand students of the first middle school of Hanyang went on strike on 12 June 1957 and demonstrated in the streets, shouting anti-communist slogans and hoisting anti-communist banners. The student procession marched on to the county headquarters of the Communist Party and beat up the Party officers there. In the evening, the students broke into the local military conscription centre, apparently with the intention of obtaining arms. The rioting continued the next day when security police arrived in full force and opened fire on the students. A large number of arrests were made, including the vice-principal of the school and a number of teachers who had led or participated in the demonstrations.
41. News of the Hanyang student riots was not made public until nearly two months later. And, just ten days before the opening of the twelfth session of the General Assembly, on 7 September, Reuters reported that "three ringleaders of student riots in Hanyang last June were executed yesterday at a mass meeting of 10,000 spectators" and that "other leaders were sentenced to prison terms of from five to fifteen years".
42. The official communist report said -- and this is interesting to us here -- that the instigators of the Hanyang student riots had called them "the Hungarian uprising in miniature”.
43. The student unrest, protest and riot formed one of the two great manifestations of the anti-communist feelings of my people in the mainland. The other great manifestation was the one full month of outspoken and scathing criticism of the Communist Party by Chinese intellectuals. That holiday of one month of freedom began with 8 May and abruptly ended on 7 June 1957. It was a month of free speech specially granted by "instruction of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party".
44. To have exactly one month of specially granted freedom of speech throughout eight long years of communist rule — that in itself constitutes a sufficient commentary on the barbarity of the communist regime.
45. Now, why was that one month of free speech granted at all? Was it granted because otherwise these non-communist intellectuals and politicians would have remained silent? No. For, under the communist tyranny, the people have no freedom of silence-- which is often more important than freedom of speech. In the old days, as long as a man remained silent, he would not be molested. But, under the communist tyranny, there is no freedom to remain silent. You are called to the microphone to broadcast a speech prepared for you, or you are required to sign your name to an article written for you.
46. There is no freedom of silence. And, because they have no freedom of silence, the Chinese intellectuals have been compelled to speak insincerely or untruthfully, to pay compliment when compliment is undeserved, or to condemn friends or teachers whom they could not possibly have the heart to condemn. In short, the absence of the freedom of silence has forced many Chinese intellectuals to tell political lies, which is the only possible escape from this new tyranny and which, by the way, is also the only effective weapon to defeat the purposes of that tyranny.
47. For instance, when the communist regime, some years ago, ordered a nation-wide purge of the poisonous effects of the thoughts of Hu Shin - the reference is to me - every friend or student of mine had to speak his piece in refutation and condemnation of me, knowing very well that I would surely understand that he or she had no freedom of silence.
48. So, in the same manner, when the communist dictators announced a year ago that, from now on, the communist regime would carry out a policy of liberalism in dealing with science, literature and art, a policy of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and letting a hundred schools of thought contend" — when that announcement was made, everybody smiled and applauded and said aloud: "How wonderful! ".
49. So, in the same manner, when the dictators announced last year that the regime's new policy in dealing with the "democratic parties" was to be a policy of "long-term coexistence and mutual supervision" — when that announcement was made, again everybody smiled and applauded and said aloud: "How wonderful! How generous of you!"
50. But the stirring events in Hungary last October and the great unrest among the Chinese students brought about a great change in all this. The intellectuals and politicians were now prepared to speak out, prepared to say for the first time what they really wanted to say in plain and honest language. And the communist leadership, too, was conscious of the wide and deep repercussions of the Hungarian revolution in the thought and feelings of the Chinese people. The Communists also wanted to find out the real feelings of the people, the intellectuals and the democratic politicians. The communist leadership was so confident of its own power that it thought it could afford a little freedom for the intellectuals to speak up. In his 27 February speech, Mao Tse-tung made this savage brag: "Since those Hungarian events, some of our intellectuals did lose their balance, but they did not stir up any storm in the country. Why? One reason, it must be said, was that we had succeeded in suppressing counter-revolution quite thoroughly."
51. Mao Tse-tungwas so confident of his thoroughness in suppressing the counter-revolution that he was now ready to invite the intellectuals and politicians of the "democratic parties" to assist the Communist Party in the coming campaign of "rectification" within the Party. The non-communist politicians and intellectuals were invited to speak out frankly about what they had observed as the defects and mistakes of the communist regime. And, it is reported, in the original version of Mao’s speech of 27 February there were explicit assurances of complete freedom of speech.
52. So the great experiment of free speech began in early May. For a full month, everybody was free to voice his criticism of the Party and the communist regime: the few newspapers of the "democratic parties" were temporarily freed from communist control and were able to print any news or opinion, however unfavourable to the communist regime. Even the official Press of the regime was instructed to print critical opinions without adverse comment.
53. But the tremendous volume of outspoken criticism against the regime and the great vehemence and bitterness of it all were far beyond the complacent expectations of the communist leadership.
54. The Communist Party was accused openly of believing and practising the notion that "the entire country belongs to the Party as its war booty". The dictatorship of the proletariat, for which Mao Tse-tung has coined the absurd name, "the people’s democratic dictatorship", and which is no more and no less than the absolute dictatorship of the Communist Party over the people, was openly attacked as the root and the source of all the mistakes and evils of the communist regime.
55. These critics stated openly that 90 per cent of past and present cases of "suppression of counterrevolution" were the result of wrong judgement and miscarried justice. And the democratic parties proposed that a higher commission of appeal and redress be established to re-examine all cases of suppression of counter-revolution. Many phases of the so-called socialist construction were severely criticized, and some critics said frankly that bureaucracy was a far more dangerous enemy than capitalism itself.
56. The communist regime was attacked as a slavish imitation of the Soviet Union. The sincerity of Soviet friendship was questioned openly and the opinion was voiced that the Soviet Union should not be paid for the arms and ammunition which it had supplied to Red China in the Korean war.
57. And of course, the criticism most frequently voiced was that, under communist rule, there was neither freedom nor respect for human rights, and that there were no free elections.
58. All these were anti-communist, anti-regime, and even "counter-revolutionary" voices which it was difficult for the communist leadership to answer or to refute. And there was no doubt, during the whole month of outspoken criticism, that the Communist Party was greatly discredited in the eyes of the people.
59. So the communist leadership became very angry and regretted the whole affair as having given aid and comfort to the enemies of the socialist revolution. On 7 June the "freedom holiday" came to an abrupt end. The People’s Daily now declared that there had been a political conspiracy on the part of the leaders of the democratic parties to extend their own spheres of influence and to overthrow the power of the Communist Party. It further declared that the wise leadership of the Communist Party had foreseen all this and had actually planned this period of one month of open airing of grievances, complaints and criticisms as a method of sifting the fragrant flowers from the poisonous weeds. An editorial in the People’s Daily of 1 July contained these interesting revelations: "Carrying out the instructions of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the People’s Daily and all other papers of the Party published little or no opinion from the positive side during the period between May 8 and June 7. The purpose was to let all the ghosts and evil spirits ’bloom and contend’ to their utmost, to let the poisonous weeds grow as tall as they could. This is to say that the Communist Party, realizing that a class struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat was inevitable, let the bourgeoisie and the bourgeois intellectuals initiate this battle. "Some people said this was a secret trap. We say this is an open strategy. For we told our enemies beforehand that we would hoe the poisonous weeds only after letting them grow out of the earth."
60. Thus, the movement of "letting a hundred flowers blossom and letting a hundred schools of thought contend" suddenly turned into a campaign to persecute and purge the "rightists" --a campaign which is still going on on the Chinese mainland, with a dozen leading intellectuals selected to be the targets of public interrogation, persecution, humiliation and degradation.
61. To these victims of the new communist persecution, and to the hundreds and thousands of my people who dared to speak out and fight against the tyrannical rule of communism — to all these, we of the Chinese delegation wish to express our heartfelt sympathy and profound respect.
62. Such are the manifestations of the great repercussions which the Hungarian revolution has had in the minds and hearts of my people still living and suffering under communist tyranny.
63. I have made this report primarily to pay a tribute to the Hungarian fighters for freedom. But those popular manifestations which I have summarized are also clear and unmistakable evidence to prove that the Chinese communist regime, which has had eight years of military and political control of the Chinese mainland, is as unstable and as shaky as was the Hungarian regime under Rakosi and Gero.
64. Like the Hungarian regime of last October, the Chinese regime also found itself in 1957 deserted by the youth of the nation and opposed and condemned by the intelligentsia. And, above all, it is hated by the hundreds of millions of the inarticulate but teeth-gnashing farmers and workers.
65. More than 80 per cent of my people are farmers. The communist programme of forced industrialization has imposed on the farming class a burden much bigger than they can possibly bear. Collectivization of agriculture and government monopoly of trade in all foodstuffs have introduced inefficiency, bureaucratism and corruption into the management of the main livelihood of the Chinese people. Throughout the hinterland of China, million of my people are actually dying for lack of food. This man-made famine has driven my people to desperation and starvation. That is why the communist regime has long been hated and detested by the vast majority of the people.
66. I was a representative at the founding meeting of the United Nations at San Francisco. This time I return to the United Nations after an absence of twelve years. I must confess that it pains me to see this Assembly waste so many precious hours on the question of so-called "Chinese representation”.
67. In the preamble to the Charter, the founding nations declared that one of the ends of the Charter was ”to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person". To that end, nine years ago, the General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed to the world the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [resolution 217 (III)]. But this monstrosity of communist tyranny as it is practised in China is the very negation of the Charter and the very negation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
68. There, on the mainland of China today, men and women who dared to be independent are being arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned, executed or otherwise disposed of. There, many millions of farmers have been dispossessed and are being subjected to a most brutal form of human slavery. There, many millions of innocent citizens are sent to camps of slave labour -- a procedure which is dubbed "reform through labour". There, on the Chinese mainland, sons and daughters are required to inform against their own parents. The home has no more privacy, and no more recognition of the "dignity and worth of the human person". The individual has none of the fundamental human rights, not even the freedom of silence.
69. If such a barbaric regime be worthy of membership in the United Nations then the United Nations is not worthy of its Charter and not worthy of its Universal Declaration of Human Rights.