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.

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.