Trevelyan offered to mediate the issue of Chinese and American expatriates as a private person. Huan Xiang replied by affirming that US nationals were free to leave China while many Chinese were not allowed to leave the US. He declared to have no authority on the mediation request and would consult with related people.

Zhou Enlai talked to Raghavan about two issues in the Sino-American talks: The release of American expatriates in China and the issue of Chinese expatriates in the US. Regarding the former, Zhou reaffirmed Chinese willingness to cooperate. According to him, there was no restriction and all American expatriates who apply would be able to return to the US. In the cases of Americans who violated Chinese law, however, it was necessary to proceed case by case and it was impossible to release them all at the same time as Washington demanded. On the second issue, the US admitted that they had placed limitations on the return of Chinese expatriates in the past. These restrictions had been lifted then but due to the number of Chinese expatriates and the pressure from Taipei, the problem could not be solved at once. Both countries agreed to let India act as a proxy for China and the UK act as a proxy for the US in this issue. Zhou and Raghavan went on to discuss some wording problems as well as the attitudes of both parties and the UK.

The Foreign Ministry agreed with Wang’s observation that the US thought that China was very eager to reach an agreement and thus took advantage of it. The US’s purpose was to have China promise unambiguously that all American citizens would be released soon. The Foreign Ministry instructed Wang to stand firm in the next meeting and not to yield as China had already make necessary concession.

US Representative Johnson invited Wang to a private dinner at Johnson’s residence, stating that both would bring only interpreters and should not leak the information to reporters. Wang asked for instruction from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

The Foreign Ministry agreed Wang to accept the invite from Johnson and asked for more details about the dinner arrangement.

Wang drafted certain issues that might be touched upon during the private dinner with Johnson and asked for permission from the Foreign Ministry. The US might: (1) Explain the current situation and wish to improve Sino-US relations; (2) Continue searching China’s bottom-line with soft methods; (3) Want to test China’s attitude on improving Sino-US relations; (4) Test China’s opinion on the second agenda.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry claims that the US wants to test China’s bottom-line regarding the release of US citizens in China.

The Foreign Ministry instructed Wang that China would not have a determined time to release all the American citizens, as the US requested. However, China could agree to deal with the issue “as soon as possible” in the amendment.

The US proposed to postpone the twelfth meeting from 27th to 31st. Wang conjured that the US needed to change their strategy since they had not got their way of having China promise a time for the release of US citizens. Wang suggested some possible changes of US strategy and requested further instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs agreed the postponement of the twelfth meeting. The Ministry instructed Wang to invite Johnson to a private dinner immediately on receipt of this telegram.