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June 28, 1974	Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Notice [Zhongfa] (1979) No. 19: Notice on the Talks between Chairman Mao and Edward Heath A summary of a conversation between Mao Zedong and Edward Heath. Topics covered include the Watergate scandal, European security, bilateral relations between the PRC and the UK, and the foreign policy of the Soviet Union.
March 26, 1965	Palestine Delegation in Peking Formed in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was not the first Palestinian organization after the nakba (catastrophe), the escape from violence and the Israeli expulsion of a good half of Palestinians in 1948. The two most important earlier organizations were Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-‘Arab (Arab Nationalists Movement [ANM]) and Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini (Palestinian National Liberation Movement [Fatah]). Founded in 1951 in Beirut, ANM became committed to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) and his version of pan-Arab nationalism, which it saw as the means to liberate Palestine, opening a separate Palestinian branch in 1959. (In 1967, it would give rise to the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which split in 1968, one wing forming the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP)). Rejecting Arab states’ tutelage, Fatah was officially born in 1959, though organizational activities began in 1956 and though it built on military cells operating from Egyptian-ruled Gaza from the early 1950s. After Arab armies’ crushing loss against Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 killed any remaining hopes, weakened since the early 1960s, that Arab armies would liberate Palestine, Fatah grew in strength. In 1969, it took command of the PLO. The latter had been founded in 1964 for several reasons. Nasser hoped to weaken Fatah and Syria, a state then in competition with him. Also, the PLO served (upper) middle class Palestinians some of whom—like Ahmad al-Shuqayri (1908-1908), Palestine’s representative to the Arab League and the PLO’s founder and first chairman—had played a Palestinian political role until 1948 and wished to do so again. And these men and women believed Palestinians needed their own statist entity, as Yezid Sayigh’s monumental Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (1997) notes. In 1965, PLO delegates led by Shuqayri for the first time visited the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as reported in the English issue of the multi-language international organ Peking Review. Already in 1964 a small Fatah delegation led by Yassir Arafat (1929-2004) had accepted an invitation to visit Beijing, founding an office there. Sure, upon its establishment in 1949 the PRC had de jure recognized Israel, following the lead of the Soviet Union that acted as its older brother in the communist camp. (Israel in turn was the first Middle Eastern state to recognize the PRC, in 1950.) But after the PRC and the USSR split in 1960, Beijing amplified its anti-imperialist rhetoric and policies versus the Soviet Union and the United States, as Gregg Brazinksy’s Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War (2017) has shown. It was in this context that it from the mid-1960s delivered arms especially to Fatah and the PLO—it soon also would train fighters—and that it politically embraced the Palestinian cause. The PRC framed this policy as that of one “revolutionary people” helping another one, a story strand in Paul Chamberlin’s The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order (2012). By the early 1970s, however, Chinese support became more lukewarm. Moreover, after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976), relations with Israel cautiously warmed, though remaining surreptitious until the establishment of full diplomatic ties in 1992.
March 16, 1982	Excerpts of Talks between Leading Comrades and Foreign Guests (No. 3) A Chinese Communist Party digest summarizing recent meetings held between Deng Xiaoping and foreign counterparts.
February 6, 1982	Excerpts of Talks between Leading Comrades and Foreign Guests (No. 1) A Chinese Communist Party digest summarizing recent meetings held between Zhao Ziyang and foreign counterparts.
September 21, 1961	Transcript of Conversation between Zhou Enlai and Bernard Law Montgomery Premier Zhou speaks with Viscount Montgomery of Alamein about propositions to ease international tensions. Zhou agrees with Montgomery's three propositions one of which is withdrawal of foreign troops from other countries territory. Zhou proposes withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea and Taiwan cross straits. Also, on the Taiwan issue, Zhou says that there is only one China and Taiwan is a part of China. Zhou believes that Taiwan issue is a internal domestic issue that should not be discussed by the UN.
January 5, 1955	Transcript of Conversation between Zhou Enlai and Humphrey Trevelyan Zhou Enlai discusses with Trevelyan Humphrey China's concerns with Britain's attitude regarding Sino-British relations. Zhou says that the Chinese side is willing to improve Sino-British relations, improve the situation in East Asia, and ease international tensions. Zhou also discusses with Humphrey the Taiwan issue. He criticizes the U.S. for infringing upon Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan and Britain for its double standards on the Taiwan issue.
October 26, 1956	Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 38 (Overall Issue No. 64) This issue begins with a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about American efforts to deliberately obstruct the Sino-US ambassadorial talks and prevent cultural exchange. It also discusses topics such as wage reforms for new joint public-private ventures, purchasing and storing seeds to prepare for disasters, and various provincial administrative concerns.
September 15, 1956	Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 33 (Overall Issue No. 59) This issue begins with a statement about an American military aircraft that intruded into Chinese airspace on August 23rd. It also discusses transporting cargo from ports along the Yangtze River, agricultural matters such as breeding animals in production cooperatives, and the "exemplary worker movement" in schools.
June 20, 1956	Gazette of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, 1956, No. 23 (Overall Issue No. 49) This issue addresses the temporary withdrawal of Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission inspection teams from designated North and South Korean ports. It also discusses the Sino-American ambassadorial talks, results from the national economic plan for 1955, and environmental and industrial concerns. One section addresses the problem of reducing illiteracy among opera and drama artists.
March 19, 1956	Statement released by the Department of State (Press Release 115) commenting on a Chinese Communist Statement of March 4 The United States responds to a Chinese statement concerning the ambassadorial talks.