place to the effect that the Chinese Communist Party was going along the Yugoslav path, that Mao Zedong is a "Chinese Tito." I told Mao Zedong that there were no such moods and conversations in our party.
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The bourgeois press around the world, continued Mao Zedong, particularly the right socialists, had taken up the version of "China's third way," and extolled it. At that time, noted Mao Zedong, Stalin, evidently, did not believe us, while the bourgoisie and laborites sustained the illusion of the "Yugoslav path of China," and only Jiang Jieshi alone "defended'' Mao Zedong, shrieking that the capitalist powers should not in any circumstance believe Mao Zedong, that "he will not turn from his path," etc. This behavior of Jiang Jieshi is understandable, since he knows us too well, he more than once had to stand in confrontation to us and to fight with us.
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The distrust of Stalin to the CCP, Mao Zedong continued further, was apparent also during the time of Mao Zedong's visit to the Soviet Union. One of our main goals for the trip to Moscow was the conclusion of a Chinese-Soviet treaty on friendship, cooperation, and mutual assistance. The Chinese people asked us whether a treaty of the USSR with the new China will be signed, why until now legally there continues to exist a treaty with the supporters of the Guomindang, etc. The issue of the treaty was an extremely important matter for us, which determined the possibilities for the further development of the PRC. At the first conversation with Stalin, Mao Zedong said, I brought a proposal to conclude a treaty along government lines, but Stalin declined to answer. During the second conversation I returned once again to that issue, showing Stalin a telegram from the CC CCP with the same type of proposal about a treaty. I proposed to summon Zhou Enlai to Moscow to sign the treaty, since he is the minister of foreign affairs. Stalin used this suggestion as a pretext for refusal and said that "it is inconvenient to act in this way, since the bourgeois press will cry that the whole Chinese government is located in Moscow." Subsequently, Stalin refrained from any meetings with me. From my side there was an attempt to phone him in his apartment, but they responded to me that Stalin is not home, and recommended that I meet with [Anastas] Mikoyan. All this offended me, Mao Zedong said, and I decided to undertake nothing further and to wait it out at the dacha. Then an unpleasant conversation took place with [I. V.] Kovalev and [N. T.] Fedorenko, who proposed that I go on an excursion around the country. I sharply rejected this proposal and responded that I prefer "to sleep through it at the dacha." Some time later, continued Mao Zedong, they handed me a draft of my interview for publication which had been signed by Stalin. In this document it was reported that negotiations are being held in Moscow on concluding a Soviet-Chinese treaty. This already was a significant step forward. It is possible that in Stalin's change of position, said Mao Zedong, we were helped by the Indians and the English, who had recognized the PRC in January 1950. Negotiations began right after this, in which Malenkov, Molotov, Mikoyan, Bulganin, Kaganovich, and Beriia took part. During the negotiations, at Stalin's initiative there was undertaken an attempt by the Soviet Union to assume sole ownership of the Chinese
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