The Bandung Era } 107
independence in Asia and Africa, and the expansion of relations between
the PRC and Asian and African countries. The Chinese delegation, led by
Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai, would work to thwart efforts to in-
ject anticommunist themes into the conference. Zhou would do this by calling
for setting aside differences for the sake of unity in support of Asia-African
independence movements. China, the Politburo decided, would also counter
anti-PRC and anti-Soviet proposals by taking a moderate and reasonable
approach, avoiding vitriol, polemics, and ideology. In line with this, Zhou
attended a preconference planning session in Rangoon where he proposed,
successfully, that for the sake of unity, there should be no mention of ideology
and governmental system.^33
The conference opened in April with twenty-nine nations represented.
Opening speeches by Indonesia’s Sukarno, Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, and
Cambodia’s Norodom Sihanouk set a strong anticolonial tone. Some of the
subsequent speakers, however, voiced “anticommunist clichés” (Huang Hua’s
formulation), prompting the Chinese delegation to meet to “devise counter-
measures.” The result was a “supplemental speech” by Zhou stressing that the
purpose of the conference was unity against colonialism, and that unity could
only be achieved by seeking common ground, not repelling or antagonizing
one another but respecting one another. Some participants in the conference
followed capitalism, Zhou said, while other participants followed socialism.
But all participants should respect one another and unite against colonialism
on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The reasonable
nature of Zhou’s appeal, combined with his mild tone and avoidance of per-
sonal attack, was very well received by the audience. Prolonged and warm ap-
plause followed Zhou’s speech, and many delegates later congratulated Zhou
for an eloquent and reasonable presentation.^34
Ceylon’s prime minister, John Kotelawala, in a press conference made pub-
lic positions that required Chinese counteraction. Ceylon’s leader said that
Taiwan should be placed under an international trusteeship pending full inde-
pendence as a separate country, Soviet neocolonial rule over Eastern Europe
should be condemned, and communist organizations in Asia and Africa
should be disbanded. In response, Zhou met with Kotelawala and, according
to Huang Hua, convinced him to “relax his position” via a combination of fact,
reasonable argument, and mild attitude plus an appeal to unity.^35
Conference organizers, and especially Nehru, favored highlighting the
“Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence” as a normative basis for state-to-
state relations, putatively in contradistinction to imperialist norms of aggres-
sion, bullying, warmongering, interference, and such. Those Five Principles
of Peaceful Coexistence had been agreed to by India and the PRC in an April
1954 bilateral agreement on Tibet. They were: mutual respect for territorial
integrity and sovereignty, mutual nonaggression, noninterference in each
other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence.