Zhou Enlai explained very frankly to the Soviet delegation why China launched the Sino-Soviet border war. Once again, the Soviet Union was warned that China's core interests brooked no infringement.

He said: In the past, we waged an extremely arduous war of resistance against imperialism for eight years because imperialism infringed on China's core interests. In 1950, just one year after the founding of New China, and the whole of China was still in a moment full of devastation and a hundred ruins to be lifted, on the land where we are now talking, we Chinese people fought against the world's most powerful, vicious, armed to the teeth US imperialism without hesitation, also because they threatened our security and violated our core interests; Three years ago, we launched a border counterattack against India, also because India's territorial ambitions against our country violated this core interest of our country.

Zhou Enlai glanced at the members of the Soviet delegation sitting opposite him with his eyes, and then said very seriously: Before the border counterattack against India, when Comrade Li Dawei came to Moscow on behalf of the Chinese political axe to inform you that the Soviet Union and the political axe would carry out a border counterattack against India, he made it very clear to you that China's territorial sovereignty is China's core interest that cannot be violated, and at the same time, he also informed you of China's hydrogen bomb test and the principle of China's use of nuclear weapons. But you don't take our core interests seriously or the principle of our use of nuclear weapons on deaf ears.

As everyone knows, in the past 100 years or so, due to the aggression of the imperialist powers against China, China has been constantly divided, leaving many territorial issues between China and its neighboring countries. With regard to the sequelae of these imperialist aggressions, China's political government has always advocated a peaceful manner, respecting historical facts, and taking full consideration of the current actual situation to reasonably resolve the border and territorial disputes of various countries. Now only the problems between China and the Soviet Union remain unresolved.

We have talked to you about the territorial issues between China and the Soviet Union, and we will not talk about the political axe of the Republic of China before the founding of New China, and we Chinese people also talked to you about the issue of Outer Mongolia in Xibaipo on the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China. You know this question best, Comrade Mikoyan, what was your attitude at that time, and what was Comrade Stalin's attitude?

When I went to Moscow in 1949 with the chairman of the MZD, I still wanted to talk to you about this issue, but Comrade Stalin avoided it and put pressure on us not to talk about it. Was Stalin's attitude towards China so equal? In the past, unequal border treaties were imposed on China by Tsarist Russia, and it was necessary to abolish these unequal treaties. China and the Soviet Union should first have redefined the route of the border line demarcating the two countries and resolved the disputed territorial issues between the two countries through comradely friendly consultations in an equal and just manner, but you, the Soviet government, refused to abandon the series of unequal treaties imposed on China by the Tsar and completely inherited the evil consequences of this aggressive and expansionist policy of Tsarist Russia. Comrade Stalin, in particular, intensified his efforts. In this way, how can we talk about developing friendly relations with China and constantly pushing forward such friendly relations? ”

Comrades in the Soviet Union, it is difficult for you to understand how much damage the plundering of China by the imperialist powers since 1840 has caused to China and how seriously it has caused trauma to the psychology of the Chinese people. Among these imperialist powers, Britain got off to a bad start. But the two evil neighbors that did the most harm to China and caused the most serious consequences were the most greedy and vicious Tsarist Russia and the two evil neighbors.

Why do we the Chinese people want to rise up for revolution, why do we throw our heads, spill our blood, and are not afraid of sacrifice; we must defeat the incompetent political axe representing the feudal landlord class in China, defeat the imperialist powers, establish a regime of our own, overthrow all unequal treaties imposed on the Chinese people by all imperialist powers, and restore the dignity of the Chinese nation. In this process, the cannon of the October Revolution in Russia brought Marxism-Leninism to China, and the Chinese people chose the road of proletarian revolution and won the victory of the proletarian revolution. Now that our country is the people's new China, it is no longer what it used to be, and the world has changed.

You may say that the Chinese [***] people are narrow-minded nationalists, but I would like to say to the Soviet comrades who said such things, please ask yourself whether you are narrow-minded nationalists? You occupy so much territory of others, if it is for the expansion of [***], for the liberation of all mankind by the proletariat. So how to explain the occupation of the territory of the same socialist country? Are you doing this in the interest of the international movement?

Zhou Enlai paused for a while, looked directly at Mikoyan with sharp eyes, and said: Comrade Mikoyan, you have repeatedly threatened to use millions of tons of nuclear warheads to carry out nuclear strikes on China's nuclear bases, China's political centers, and industrial centers, and to carry out naked nuclear threats against China, and then launched nuclear attacks on China. Now you claim that the nuclear attack on China launched by the Soviet Union was entirely the personal act of some people in the Soviet military with ulterior motives, and had nothing to do with the Soviet political axe. Is this the proper behavior of a great power? Don't you feel that there is a contradiction in what you say about a few days before and after?

Your latter argument is inappropriate and unconvincing. This is a big enough event to destroy the world. caused such serious consequences, how can you prevaricate with a personal act? How can it be said that it has nothing to do with the Soviet political axe? The Soviet political axe is out of an attitude of being responsible to the Soviet people and to humanity as a whole.

How did you manage the creation of such weapons of mass destruction? How did you deploy it? What principles do you use? This is not something that a responsible political axe should do well. How can it be said that it has nothing to do with the Soviet political axe? If so, will one day everyone be able to explain all nuclear attacks in this way? This time, if it weren't for our troops to stop your launch in time, it would have been not one atomic bomb, but four atomic bombs, and if we didn't have to make a nuclear counterattack as we are now, would our people have been able to agree to this weak act of the political axe?

Then, Zhou Enlai and his stern tone said: If the Soviet political axe cannot effectively manage the nuclear weapons it possesses, I can tell you very responsibly that we will not give you another chance. We know very well about your nuclear bomb launch bases, and we can remove the use of your existing medium- and long-range missile launch sites at any time. You Soviet comrades should have a sufficient understanding of this and not doubt our ability in the slightest. The reason why we did not do this was entirely in consideration of the interests of the entire socialist camp and the normal defense capability of the Soviet Union against NATO.

All the members of the Soviet delegation listened attentively to Zhou Enlai's statement of China's position. They had no doubt in the slightest that China had the ability to destroy the existing medium- and long-range missile launches of the Soviet Union, which had already been demonstrated on the first day of the war. Although they know that China did not "kill the Soviet Union" this time because of China's own consideration of global strategic balance. But they still have a sense of gratitude for China's overall view. If China joined forces with the United States and NATO at this time, what would the Soviet Union look like? In the final analysis, it is still the "brother of its own family" in the socialist camp, and China has not done so.

The Soviet delegation knew that these words from Zhou Enlai were definitely not threats, and then Mikoyan explained in great detail the situation before and after the Soviet "nuclear threat" and the nuclear attack, and assured that similar incidents would not happen again.

Next, Zhou Enlai gave a brief explanation of China's position on settling the border and territorial issues on the current situation between China and the Soviet Union, and pointed out: The territorial issues between China and the Soviet Union have been formed over several hundred years. We have been talking for more than two years in the past, but no progress has been made, and I hope that this time the Soviet side will show the greatest sincerity and resolve these territorial issues left over from history as soon as possible. Of course, we do not expect that these issues will be resolved in their entirety through this negotiation. Negotiations always take time, and before these issues are resolved, some temporary measures need to be taken to put an end to the war situation between China and the Soviet Union. To this end, he put forward the proposal of first ceasefire, maintaining the state of the ceasefire between the two sides, and in order to avoid another armed conflict between the two sides, the armed forces of China and the Soviet Union should break away from the ceasefire line and retreat two kilometers back to each side.

The Soviet side agreed with Zhou Enlai's proposal to cease fire first, and at the same time put forward the idea of asking for a sky-high price and repaying the money on the spot, and the Chinese [***] team should retreat to the area before the war, and then deal with the false price of the territorial issue between China and the Soviet Union in accordance with the principles of the two "Galahan Declarations on China" put forward by Comrade Lenin.

After all, war is determined by the strength on the battlefield and the war potential of a country, as well as by a combination of factors at home and abroad. It is clear that this proposal of the USSR was an unrealistic proposal. Naturally, the Chinese delegation refused.

The first meeting ended after four hours. After setting the principles for this negotiation, Zhou Enlai returned to Yanjing by special plane overnight.

Before leaving, Zhou Enlai took Mikoyan's hand and said: "I have some things now, go back to Yanjing first, you and Bulganin are now Khrushchev's right-hand men, and they are the three giants who control the Soviet Union." You should shoulder the responsibilities of a great power. Do a good job of things between our two countries. The chairman of the MZD said that we and the USSR, two great powers, always have to unite. Some phenomena of disunity are temporary, and the comprehensive development of friendly relations between the Chinese and Soviet peoples is still the mainstream and the overall situation. It is in that spirit that we have come here to negotiate with you.

After the first meeting, Mikoyan invited Andropov, head of the CPSU Department of Foreign Relations, Kuznetsov, first deputy foreign minister, and Kosygin, first deputy chairman of the State Planning Commission, to his room. He asked what they thought of the talks.

Andropov is optimistic, saying that first of all, we should affirm that this meeting is extremely beneficial, at least we no longer have to worry about nuclear war. A ceasefire is also a matter of course. It also gives us an idea of the attitude and scale of the Chinese leadership towards the Soviet-Chinese war. We also understand that resolving the issue of territorial boundaries is the key to stopping the war, and what we can do now is to lose as little territory as possible.

Kosygin said pragmatically: "I feel that some of the views of the Chinese leaders are not something that we can see through for a while, and they have a different understanding of socialism and [***] than we do." With the rise of China, due to the rapid development of China's economy and the pressure on the population pressure on resources and territory is understandable, I think we should face the reality, take advantage of the situation to strive for some interests for the Soviet Union, and at least lay a good foundation for future Sino-Soviet relations. It was impossible for the Chinese [***] team to retreat to the Soviet-Chinese and Soviet-Mongolian border areas before the war. So I still agree with Zhou Enlai's suggestions. Anyway, stop for now.

"I wonder how big China's territorial claims are?" Kuznetsov said: "Zhou is a very elegant person, and I noticed that today's speech was very harsh, but also very frank. Compared with previous Chinese formulations, this time Zhou Enlai did not mention the "Galahan Declaration on China"

Mikoyan frowned and said in great frustration: "The Chinese will no longer take the initiative to mention any unequal treaties and Lenin's "Galahan Declaration on China", because now they occupy far beyond the territory covered by these documents. ”

He paused for a moment and then added, "Now it seems that we can only cease fire first, as suggested by Zhou." Only by stopping can we know how much space the Chinese have occupied, and the next concrete actions will soon be shown, and then we will know how big their appetite is, in short, it is difficult to recover the territory lost on the battlefield from the negotiating table. In particular, that Li Dawei has participated in almost all the negotiations on China's major foreign-related events over the years. I've been dealing with us for more than 2 years, and he's a very tough and cunning character. ”

"Comrade Kuznetsov, you have been an ambassador in China for three years, do you know the situation of this person?" Andropov asked.

"I know a little, but not much, Li Dawei is a typical nationalist, he is a very knowledgeable person, he knows a lot about the world, he knows a lot about the Soviet Union. Even all of us here. He doesn't seem to be specifically responsible for the work of any department in China, but as long as there are major foreign-related events in China, he can be seen, and it is said that the relationship with Mao and Zhou is very unusual, and he seems to be a comrade-in-arms with Deng Feng, who is now commanding the war against the Soviet Union. During my time in Yanjing, he mainly worked in Europe and the United States, and I didn't know much about it.

(To be continued)