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Thus the armed provocations of the Chinese authorities on the Ussuri River in the area of Damansky Island are not accidental incidents. These actions as well as the engineering of general tension on the Soviet-Chinese frontier are doing great harm to the cause of socialism and peace, to the common front of anti- imperialist struggle and friendship be- tween the Soviet and Chinese peoples.

The Soviet government, being guided by an earnest desire to ensure a lasting peace and security and maintain friend- ship and cooperation with the Chinese people, believes that it is necessary to take without delay practical steps to normalize the situation on the Soviet- Chinese frontier. It urges the government of the C.P.R. to refrain from any actions on the frontier that may cause compli- cations and urges the government of the C.P.R. to solve differences if they arise, in a calm situation and through negotiations.

The Soviet government also suggests that Soviet and Chinese official repre- sentatives resume in the nearest future the consultations that were started in Peking in 1964.

The Soviet government is firmly con- vinced that in the final count the vital interests of the Soviet and Chinese peoples will enable them to remove and overcome difficulties in Soviet-Chinese relations.

The Soviet government states, and considers it necessary to reiterate, that it resolutely rejects any encroachments by anyone on Soviet lands, and that any attempts to talk to the Soviet Union and the Soviet people in the language of weapons will meet with a firm rebuff.

The Soviet people unanimously sup- port the Leninist foreign policy of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the government of the U.S.S.R. and measures to ensure the inviolability and

security of the sacred frontier of our socialist homeland. March 29, 1969 The above statement of the Soviet government was officially transmitted to the C.P.R. government through the Chinese Embassy in Moscow on March 29 this year.

LIN PIAO ON THE SINo-SovIET BOUNDARY QUESTION

An excerpt from Lin Piao's Political Report to the Ninth Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, April 1, 1969.

Now that the Soviet government has created the incident of armed encroach- ment upon Chinese territory, Chen Pao Island, the Sino-Soviet boundary ques- tion has caught the attention of the whole world. Like boundary questions between China and some of her other neighboring countries, the Sino-Soviet boundary question is also one left over by history. In regard to these questions, our party and government have consis- tently stood for negotiations through diplomatic channels to reach a fair and reasonable settlement. Pending a settle- ment, the status quo of the boundary should be maintained in order to avoid conflicts. Proceeding from this stand, China has satisfactorily and successively settled the boundary questions with her neighboring countries such as Burma, Nepal, Pakistan, the People's Republic of Mongolia, and Afghanistan. Only the boundary questions between the Soviet Union and China and between India and China remain unsettled to this day.

The Chinese government held repeated negotiations with the Indian government on the Sino-Indian boundary question. As the reactionary Indian government had taken over the British imperialist policy of aggrossion, it insisted that we

I 8 8 STUDIES IN COMPARATIVE COMMUNISM

recognize the illegal "McMahon Line," which even the reactionary governments of different periods in old China did not recognize, and, moreover, it vainly attempted to further occupy the Aksai Chin area, which has always been under Chinese jurisdiction, thereby disrupting the Sino-Indian boundary negotiations. This is known to all.

The Sino-Soviet boundary question is the product of tsarist Russian imperialist aggression against China. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, when power was not in the hands of the Chinese and Russian peoples, the tsarist government took imperialist acts of aggression to carve up China, imposed on her a series of unequal treaties, annexed large tracts of her territory and, more- over, crossed in many places the boundary line as stipulated by the unequal treaties and made further encroachment upon Chinese territory. Such gangster behavior was indignantly condemned by Marx, Engels, and Lenin. On September 27, 1920, the Soviet government led by the great Lenin solemnly proclaimed: it "declares null and void all the treaties concluded with China by the former governments of Russia, renounces all seizure of Chinese territory and all Russian concessions in China and restores to China, without any compensation and forever, all that has been predatorily seized from her by the tsars' government and the Russian bourgeoisie." (See "Declaration of the Government of the Russian Socialist Federated Soviet Republic to the Chinese Government.") Owing to the historical conditions of the time, this proletarian policy of Lenin's was not realized.

As early as August 22 and September 21, 1960, the Chinese government, proceeding from its consistent stand on boundary questions, twice took the initiative in proposing to the Soviet government that negotiations be held to settle the Sino-Soviet boundary

question. In 1964, negotiations between the two sides started in Peking.

The treaties relating to the present Sino-Soviet boundary are unequal treaties imposed on the Chinese people by the tsars, but out of a desire to safe- guard the revolutionary friendship between the Chinese and Soviet peoples, we still maintained that these treaties be taken as the basis for the settlement of the boundary question. However, be- traying Lenin's proletarian policy and clinging to its new-tsarist social-imper- ialist stand, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique refused to recognize these treaties as unequal and, moreover, insisted that China recognize as belong- ing to the Soviet Union all the Chinese territory which they had occupied or attempted to occupy in violation of the treaties. This great- power chauvinist and social-imperialist stand of the Soviet government led to the disruption of the negotiations.

Since Brezhnev came to power, the Soviet revisionist renegade clique has frenziedly stepped up its disruption of the status quo of the boundary and repeatedly provoked border incidents, shooting and killing our unarmed fishermen and peasants and encroaching upon China's sovereignty. Recently it has gone further and made successive armed intrusions into our territory, Chen Pao Island. Driven beyond the limits of their forbearance, our frontier guards have fought back in self-defense, dealing the aggressors well-deserved blows and triumphantly safeguarding our sacred territory. In an effort to extricate them from their predicament, Kosygin asked on March 21 to commu- nicate with our leaders by telephone. Immediately on March 22, our govern- ment replied with a memorandum, in which it was made clear that, "in view of the present relations between China and the Soviet Union, it is unsuitable to communicate by telephone. If the

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Soviet government has anything to say, it is asked to put it forward officially to the Chinese government through diplo- matic channels." On March 29, the Soviet government issued a statement, still clinging to its obstinate aggressor stand, while expressing willingness to resume "consultation." Our government is considering its reply to this.

SOVIET PROPOSAL FOR A MEETING OF THE SINO-SOVIET COMMISSION ON BORDERLINE NAVIGATION

TASS International Service, on May 2, 1969.

The Soviet side proposed a conference of the Soviet-Chinese Commission on Borderline Navigation. The Soviet side suggested that the conference be held in May in Khabarovsk.

The following statement for the press points out that in connection with economic needs of the Soviet Union and China, the governments of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China concluded in 1951 an agree- ment on the rules of navigation along the borderline rivers Amur, Ussuri, Argun, Sungacha, and Lake Khanka and on the creation of the atmosphere conducive to navigation on these waterways:

"The Mixed Soviet-Chinese Commis- sion on navigation along the borderline rivers of the Amur basin was instituted in accordance with this. The commis- sion's task is to discuss and agree upon practical matters to ensure that border- line parts of the rivers are navigable and to ensure safety for navigation of these waterways by vessels of both sides. For these purposes, conferences of the commission are being convened regu- larly. Fourteen such conferences were held since 1951. They were held in turn

either in the Soviet Union or in China. The latest conference was held in 1967 in Harbin. In 1968 the Soviet side suggested holding the next, fifteenth, conference in Khabarovsk. But the Chinese side avoided taking part in the conference."

Guided by the agreement of 1951, and proceeding from the need for coopera- tion of the sides to ensure normal conditions for navigation along the borderline sections of the rivers of the Amur basin, the Soviet side suggested to the Chinese side to hold the regular conference of the commission this year.

The statement for the press says that on April 26, the chairman of the Soviet part of the mixed commission, A. Smirnov, forwarded to the chairman of the Chinese part of the mixed commis- sion, Chen Fa-Ping, a proposal to convene the fifteenth conference of the mixed Soviet-Chinese commission on naviga- tion in May in Khabarovsk.

It is suggested that the conference should discuss and agree upon the matters connected with ensuring naviga- tion along the borderline rivers in 1969.

SOVIET NOTE OF APRIL 11 ON RESUMPTION OF BORDER NEGOTIATIONS

Radio Mosco w Domestic Service, April 11, 1969.

On April 11 of this year the U.S.S.R. Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent, via the Chinese Embassy in Moscow, the following note to the C.P.R. Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The U.S.S.R. Ministry of Foreign Affairs declares to the C.P.R. Ministry of Foreign Affairs the following:

In the autumn of 1964, the U.S.S.R. delegation, led by Diryanov, and the C.P.R. delegation led by Den Yung Tuan, at certain consultations in Peking,