As Foreign Minister, Hirota negotiated the purchase of the Chinese Eastern Railway in Manchuria from Russian interests. He also promulgated the "Hirota Sangensoku" (the Three Principles by Hirota) on 28 October 1935 as the definitive statement of Japan's position towards China. The three principles were the establishment of a Japan–China–Manchukuo bloc, the organization of a Sino-Japanese common front against the spread of communism, and the suppression of anti-Japanese activities within China. Hirota argued that warlordism and Chinese Communism represented a ‘festering sore deep down in the bosom of Eastern Asia’ that threatened ‘all Asian races with sure and inescapable death’: further military engagement in China was, according to Hirota, ‘heroic surgery’ rather than invasion.