893.00/6–145
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs (Stanton)56
| Participants: | Mr. Tung Pi-wu, Delegate of China and Member of the Chinese Communist Party |
| Mr. Sprouse | |
| Mr. Stanton |
We had a long and informal conversation with Mr. Tung last evening during the course of which we sought to obtain his reactions to recent changes in the Chinese Government and the possibility of an agreement being reached between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party in regard to the problems of political and military unification.
In connection with the appointment of Dr. T. Y. Soong as President of the Executive Yuan Mr. Tung said that he did not believe this appointment would have any great bearing on the solution of the fundamental differences between the two parties and stressed that the solution of these differences depended upon the attitude and action taken by the Generalissimo. In reply to a question, Mr. Tung said that the Generalissimo did want a solution of the problem and did want unity but that he continued to insist that the Kuomintang should dominate the National Government and added that the Generalissimo was not prepared to give the Communist Party or other political groups in China any real authority or any real voice in the Government.
With reference to present plans to convene a National Assembly on November 12, 1945, with a view to the establishment of a constitutional government, Mr. Tung declared that the convening of the National Assembly would in no sense mean the termination of Kuomintang domination of the Government. In this connection he pointed out that the delegates to the National Assembly would be those representatives who were selected nine years ago and that in consequence the majority of the members of the Assembly (90%) would consist of Kuomintang-selected delegates and approximately 10% would be of non-Kuomintang political sympathies. He declared that the net effect of the actions of the Assembly would be to legalize Kuomintang control of the so-called constitutional government. He further intimated that Mr. Li Hwang, who is a member of the Chinese Delegation and the [Page 400] leader of the Chinese Youth Party, Mr. Carsun Chang, leader of the Chinese Nationalist Socialist Party, and he had informed Dr. T. V. Soong here in San Francisco that their respective political parties would not participate in a “false” constitutional government of this nature. Mr. Tung was asked what solution he had to this problem. He stated in reply that the Chinese Communist Party believed the only solution to be a “true” coalition government which if formed at the present time would result in China’s full strength being employed against the Japanese and would, he believed, pave the way for the establishment of a truly representative government after the war. It appeared from Mr. Tung’s statements that there is little likelihood of the Chinese Communist Party’s making any substantial concessions.
There was considerable further discussion regarding this matter during the course of which it was emphasized to Mr. Tung that senior officers of the Department were very seriously concerned over the impasse which appeared to have been reached and earnestly hoped that the differences between the two parties could be resolved and political and military unity achieved.
Comment:57 Attention is invited to the striking similarity between the views expressed by Mr. Tung and those which were set forth in an article which appeared in Izvestia on June 3.58 Mr. Krainov, author of the article in question, asserted that the “Kuomintang seeks to preserve entirely the power in its hands” and added that it has already secured for itself “an overwhelming majority of the seats in the National Assembly by appointing delegates and leaving valid the mandates of delegates who were elected on the eve of the Japanese-Chinese war” (1936). Mr. Krainov asserted further that the National Assembly “may become a screen behind which the reactionary leaders of the Kuomintang seek even more to strengthen the power already in their hands, under the guise of bringing democracy to the state”.