Office of the Historian

893.00/11–2849

Memorandum by the Ambassador to China (Stuart) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Butterworth)

[Washington,] November 28, 1949.

The source for the following information is in my opinion entirely trustworthy:

1.
He reports that he made a trip to Peiping last month and saw Li87 and Liu.88 Li says that CCP pro-Soviet extremists do not want U.S. recognition. That Liu is totally under Soviet dictation. Li is now accusing Liu as not being sufficiently leftist although he has heretofore been regarded as the leader of the doctrinaire pro-Soviet faction in the Peiping CCP. The CCP complains that the present American administration is reactionary but that they can cooperate with the American people.
2.
… remarked that the White Paper89 caused great embarrassment to liberal Shao Li-tse and himself because of its reference to democratic individuals. All such liberals came therefore under CCP suspicion. He mentioned especially a list of 10 names including … [Page 612] who are all worried. They question whether USA wants them to continue their past efforts by thus exposing them to danger.
3.
These men all agree that the anti-American propaganda has been intensified since the arrival within the past few months of more Russian advisors. This is not approved by Chou En-lai90 and other relatively liberal CCP leaders, but their position is becoming steadily weaker.
4.
My source tried to see Chou 5 times; to see Yeh Chien-ying91 3 times; to see Wang Ping-nan92 7 times but could never get any response. This seems to indicate their caution against further criticism.
5.
… said that there were no CCP members on the Yenching faculty although two subordinates man and wife and office secretary J. C. Yang had admitted that they were members. Yang who originally had been quiet has now become very active on the campus.… and the others mentioned above regarded the treatment of Philip Fugh’s93 family as evidence of unfriendliness toward me. Their home has been searched four times. Some of his art objects were confiscated. He is accused of being a “running dog of Americans, etc.” … is pessimistic about the outlook for Yenching and similar institutions. He fears that the pressure upon them will begin sometime next year.

  1. Li Li-san, Vice Chairman of the Communist All-China Federation of Labor.↩
  2. Liu Shao-chi, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).↩
  3. Department of State, United States Relations With China (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1949).↩
  4. Member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and of the Politburo; Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military Affairs Committee, and Premier since October 1, 1949.↩
  5. Communist mayor of Peiping.↩
  6. Member of Chou En-lal’s delegation during 1946 negotiations with the Chinese Government.↩
  7. Chinese personal secretary to Ambassador Stuart.↩