The Fourth International calls attention to the great significance of the diplomatic recognition won by the People's Republic of China from the French government, whatever de Gaulle's motives may have been.
France's diplomatic move testifies to the growing stature of China as a result of the transformations following the victory of the socialist revolution. France's resumption of relations under present conditions constitutes a decisive breakthrough in the imperialist diplomatic blockade which has been maintained against the People's Republic of China since 1950. It will serve as the point of departure for widening economic relations between China and the capitalist world at a time when trade between China and the other workers' states has dropped dangerously low.
China's diplomatic victory also helps in an indirect way to further counteract the slanders which were spread in connection with the Sino-Soviet conflict concerning the alleged 'belligerency' of the Chinese leadership.
It also testifies to the progress registered by the colonial revolution in the world as a whole.
But this big diplomatic gain, which is a victory primarily at the expense of American imperialism, should not be taken as an indication of any weakening of the Atlantic coalition or any abandonment by the imperialists of their plots and designs against the colonial revolution, above all in those areas where it is developing toward a socialist revolution.
It by no means justifies a policy of so-called 'peaceful coexistence' aiming at maintenance of the status quo on a world scale. For the mass movement of the workers, peasants and oppressed peoples, above all in the colonial countries, China's great gain in the diplomatic arena will serve as a stimulus in revolutionary struggles pointing towards the overthrow of capitalism on a world scale.
The diplomatic victory implies no relaxation of the struggle against bourgeois governments everywhere, above all the Gaullist government, which finally decided to grant recognition to China.