On the Question of the Differentiation of the Three Worlds

A part of Mao Zedong's talk with the Zambian President Kaunda on February 22, 1974.

In 1994, it was included in Selected Works of Mao Zedong on Diplomacy published by the Central Party Literature Press and World Knowledge Publishing House, and in Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 8, published by the People’s Press in 1999.

The basic idea is that the United States and the Soviet Union are the First World. The middle elements, Japan, Europe, Australia and Canada, is the Second World. In the First World, the United States and the Soviet Union have many atomic bombs and are richer. In the Second World, Europe, Japan, Australia and Canada do not possess so many atomic bombs and are not so rich as the First World, but richer than the Third World. We are the Third World. Hopefully, the Third World will unite. The Third World has a large population. All Asian countries, except Japan, belong to the Third World. All of Africa is Third World, and Latin America is Third World.