Zeenews Bureau
Beijing, Nov 15: The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs earlier this week declassified almost 70 percent of its diplomatic archives dating from 1960 to 1965. One among the 41,097 items revealed was the reason behind China’s sudden call of truce in its border war with India in late 1962.
The archives declassified on Wednesday further revealed for the first time how China sent back Indian prisoners of war and military spies shortly after announcing the ceasefire.
According to scholars, the newly-released files will assist researchers in understanding history in a better way. In fact, it will help diplomats to avert issues that could spark tensions in future.
The Archives Bureau of the China’s Foreign Ministry also made public the dossiers detailing how China helped the former Soviet Union despite sharp ideological differences during the early 1960s. On the one hand, Beijing assisted the former Soviet Union transport aid to Vietnam during the latter`s war against the US and mended differences with the Soviets on the other.
The archives included reports, recorded conversations, referendums, notes, memoirs, telegrams and documents inked by state and party leaders. Scholars can delve into details of key diplomatic events, including former Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai`s call on 14 Asian and African nations, establishment of diplomatic ties with France, formation of diplomatic relations with Asian and African countries, and the Sino-US ambassadorial talks (rounds 103 to 128).
Curator of archives at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Guo Chongli, described the early 60s as a complex period for China`s foreign affairs. He explained that the declassified documents pointed towards China`s principles as well as stands in bilateral and multilateral diplomatic arena.
The declassified archives are the third set of documents made public since 2004.
"The Foreign Ministry will try its best to complete declassification of the archives from between 1965 to 1977 in the next three years," Guo told reporters. "After that we will declassify the archives on a yearly basis."
