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two major events that occurred in january 1951 can be said to have marked the beginning of the china-india "honeymoon period".

1. signs of the china-india “honeymoon period”

the first major event was that chairman mao spoke highly of india.

january 26, 1951 was the first indian national day after the establishment of diplomatic relations between china and india.in addition to sending separate telegrams to indian president prasad and prime minister nehru, chairman mao zedong and premier zhou enlai also personally attended the celebration held by indian ambassador to china panikkar. also present were more than 400 leaders of other party, government and people's groups. the high level of the celebration greatly moved the indian side.

chairman mao zedong said in his congratulatory speech:

"the indian nation is a great nation, and the indian people are very good people. the friendship between the chinese and indian nations and the two peoples has been very good for thousands of years. today we celebrate india's national day. we hope that the chinese and indian nations will continue to unite and work for peace. people all over the world need peace, and only a few people want war. india, china, the soviet union and all other peace-loving countries and peoples should unite and work for peace in the far east and the world. celebrate india's national day, congratulate the indian people, and congratulate your president."

ambassador panikkar also expressed his enthusiasm in his speech:

"i am deeply grateful to you, mr. president, for your generosity in attending the celebration of the republic day of india. i regard this as a gesture of goodwill and friendship from the chinese government and people to my government and people. mr. president, as you know, we attach great importance to this friendship, and the presence of so many leaders of governments and people on this national day and the celebration in such a friendly atmosphere are clear evidence of this friendship."

"mr. president, i wish to express to you in particular the sincere and profound respect of the indian people and government, who have expressed in an unmistakable manner their admiration for your outstanding leadership, your friendship towards them and your desire for india's happiness, progress and prosperity. we also feel the pride that the chinese people feel in the greatness of their leader, who has elevated the status of the asian people. therefore, with great joy and pride, i ask you to join me in wishing chairman mao zedong long live, congratulating him on his fruitful achievements in the cause of peace, and long live the unshakable friendship between the peoples and governments of india and china."

chairman mao's congratulatory message was widely welcomed and valued in india. it was broadcast by the indian national radio and published in prominent places in newspapers across the country. chairman mao's attendance at the indian embassy's national day reception and his important speech greatly enhanced the friendship between the chinese and indian peoples.

another major event in january 1951 was that china, in order to alleviate india's famine even though its own food supply was far from abundant, signed a hemp and rice exchange agreement with india. china exchanged 50,000 tons of rice for 16,500 bags of hemp from india, which were quickly shipped.

five more contracts were signed later, supplying india with a total of 660,000 tons of food. india originally negotiated with the united states first, but the united states wanted india to cooperate strategically and exchange strategic materials such as uranium and single crystal ore for the production of jet engines, and also wanted american officials to go to india to supervise the distribution of food after it arrived.

prime minister nehru would rather not have it in order to maintain national self-esteem, so indian newspapers said that this "clearly shows whether it is china or the united states that truly cares about the indian people"; china's supply of rice "is a very great gesture of friendship" and it also "has spiritual nutritional value."

2. india’s role in the korean war

during the korean war, india, then a non-permanent member of the security council, actively sought ways to peacefully resolve the korean war and advocated the restoration of china's seat in the united nations and the security council.

the korean war broke out on june 25, 1950. india's representative on the security council, bengal rao, supported the proposal put forward by the us representative that "north korea attack south korea."under pressure from the united states, india agreed to establish the "united nations army" (90% of which was provided by the us military and 10% by 15 countries including britain, france, australia, belgium, canada, thailand, the philippines and turkey), but did not send troops to participate, only sending a medical team.

on july 13, 1950, prime minister nehru sent a telegram to stalin, suggesting a peaceful solution to the korean issue. stalin replied on the 15th, welcoming the proposal, and china also expressed support, but the united states and britain rejected it.

after soviet representative malik returned to the security council and assumed the chairmanship on august 1, the indian representative repeatedly supported his proposal to recognize china's legitimate representation in the security council and to discuss a peaceful solution to the korean issue.

on september 19, the first day of the fifth session of the general assembly, the indian representative read out a proposal to have the representative of the people's republic of china represent china at the general assembly and suggested that other un agencies take similar actions. the us representative immediately objected.

the representative of india stated:

"as long as this country of 475 million people remains outside the world body, the chinese people's government, which is the only government capable of controlling china and fulfilling china's responsibilities and obligations, cannot be considered a fully representative organization."

however, both the indian and soviet proposals were rejected due to manipulation by the united states. at the same time, nehru said at the congress party proposal committee meeting that the question of the participation of the representatives of the people's republic of china in the united nations "is a vital issue for the future of the united nations" and "from various points of view, our great neighbor china should have appropriate representatives in the united nations; calling the representatives of the kuomintang government representatives of china is a factual error."

on the 21st, prime minister nehru said at the opening of the congress party national conference:

"although the general assembly resolution rejected india's proposal, it did not take into account the real situation in china. if the united nations is still dreaming of the old china that is now almost dead, then it is closing its eyes to the facts. the new chinese government did not gain power by chance, but after 30 years of long war. today, when the old kuomintang does not even exist in china, if you still think that the kuomintang representatives should continue to stay in the united nations, this is ignoring the facts. this resolution can never be said to represent the real situation, so it loses its due importance."

prime minister nehru warned the united states "not to cross the 38th parallel" and refused to accept the claim of "chinese aggression".

after the u.s. military successfully landed in incheon on september 15, 1950, the situation on the korean battlefield reversed and the united states attempted to cross the 38th parallel and invade north korea.

prime minister nehru warned on september 30 that the 38th parallel must not be crossed and that even if north korea was occupied militarily, it would be impossible to achieve the unification of korea. on october 1, he also attended the first national day reception hosted by the chinese ambassador to india.

on october 9, the un general assembly passed the "eight-nation proposal" (a proposal put forward by britain, australia, the philippines, the netherlands, norway, cuba, brazil and pakistan to invade the entire north korea in the name of "collective security action") with 47 votes in favor, 5 votes against and 7 abstentions. india abstained from voting.

on the same day, the "united nations army" crossed the 38th parallel on a large scale, bringing the war to the sino-korean border, directly threatening the security of the newly born people's republic of china.it turned out that late at night on october 2, premier zhou enlai urgently met with indian ambassador to china panikkar and told him, "the us military is attempting to cross the 38th parallel and expand the war. if the us military really does so, we cannot sit idly by, we must take action."

prime minister nehru immediately called us secretary of state acheson and british foreign secretary bevan respectively, reminding them that china might intervene in the war and suggesting exploring a political solution, but neither of his suggestions was accepted.india's representative at the united nations also conveyed china's warning. on october 4, us ambassador to india henderson met with indian foreign secretary bajpayee and accused india of opposing crossing the 38th parallel, "putting the united states in the most difficult position"; "now asking the united nations forces to stop at the 38th parallel is tantamount to surrendering to the threat of aggression."

at that time, china conveyed the above important decision-making information through india, which naturally greatly improved india's international reputation and also demonstrated china's attention and trust in india.on october 19, the chinese people's volunteer army crossed the yalu river and fought in cooperation with the korean people's army on the korean battlefield, winning successive victories and forcing the united states to retreat south of the 38th parallel in late november of that year, completely shattering macarthur's arrogant promise to launch a christmas offensive and allow un soldiers to return home victoriously for christmas.

this greatly boosted the morale of the asian people. the times of india (december 4, 1950) pointed out that this "fully demonstrated that new china is capable of defending its own interests."

at that time, the united states also conspired to establish a un trusteeship system in the disputed kashmir between india and pakistan, turning this strategically important region into a us base. these also prompted india to take a fair or relatively fair stance on issues such as the north korea issue and the restoration of china's seat in the united nations to resist us power politics, despite the conflict with china on the tibet issue.

on november 24, 1950, the soviet union proposed to the un general assembly to invite china to send representatives to participate in the security council to discuss china's case against the united states for armed aggression against taiwan. india voted in favor, and the case was passed with 30 votes in favor. this led to the chinese vice foreign minister wu xiuquan leading a delegation to the united nations to accuse the united states.

at this time, the united states was losing ground on the battlefield, so it was playing a ceasefire conspiracy to buy breathing time and wait for an opportunity to counterattack again. under china's persuasion, india gave up its proposal to form a "three-person mediation committee for the korean armistice" by the fifth un general assembly president andy jan and indian and canadian representatives, and agreed to china's proposal to hold a seven-nation conference attended by china, the soviet union, the united states, britain, france, india and egypt.

on february 1, 1951, the political committee of the un general assembly adopted a resolution planned by the united states declaring china an "aggressor". the indian representative voted against it and accused the representatives of the majority of countries of taking actions that meant: no ceasefire, no negotiations, and no peaceful settlement.prior to this, on january 29, the indian representative clearly stated that "india does not believe that china's actions in north korea are motivated by aggressive intentions, but rather that they may be motivated by fear for china's territorial integrity." the times of india and more than 110 scholars from delhi university also published articles and statements opposing the resolution.

in addition, 50 indian celebrities and nearly 400 young people expressed their willingness to go to korea to fight against the us to the indian ministry of foreign affairs or the all-india students' union. on may 15, 1951, the un general assembly, under the manipulation of the united states, passed an illegal embargo on china and north korea despite the opposition of representatives from the soviet union, india and other countries.in september of the same year, when the united states convened the san francisco conference to organize a separate peace treaty with japan (51 countries participated except japan), india refused to participate. one of the reasons was that china was blocked from participating. india believed that it would be impossible to have an important conference on the far east without china's participation.

3. india’s role in the armistice negotiations

india also opposes the united states' violation of the korean armistice agreement. the us political and economic blockade of north korea and china cannot save its defeat on the battlefield.according to a report from united press international in washington on june 29, 1951, the total number of american casualties had reached 226,000 after only one year of war, and the casualties of other un forces and south korean troops were estimated to be 308,000 (syngman rhee's ministry of state estimated that the casualties of the south korean army were 212,554).

therefore, the united nations forces were forced to agree to hold the korean armistice negotiations, which officially began on july 10, 1951. since the united states attempted to obtain what it could not obtain on the battlefield at the negotiation table, the armistice negotiations became a long, tortuous and complicated struggle. the two sides fought and negotiated at the same time; the negotiations were intermittent, and the korean armistice agreement was not signed until july 27, 1953.

the most intense struggle during the negotiations was over the issue of prisoners of war, and it was also an issue in which india would have a direct role to play in the next stage.

the dprk and china advocate that both sides repatriate all prisoners of war in accordance with the provisions of the geneva convention. in order to implement its conspiracy to detain dprk and chinese prisoners of war, the united states insisted on the so-called "voluntary repatriation" principle, and carried out so-called "screening" among the prisoners of war under its control through bloody means such as tattooing and writing blood letters, forcing the prisoners of war to express "refusal to be repatriated" and even killing them if they refused.at the same time, they repeatedly and illegally classified large numbers of captured korean people's army personnel as "civilians" and handed them over to the syngman rhee group. on october 8, 1952, they unilaterally announced the indefinite adjournment of the armistice negotiations and launched the shangganling offensive, which also ended in failure.

in november, the indian representative put forward a proposal at the un general assembly, the basic content of which was: "the return of prisoners of war to their homeland should not be prevented or affected by force"; the prisoners of war should be handed over to a repatriation committee. the united states believed that the indian proposal was in line with its principle that prisoners of war could be forcibly detained under the condition of "voluntary repatriation" and actively promoted its adoption by the un general assembly special committee and the un general assembly.

china opposed the resolution, pointing out that its essence is still the forced detention of prisoners of war.

the determination of the chinese people and the predicament of the united states in korea led the united states to propose to the dprk and china on february 23, 1953 that they exchange sick and wounded prisoners of war first. on april 26, the two delegations resumed their meeting. with the efforts of the dprk and china, on june 8, 1953, the two sides finally reached an agreement on the repatriation of prisoners of war.

the agreement stipulated the establishment of a neutral country repatriation committee. however, after the signing of the prisoner repatriation agreement, the syngman rhee group, with the support of the united states, forcibly detained prisoners in the north of north korea and publicly called for "going it alone" and "moving north" in an attempt to undermine the realization of the armistice.

prime minister nehru sent a telegram to the president of the un general assembly, suggesting that a un general assembly meeting be held to discuss the situation in north korea caused by syngman rhee's opposition to the truce. indian newspapers also condemned the crimes of the syngman rhee group, and rallies were held in various parts of india to protest against the united states' connivance with the syngman rhee group.in view of the sabotage actions of the syngman rhee group, china and north korea launched the battle of jincheng, which was aimed directly at the syngman rhee group. it became the last battle in the korean war. the syngman rhee group was defeated. this battle effectively promoted the realization of the korean armistice.

on july 27, 1953, the korean armistice agreement was finally signed at panmunjom. the agreement stipulates that within three months after the signing and entry into force of the agreement, a high-level political conference between the two sides should be held to negotiate the withdrawal of all foreign troops from north korea and the peaceful resolution of the korean issue.

4. india’s role in the repatriation of prisoners of war

but just 11 days after the agreement was signed, the united states signed the mutual defense treaty with south korea.

based on this, the us troops not only did not withdraw but stayed in south korea for a long time. the higher-level political conference was also not held because the united states insisted that only belligerent countries should participate and did not agree to the participation of the soviet union and neutral countries such as india and burma. prime minister nehru was very dissatisfied with the obstruction of the united states.

china insisted that india participate in the "neutral nations repatriation commission" and serve as its chairman; under strong pressure from the united states, india unilaterally dissolved the "neutral nations repatriation commission".

the neutral nations repatriation committee to resolve the issue of repatriating prisoners of war was formally established on september 9, 1953 and illegally dissolved on february 21, 1954. after the signing of the prisoner of war agreement, the dprk and china promptly repatriated all prisoners of war from the other side who exercised the right to repatriation in accordance with the provisions. before the establishment of the repatriation committee on september 6, 1953, a total of 12,760 prisoners of war from the other side had been repatriated, including 4,912 non-dprk prisoners of war. the 359 prisoners of war who insisted on not being repatriated were handed over to the neutral nations repatriation committee.

however, after the signing of the armistice agreement, the united states arbitrarily "released" 23,000 north korean and chinese prisoners of war and transported them to south korea and taiwan, while the remaining 20,000 were handed over to the neutral nations repatriation commission.

according to the original un general assembly resolution, the neutral nations repatriation commission only stipulated sweden, switzerland, the czech republic and poland as member countries. at china's insistence, india also participated and served as the chairman of the committee.

prime minister nehru appointed indian army lieutenant general thimaiya as the chairman of the chinese mission committee. thimaiya and the indian troops carrying out the mission (according to india today published by the indian embassy in china in august 1996, there were 6,000 troops in total) arrived in north korea on september 9, 1953, and began an extremely difficult and complex struggle.

the fundamental reason was that the us used various despicable tricks to achieve the purpose of seizing prisoners. the us and chiang kai-shek spies in the prisoner-of-war camps even attacked the indian guards, beat indian officers, and horribly massacred and tortured north korean and chinese prisoners of war. there were also shocking incidents such as the brutal killing of zhang zilong, a soldier of the chinese people's volunteer army. general thimayya and prime minister nehru had repeatedly exposed and protested against this.

however, under strong pressure from the united states, the indian guard force finally began to illegally hand over 21,900 north korean and chinese prisoners of war to the united states on january 20, 1954, despite opposition from north korea and china. this was done under the severe encirclement of the u.s. armed forces and the chiang and li secret service organizations.

on january 23, the commander of the invading u.s. army signed a prisoner transfer agreement with representatives of the south korean and taiwan authorities, handing over more than 7,000 korean people's army prisoners of war to the south korean authorities and more than 14,000 chinese people's volunteer army prisoners of war to the taiwan authorities.

on february 18, the indian representative of the china commission for the repatriation of indians proposed to dissolve the china commission for the repatriation of indians. at 24:00 on the 21st, the china commission for the repatriation of indians illegally declared its dissolution. on the 23rd, general thimayya flew from north korea to india. on the same day, the indian guard troops also returned home by ship.

in a statement issued on january 30, 1954 to protest against the u.s. prisoner abduction, premier zhou enlai affirmed that "the neutral nations repatriation commission and the indian custody force had made great efforts in performing their tasks" and pointed out that "however, they have been reluctant to take effective measures on the key issue of how to deal with the spy organizations in the southern pow camps" and "on the contrary, they recognized the spies who murdered the prisoners as so-called prisoner representatives, gave them legal status and allowed them to do whatever they wanted."

from the time when thimayya returned to his country until the joint statement issued by china and north korea in february 1958, deciding that the chinese people's volunteer army would withdraw from north korea that year, india no longer had a legal position on the korean issue. india's recommendation by china to serve as the chairman of the china-north korea mission committee undoubtedly greatly improved india's international status.

india’s support for china was also evident. according to reports in the people’s daily alone, prime minister nehru and other indian leaders and india’s representatives at the united nations had called for the restoration of china’s seat in the united nations at least 30 times by 1958.

premier zhou and other chinese leaders have also repeatedly praised india's valuable contribution to the cause of armistice and peace maintenance in korea.

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