The Chinese Foreign Ministry offers Ambassador Wang instructions for his upcoming dinner with U. Alexis Johnson.

The Foreign Ministry suspected that the US was trying to buy time using ridiculous excuses. China must prevent the US from doing so. The Ministry instructed Wang different responses to give in various scenarios, and asked Wang to change the word in the text “as soon as possible” to “expeditiously.”

According to the Ministry, it seemed that the US had agreed with the text of the agreement, and that the US was about to drop its emphasis on having China promise an exact time to release American civilians. The Ministry still instructed Wang to stand firm on China’s stance in case the US pressed the issue once again in the next meeting.

The Foreign Ministry's instructions regarding revising the draft, the preferred words, and the exchange of text and the information to release to the US after reaching an agreement.

Zhou briefed Trevelyan about China’s position in Taiwan issue that was produced in a document produced by PRC National People’s Congress Standing Committee in response to Britain’s request.

O’Neill passed on US position on the Sino-US talks in Geneva to Zhou. Zhou and O’Neil exchanged the positions of both countries regarding the talks and the dispute regarding the repatriation of the Chinese and American nationals to their country of origins.

Zhou asked O’Neill to convey China’s opinions on the date and time of the first Geneva talk and a draft of Sino-US joint communiqué to the US government.

O’Neill passed on a draft joint news release from the US regarding the date of the first Sino-US Ambassadorial Talk. Zhou first disputed with O’Neil that the US calling the PRC capital "Peiping" instead of "Beijing/Peking" in the draft was disrespectful to China. Then, Zhou said that the Chinese government needed some time to consider the time suggested by the US as well as the wording of the draft. He did not accept the explanation from O’Neill regarding the draft per se and the name the US used in the draft.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry sends instructions for the Sino-American ambassadorial talks.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry suspected that China’s release of 11 American spies had put pressure on the US side, making the US open to the idea of having a higher level meeting. The Foreign Ministry instructed the Chinese representatives to urge the US to promise to release Chinese students in the US in the next meeting, and also urge the US to accept the suggestion of bringing in third country (India) to help the release process, including financial support.