Bandung Conference
From 18 to 24 April 1955, 29 Asian and African countries met in Bandung, Indonesia, at the first large international conference convened and attended solely by Asian and African states. Zhou Enlai led the Chinese delegation; beforehand, the airliner "Kashmir Princess", chartered by China, exploded after leaving Hong Kong, though Zhou was not aboard. At the conference Zhou called for "seeking common ground while reserving differences", and on 23 April said China was willing to negotiate with the United States on easing tension over Taiwan, leading to Sino-American ambassadorial talks from August. The conference adopted a Final Communiqué with ten principles.
Background
The prime ministers of Burma, Ceylon, India, Indonesia and Pakistan (the "Colombo powers"), meeting in Colombo and then at Bogor in Indonesia, initiated and prepared an Asian-African conference. It met in Bandung, Indonesia, from 18 to 24 April 1955. Besides the five sponsors, 24 countries took part — among them the People's Republic of China, Japan, Egypt, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, and both the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the State of Vietnam — making 29 in all; it was the first large international conference convened and attended solely by Asian and African states. The PRC delegation was led by Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai. Zhou had first systematically set out the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence at the end of 1953, and in June 1954, visiting India and Burma, had affirmed them in joint statements with Jawaharlal Nehru and U Nu.
The "Kashmir Princess" Incident
On 11 April 1955 the Air India airliner "Kashmir Princess", chartered by China, exploded and crashed into the sea on its way from Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport to Jakarta; all 11 passengers — Chinese delegation staff and journalists among them — were killed, and only three crew members survived. Zhou was not on board; China's Foreign Ministry says he escaped "because he had added a visit to Burma at short notice". According to material compiled by the Hong Kong Memory project's HAECO oral history, Hong Kong police concluded that the bomb had been planted while the aircraft was at Kai Tak, and identified as the suspect an employee of the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company, named in English reports as Chow Tse-ming, who afterwards left for Taiwan on a Civil Air Transport plane. Chinese official accounts attribute the attack to "Taiwan's intelligence agencies" seeking to assassinate Zhou. Zhou went on to Indonesia as planned.
"Seek Common Ground"
After the conference opened, some delegates criticised communism and questioned China's social system. Rather than read his prepared speech, Zhou had it distributed in writing and on 19 April made a supplementary speech to the plenary: "The Chinese delegation has come here to seek unity and not to quarrel"; "We Communists do not hide the fact that we believe in communism and consider the socialist system a good one. But there is no need at this conference to publicise one's ideology or the political system of one's country"; "The Chinese delegation has come here to seek common ground, not to create divergence ... our conference should seek common ground while reserving differences." China could have raised the tension in the Taiwan area and its status in the United Nations, he said, "but we have not done so".
The Offer to the United States and the Conference's Results
At a luncheon on 23 April attended by Ceylon's prime minister Sir John Kotelawala and others, Zhou discussed Taiwan; that afternoon the Chinese delegation issued a statement: "The Chinese people are friendly to the American people. The Chinese people do not want to have war with the United States of America. The Chinese Government is willing to sit down and enter into negotiations with the United States Government to discuss the question of relaxing tension in the Far East and especially in the Taiwan area." The State Department replied the same day that it welcomed efforts at peace "if sincere", but insisted that "free China" participate as an equal in any discussion of the area, and said that if Beijing were sincere it could take steps such as a cease-fire in the area and releasing the American airmen it held.
On 24 April the conference unanimously adopted its Final Communiqué, reaching agreement on economic and cultural co-operation, human rights and self-determination, and dependent peoples, and setting out ten principles including respect for fundamental human rights, respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all nations, recognition of the equality of all races and nations, and non-interference in internal affairs; it stated that consultation among participants was "not ... intended to form a regional bloc". In his closing speech Zhou said the easing of tension in the Taiwan area "should be settled by China and the United States sitting down to negotiate", without affecting "the just demand to liberate Taiwan".
Afterwards
Through British and Indian mediation, the United States proposed on 13 July that each side send an ambassador-level representative to talks in Geneva. The Sino-American ambassadorial talks opened in Geneva on 1 August 1955 and later moved to Warsaw. An internal State Department assessment at the time judged that Zhou's offer had achieved "at least partial success" among the conferees. China's Foreign Ministry says the slogan "seek common ground while reserving differences" is "still widely talked about today".
Narrative Comparison
| Source | Narrative |
|---|---|
| Zhou Enlai's speeches at the conference (18, 19 and 24 April 1955); Foreign Ministry, "100 Stories of the CPC's External Relations" (2022) | Official Chinese accounts treat Bandung as a major breakthrough for PRC diplomacy. Zhou told the conference that "the Chinese delegation has come here to seek common ground, not to create divergence" and that China was willing to make strict adherence to the principles of peaceful coexistence "the basis for establishing normal relations with other Asian and African countries". A 2022 Foreign Ministry article says the delegation attended "overcoming many obstacles", that "Taiwan's intelligence agencies" staged the "Kashmir Princess" bombing to kill Zhou, that Zhou's speech "greatly eased the tense atmosphere", and that the communiqué "absorbed the Chinese delegation's proposals", its ten principles tracing back to the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. |
| State Department press release, 23 April 1955; memorandum from Acting Assistant Secretary Sebald to the Secretary of State, 25 April 1955 (FRUS) | Washington's public response was guarded: the State Department said the United States "always welcomes any efforts, if sincere, to bring peace to the world" but "would insist on free China participating as an equal in any discussions concerning the area", and said that if Beijing were sincere it could take steps such as a cease-fire and releasing the American airmen it held. An internal memorandum argued that Zhou's proposal was designed to show that China, "without modifying in the slightest its basic demands for the 'liberation' of Taiwan", had "gone more than half-way", shifting the onus for tension onto the United States, and judged that the tactic had achieved "at least partial success", with conferees reportedly "stunned" by the "reversal". |
| Sally Percival Wood, Modern Asian Studies, 2010; Steve Tsang (Oxford), The China Quarterly, 1994 | Wood examines how Western media framed Zhou at Bandung: his "every gesture, interaction and statement was scrutinized for evidence that his motivations ... were antagonistic to Western interests"; she argues that a negative template inherited from "Yellow Peril" literature was mobilised by the Cold War press to cast Zhou as untrustworthy and anti-Western, revealing the media's role "in constructing a Chinese enemy in the mid-1950s". Steve Tsang's article, "Target Zhou Enlai", uses British, Taiwanese, American and Hong Kong records to examine the "Kashmir Princess" bombing. |
| Recollections of Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company staff (Hong Kong Memory oral history) | Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company staff working at Kai Tak recalled that they had been told Zhou Enlai would be on board and that the airport was cordoned off eight hours before the plane arrived, with "Police ... everywhere". One said he had been assigned to service the aircraft but, because of a delay, the work passed to the next shift, and the whole team was interrogated afterwards; he "heard that it was a cleaner who planted the time bomb ... on the landing gear". Another said many staff were questioned, that the bomber fled to Taiwan on a Civil Air Transport plane, and that a supervisor surnamed Yu was jailed for many years — personal recollections whose details are not confirmed by other sources. |
Key Milestones
- "Kashmir Princess" bombed
The Air India airliner chartered by China explodes en route from Hong Kong to Jakarta; all 11 passengers die. Zhou Enlai is not aboard.
- Conference opens
Delegates of 29 countries open the conference in Bandung; Zhou's main speech is distributed in writing.
- Zhou's "seek common ground" speech
Zhou makes his supplementary speech calling for seeking common ground while reserving differences.
- China offers talks with the US
The Chinese delegation states its willingness to negotiate with the US government on easing tension over Taiwan; the State Department responds the same day.
- Final Communiqué adopted
The conference unanimously adopts its Final Communiqué with ten principles and closes.
- Sino-American ambassadorial talks begin
Sino-American ambassadorial talks open in Geneva, later moving to Warsaw.
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