TLS signed in Chinese by Zhou Enlai, one page, 8.25 x 10.5, Chinese Communist Party, Delegation Office letterhead, August 30, 1946. Letter to J. Franklin Ray, Jr., Acting Director of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) China Office, in full: "Your letter dated 17 August has been received. I am aware that the Communist Liberated Areas did recently make criticisms upon certain erroneous aspects of the United States policy towards China. But I know for sure that there has been no anti-American propaganda in general. It is hereby hoped that you would differentiate between these two points, so as to avoid any possible misunderstanding and misinterpretation.
We welcome and respect U. N. R. R. A. personnel in Communist Liberated Areas all the time. We will never change this attitude or discriminate against U. N. R. R. A. personnel notwithstanding the criticisms upon the erroneous aspects of the American policy in China.
In order to afford more guarantee against any unforeseen incidents, I have asked Yenan authorities to instruct the various Communist local governments to this effect." In fine condition, with light toning from prior display.
The UNRRA was an international agency founded to organize the administration of relief measures such as food, fuel, clothing, and medical supplies to countries that had been hit especially hard during World War II. However, the end of WWII brought about the resumption of the Chinese Civil War in which the Nationalist and Communist factions battled for control. Although the UNRRA was supposed to be an apolitical humanitarian organization, it seemed that the vast majority of aid was falling into the hands of the Nationalists. Supply trucks bound for areas held by the Communists were also frequently intercepted by the Nationalists, who either seized the goods being transported or simply prevented them from reaching the Communist areas. According to Zhou Enlai, the Communists controlled all or part of nineteen provinces yet received less than one percent of all UNRRA shipments into China.
George C. Marshall spent most of 1946 in China in a fruitless attempt to broker peace between the Nationalists and Communists and to achieve a democratic resolution. During this time, relations between the United States and the Chinese Communists grew increasingly strained. Here, Zhou addresses these tensions while reassuring the UNRRA of the CCP’s continued support for its humanitarian mission. Zhou distinguishes between targeted criticisms of U.S. foreign policy and broader anti-American sentiment, emphasizing that the CCP would not obstruct or discriminate against UNRRA personnel despite political differences.
Following the failure in negotiations between the Chinese Communist Party and the Nationalists (Kuomintang), Zhou turned his focus from diplomatic to military affairs, working directly under Mao as his chief aide. Using the techniques of guerrilla warfare, the Communists were ultimately able to overwhelm Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist troops, seizing Beijing and Tianjin in 1949. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, Chou was appointed as both Premier of the Government Administration Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs. He would play a leading role in developing China's foreign policy and economy in the second half of the 20th century.
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