A Comment on the Sessions of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee and of the People's Political Council

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of A Comment on the Sessions of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee and of the People's Political Council has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• A Comment on the Sessions of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee and of the People's Political Council, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 3, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Comment on the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Guomindang Central Executive Committee and the Second Session of the Third People's Political Council, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 8, Routledge, New York and London, 2015.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an editorial written by Comrade Mao Zedong for the Jiefang Ribao in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China. It was first published on the 5th of October, 1943.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#A COMMENT ON THE SESSIONS OF THE NATIONALIST CENTRAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND OF THE PEOPLE'S POLITICAL COUNCIL

#Mao Zedong

#Before the 5th of October, 1943

#★

The Nationalist Party of China held the 11th Plenary Session of its Central Executive Committee from the 6th to 13th of September, and the Nationalist government held the Second Session of the Third People's Political Council from the 18th to 27th of September. Now that all the documents of both these meetings are at hand, we can make a general comment.

The international situation is on the threshold of a great change, whose imminence is sensed on all sides. The European Axis Powers have sensed it, and Hitler is adopting a desperate last-ditch policy. In the main, it is the Council Union that is bringing this change about. The Council Union is now taking advantage of it — the Red Army has already fought its way to the Dnieper River, sweeping all before it, and another winter offensive will bring it to the old, if not to the new, Soviet borders. Britain and the United States, too, are taking advantage of the change; Roosevelt and Churchill are conserving their strength and storing up energy, waiting for the first sign of Hitler's downfall to thrust into France. Churchill regards Italy, which now has no more than a dozen combat divisions in the field, as a third front in the war. In short, the German Fascist war machine will soon fall apart, the problem of the Anti-Fascist War in Europe is on the eve of total solution, and the Council Union is the main force in annihilating Fascism. As the Anti-Fascist World War has its pivot in Europe, once the problem there is solved, the fate of the two great world camps, the Fascist and the Anti-Fascist camps, will be decided. The Japanese imperialists feel themselves cornered, and their policy, too, can only be to muster all possible strength for a desperate last-ditch struggle. In China, they will try to «mop up» the Communists and entice the Nationalists to capitulate.

The Nationalist Party has also sensed the change. Faced with this situation, it feels both joy and fear. Joy, because it imagines that with the war in Europe over, Britain and the United States will be left free to fight Japan on its behalf, and that it will be able to return to Nanjing without any effort. Fear, because with the downfall of all three Fascist powers, the world will enter a great and unprecedented age of liberation, and the Nationalist Party's comprador-feudal, Fascist dictatorship will become a small island in a vast ocean of freedom and democracy; it fears that its own brand of Fascism with its «one party, one doctrine, one leader» will be buried beneath the waves.

Originally, the Nationalist Party hoped to have the Council Union fighting it out with Hitler single-handed and to instigate the Japanese to attack the Council Union, so that the country of socialism would be destroyed or at least badly mauled; it also hoped that Britain and the United States would shift all their forces to Asia and first smash Japan and then wipe out the Communist Party of China, before bothering about any second or third front in Europe. It was for this ulterior purpose that the Nationalist Party first clamoured for a strategy of «Asia before Europe» and then for «equal attention to Europe and Asia». In August this year, toward the end of the Quebec Conference, when Roosevelt and Churchill summoned Song Ziwen, the Foreign Minister of the Nationalist government, to Quebec and spoke a few words to him, the Nationalist Party started shouting that «Roosevelt and Churchill are turning to the East», that «the ‹Europe before Asia› plan is changed», that «Quebec is a conference of the three great powers: Britain, the United States, and China», and so on, and joyfully indulged in self-glorification. But this was the Nationalist Party's last occasion to rejoice. Since then, its mood has changed somewhat; «Asia before Europe» and «equal attention to Europe and Asia» have been consigned to the museum of history, and now the Nationalist Party is probably cooking up new schemes. Perhaps the 11th Plenary Session of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee and the Second Session of the Nationalist-controlled People's Political Council mark the beginning of these new schemes.

The 11th Plenary Session of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee slanderously accused the Communist Party of «sabotaging the War of Resistance and endangering the State», and at the same time declared itself in favour of a «political solution» and of «preparations for constitutional government». Controlled and manipulated by its Nationalist majority, the Second Session of the Third People's Political Council passed resolutions against the Communist Party to roughly the same effect. In addition, the 11th Plenary Session of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee «elected» Jiang Jieshi President of the Nationalist government, in order to strengthen its dictatorial machine.

What can the Nationalist Party be planning to do now, following the 11th Plenary Session? There are only three possibilities:

• Capitulation to Japanese imperialism.
• Dragging along on the old road.
• A change in its political line.

Serving the Japanese imperialists' purpose of «hitting the Communists and courting the Nationalists», the defeatists and capitulationists within the Nationalist Party have all along advocated surrender. They have encircled Mr. Jiang Jieshi and constantly endeavoured to unleash an anti-Communist civil war, which, once started, would naturally make resistance to Japan impossible, leaving capitulation as the only alternative. The Nationalist Party has concentrated 400'000 to 500'000 troops in north-western China and is stealthily diverting still more forces there from other fronts. It is said that the generals are in good fettle and are proclaiming: «Taking Yan'an is no problem.» This is how they have been talking since Mr. Jiang Jieshi's speech at the 11th Plenary Session, in which he described the Communist problem as «a political one and should be solved politically» and since the Session's resolutions to roughly the same effect. Similar resolutions were adopted last year at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee, and the ink was hardly dry before the generals were ordered to draw up military plans for liquidating the Border Region; in June and July this year, forces were deployed in preparation for a lightning war against the Border Region, and the scheme was temporarily shelved only because public opinion at home and abroad was against it. Now once again, no sooner have the resolutions of the 11th Plenary Session been put down in black and white than there are reports of the generals' braggadocio and of troop movements. «Taking Yan'an is no problem» — what does this signify? It signifies a decision to capitulate to Japanese imperialism. Not all the Nationalist Party members who favour «taking Yan'an» are necessarily conscious and determined capitulationists. Some of them may think: «We shall still resist the Japanese while fighting the Communists.» This is probably what many officers of the Huangpu clique¹ are thinking. To these «excellencies», we Communists would like to put the following questions. Have you forgotten the lessons of the ten years of civil war? Once another civil war starts, will the determined capitulationists allow you to continue the war against Japan? Will the Japanese and Wang Jingwei allow you to continue the war against Japan? Are you really so strong that you can fight a civil war and a war against the foreign foe at the same time? You claim to have 3'000'000 soldiers, but your armies are so demoralized that people have compared them to two baskets of eggs on the ends of a carrying pole — one collision and they are finished. This is what has happened in all the campaigns in the Zhongtiao Mountains, the Taihang Mountains, Zhejiang and Jiangxi, western Hubei, and the Taibie Mountains. The simple reason is that you have followed the fatal policy of being «active against the Communists» and «passive against the Japanese». A national enemy has penetrated deep into our country, and the more actively you fight the Communists and the more passively you resist the Japanese, the lower will be the morale of your troops. If you make such a poor show in fighting the foreign aggressor, can you expect your troops suddenly to become tough in fighting the Communists and the people? It is out of the question. Once you start civil war, you will have to give it your undivided attention and inevitably abandon all thought of «simultaneous resistance»; in the end, you will inevitably find yourselves signing a treaty of unconditional surrender to Japanese imperialism, with capitulation as the only policy left to you. Those of you in the Nationalist Party who do not really wish to capitulate will inevitably end up as capitulationists if you take an active part in instigating or prosecuting civil war. This will surely happen if you lend yourselves to the manoeuvres of the capitulationist clique and use the resolutions of the 11th Plenary Session and the People's Political Council as an instrument for mobilizing public opinion and preparing for anti-Communist civil war. Even if you do not want to capitulate in the first place, you will end up by surrendering in the wake of the capitulationist clique if you lend yourselves to their manoeuvres and take a wrong step. That is the first possibility concerning the direction the Nationalist Party may take after the 11th Plenary Session, and there is an extremely serious danger that it may materialize. From the standpoint of the capitulationist clique, talk about a «political solution» and «preparations for constitutional government» is the best means of camouflaging its preparations for civil war, that is, for surrender; all Communists, all patriotic members of the Nationalist Party, all anti-Japanese political parties, and all our compatriots who are opposed to Japan should be sharply on the alert against this extremely grave danger and should not be fooled by the camouflage. It must be recognized that the danger of civil war has never been so great as it is now after the Nationalist Party's 11th Plenary Session.

There is another direction in which these resolutions may lead, that of «stalling for a while and starting the civil war later». This course, which differs somewhat from that of the capitulationist clique, may be taken by those people who still want to keep up the appearance of resistance to Japan while absolutely refusing to abandon anti-Communism and dictatorial rule. They may move in this direction since they see that great changes in the international situation are inevitable and Japanese imperialism is doomed; that civil war would mean capitulation and the people throughout the country are for resistance and against civil war; that the Nationalist Party is in a state of serious crisis, having alienated itself from the masses, lost popular support, and become more isolated than ever; and that the United States, Britain, and the Council Union are all opposed to the launching of civil war by the Chinese government. All this may force them to postpone their civil-war schemes and play for time with empty talk about a «political solution» and «preparations for constitutional government». These people are past masters in the tactics of deception and stalling. Even in their dreams, they do not forget their desire to «take Yan'an» and «liquidate the Communist Party». On this point, they are entirely at one with the capitulationist clique. Nevertheless, they do wish to keep up the pretence of resistance to Japan, they do not wish the Nationalist Party to forfeit its international standing, and they sometimes fear the censure of domestic and foreign public opinion; therefore, they may stall behind the smokescreen of a «political solution» and «preparations for constitutional government» while waiting for more favourable conditions. They have no sincere desire for a «political solution» or «constitutional government», at least certainly not at the moment. Last year, about the time of the Tenth Plenary Session of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee, Comrade Lin Biao was sent to Chongqing by the Central Committee of the Communist Party to confer with Mr. Jiang Jieshi. He waited in Chongqing for ten long months, but Mr. Jiang Jieshi and the Central Executive Committee of the Nationalist Party had no desire to discuss a single concrete problem with him. In March this year, Mr. Jiang Jieshi published his book, China's Destiny, in which he emphasizes his opposition to Communism and Liberalism, shifts the blame for the ten years of civil war onto the Communist Party, slanders the Communist Party, the Eighth Route Army, and the New Fourth Army as «warlords of a new type» and «separatists of a new type», and implies that he will finish off the Communists within two years. On the 28th of June this year, Mr. Jiang Jieshi permitted Zhou Enlai, Lin Biao, and other comrades to return to Yan'an, but at that very moment, he ordered his defence forces on the Yellow River to march on the Border Region, and he also ordered the local authorities throughout the country to seize the opportunity of the dissolution of the Third International to demand, in the name of so-called people's organizations, that the Communist Party of China be dissolved. In these circumstances, we Communists were obliged to call on the Nationalist Party and the whole nation to avert civil war, and we were obliged to expose all the Nationalist Party's sinister schemes and conspiracies, which were sabotaging the War of Resistance and endangering the State. Our patience has been taxed to the limit, as the historical facts show. Ever since the fall of Wuhan, there has been no end to the anti-Communist battles, large or small, in northern and central China. It is now two years since the Pacific War broke out, and throughout this time, the Nationalist Party has been attacking the Communists in central and northern China, apart from the troops originally stationed there, it has dispatched the group armies under Wang Zhonglian and Li Xianzhou to attack the Communists in Jiangsu and Shandong. Pang Bingxun's group army in the area of the Taihang Mountains is under orders to concentrate exclusively on the Communists; so are the Nationalist troops in Anhui and Hubei. For a long time, we did not make even these facts public. The Nationalist newspapers and periodicals have never for a moment stopped vilifying the Communist Party, but for a long time, we did not say a word in reply. We also put up with the fact that the intelligence services arrested, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands of Communists and innocent youth. Without any justification, the Nationalist Party disbanded the New Fourth Army which was heroically fighting Japan, wiped out over 9'000 soldiers of its contingents in southern Anhui, arrested Ye Ting, killed Xiang Ying,² and imprisoned hundreds of its cadres; although this was a monstrous betrayal of the people and the nation, we maintained our forbearance for the country's sake, simply lodging a protest and demanding redress. When Mr. Jiang Jieshi met Comrade Zhou Enlai, the representative of the Communist Party, at Mount Lu in June and July 1937, he promised that the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region would be designated by decree as an administrative division under the direct jurisdiction of the Executive Chamber of the National Government and that its officials would receive formal appointments. Now, Mr. Jiang Jieshi has not only eaten his own words, he has gone so far as to encircle the Border Region with 400'000 to 500'000 men to enforce a military and economic blockade; he will not be happy with anything less than the destruction of the people of the Border Region as well as the Rear Headquarters of the Eighth Route Army. It is particularly notorious that promised supplies have been cut off from the Eighth Route Army and that the Communist Party is abused as the «traitor party», the New Fourth Army as the «rebel army», the Eighth Route Army as the «traitor army», and so on. In short, all the Nationalists who are behaving in this way see the Communist Party as the enemy. To the Nationalist Party, the Communist Party is ten times, or rather, a hundred times more hateful than the Japanese. The Nationalist Party concentrates its hatred on the Communist Party and has little, if any, to spare for the Japanese. This resembles the behaviour of the Japanese Fascists, who treat the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party differently. Concentrating their hatred on the Communist Party of China, the Japanese Fascists have become more and more gentle with the Nationalist Party; of their two slogans, «Oppose the Communists!» and «Annihilate the Nationalists!», only the first now remains. The newspapers and periodicals controlled by the Japanese and Wang Jingwei no longer print such slogans as «Down with the Nationalist Party!» and «Overthrow Jiang Jieshi!». Japan is bearing down on the Communist Party with 58% of its forces in China and is just using 42% to keep watch on the Nationalist Party; it has recently relaxed this watch and withdrawn many of its troops from Zhejiang and Hubei in order to make it easier to inveigle the Nationalist Party into capitulation. The Japanese imperialists have never dared utter a single word to persuade the Communist Party to capitulate, but they have no hesitation in directing an endless stream of words to persuade the Nationalist Party to do so. The Nationalist Party is fierce only toward the Communist Party and the people, but it drops all its ferocity in the face of the Japanese. Not only has it changed from being a participant to being a mere spectator in the war as far as fighting is concerned, but even in words, it dares not offer as much as a single sharp rebuff to the insults and blandishments of Japanese imperialism. The Japanese say: «There is nothing wrong with the line of argument in Jiang Jieshi's China's Destiny.» Has Mr. Jiang or any member of his party ever rebutted this extremely humiliating but sincere statement? No, they have not and dare not. How can the Japanese help looking down on the Nationalist Party when they see that Mr. Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalist Party use «military and governmental orders» and «discipline» only against the Communists, and neither desire nor dare to use them against the 20 members of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee and the 58 Nationalist generals who have deserted to the enemy? The people throughout the country and the friendly nations throughout the world have seen Mr. Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalist Party disbanding the New Fourth Army and attacking the Eighth Route Army, encircling the Border Region, maligning them with such labels as «traitor party», «traitor army», «warlords of a new type», «a new type of separatist regime», «sabotaging the War of Resistance», and «endangering the State», and constantly invoking «military and governmental orders» and «discipline»; they have never seen Mr. Jiang and the Nationalist Party enforcing any military orders, government decrees, or disciplinary measures against the 20 members of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee and the 58 Nationalist generals who went over to the enemy. Similarly, the resolutions recently passed at the 11th Plenary Session of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee and at the meeting of the People's Political Council are all directed against the Communist Party, while not a single one is directed against the many members of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee itself and the many army generals who have turned traitor and defected. What are the people throughout the country and the friendly nations throughout the world to think of the Nationalist Party? As was to be expected, there was once again talk about a «political solution» and «preparations for constitutional government» at the 11th Plenary Session; well and good, we welcome such talk. But judging by the political line the Nationalist Party has consistently followed all these years, we consider this talk to be just so many empty words designed to dupe the people, the real purpose being to gain time for preparing civil war, so as to perpetuate its dictatorial rule over the people.

Is there a third direction in which the current situation may develop? Yes, there is. It is what a number of Nationalist Party members, all the people, and we Communists are hoping for. What is this third course? A just and reasonable political settlement of the relations between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party, a genuinely democratic and free constitutional government, the abolition of the Fascist dictatorship with its «one party, one doctrine, one leader», and the convening during the War of Resistance of a National Assembly genuinely elected by the people. We Communists have advocated this course from the very beginning. A number of Nationalist Party members will also agree to it. For a long time, we hoped that even Mr. Jiang Jieshi and his own faction in the Nationalist Party might pursue this course. But judging from what has happened in the last few years and what is happening now, there is nothing to show that Mr. Jiang and the majority of the Nationalist figures in power are willing to do so.

A number of conditions, international and domestic, are needed before this course can be realized. At the present time (with Fascism in Europe on the eve of complete collapse) the international conditions are favourable to China's War of Resistance, but it is at this very moment that the capitulators are especially eager to instigate civil war, so that they can capitulate, and that the Japanese and Wang Jingwei, too, are particularly keen on civil war, so as to inveigle them into capitulation. Wang Jingwei said (according to the Domei News Agency, 1st of October):

Devoted siblings always remain siblings, and Chongqing will certainly take our road, the sooner the better, we hope.

What affection, confidence, and eagerness! Thus, in the present situation, the best that can be expected from the Nationalist Party is stalling, while the danger of a sudden deterioration is very grave indeed. The conditions necessary for the third course are not all present yet, and patriots of all political parties and the people throughout China must make many-sided efforts to bring them into being.

Mr. Jiang Jieshi announced at the 11th Plenary Session:

It should be stated clearly that the central authorities make no demands upon the Communist Party other than that it should give up its armed separatist regime and cease its surprise attacks on the National Army, which sabotage the War of Resistance; it is to be hoped that the Communist Party will carry out its declaration made in the 26th Year of the Republic [1937] calling for united efforts to save the nation and will put into effect the four pledges given in that declaration.

Mr. Jiang's talk of «surprise attacks on the National Army, which sabotage the War of Resistance» ought to be applied to the Nationalist Party itself, and it is a pity that he is so prejudiced and malicious as to slander the Communist Party in this way. Since the fall of Wuhan, the Nationalist Party has launched three anti-Communist onslaughts, in each of which, as the facts show, the Nationalist troops sprang surprise attacks on the Communist forces. In the first campaign, from the winter of 1939 to the spring of 1940, the Nationalist troops in their surprise attacks captured five county towns garrisoned by the Eighth Route Army in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region — Chunhua, Xunyi, Zhengning, Ningxian, and Zhenyuan — even employing aircraft in these operations. In northern China, Zhu Huaibing's troops were dispatched to the Taihang Mountain region for a surprise attack on the Eighth Route Army forces, which only fought back in self-defence. The second campaign was launched in January 1941. Earlier, on the 19th of October, 1940, He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi had telegraphed a categorical order to Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Ye Ting, and Xiang Ying, commanding all units of the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies south of the Yellow River to move north of the river within a month. We promised that our troops in southern Anhui would move north; as for the others, while it was impossible for them to be shifted in the circumstances, we promised that they would move to the assigned positions after victory in the anti-Japanese war. Yet, before our 9'000 soldiers in southern Anhui began moving north on the 5th of January in compliance with the order, Mr. Jiang Jieshi had already issued another order to «catch them all in a dragnet». Between the 6th and 14th of January, the Nationalist troops in southern Anhui actually did catch these New Fourth Army units in a dragnet. Moreover, on the 17th of January, Mr. Jiang Jieshi ordered the whole New Fourth Army to be disbanded and Ye Ting to be court-martialed. The Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies have since been attacked wherever there are Nationalist troops in the anti-Japanese base areas in central and northern China, and they have only fought back in self-defence. The third campaign began in March of this year and is still going on. The Nationalist forces have continued their assaults on the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies in central and northern China. In addition, Mr. Jiang Jieshi has published his China's Destiny, which is a diatribe against Communism and against the people. He has diverted many of his Yellow River defence forces for a lightning attack on the Border Region. He has instigated so-called people's organizations all over the country to demand the dissolution of the Communist Party. He has mobilized the Nationalist majority in the People's Political Council to endorse He Yingqin's military report vilifying the Eighth Route Army and to adopt anti-Communist resolutions. He has thus turned the Council, which should be a symbol of anti-Japanese unity, into a private agency of the Nationalist Party for manufacturing anti-Communist public opinion in preparation for civil war, with the result that Comrade Dong Biwu, the Communist member of the Council, had to walk out in protest. These three anti-Communist onslaughts were deliberately planned and launched by the Nationalist Party. We may well ask, what are they if not actions which «sabotage the War of Resistance»?

On the 22nd of September of the 26th Year of the Republic (1937), the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a declaration calling for united efforts to save the nation. In it, we said:

To strip the enemy of any pretext for their intrigues and to remove any misunderstanding among all well-intentioned doubters, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China finds it necessary to proclaim its heartfelt devotion to the cause of national liberation. Therefore, it once again solemnly declares to the whole nation that:

• Dr. Sun Yixian's «Three People's Principles» being what China needs today, our Party is ready to fight for their complete realization.
• We shall discontinue the policies of insurrection to overthrow the Nationalist regime and of forcible confiscation of the land of the landlords.
• We shall reorganize the present Council Government as the democratic government of a special region in the hope that State power will be unified throughout the country.
• The Red Army will change its name and designation, will be reorganized as part of the National Revolutionary Army and placed under the Military Council of the National Government, and will be ready for orders to march to the anti-Japanese front and do its duty.

We have completely fulfilled these four pledges; neither Mr. Jiang Jieshi nor anyone else in the Nationalist Party can charge us with having defaulted on a single one of them. In the first place, the policies practised by the Communist Party in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and in the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy lines are in keeping with Dr. Sun Yixian's «Three People's Principles», and not a single one runs counter to them. In the second place, as long as the Nationalist Party does not capitulate to the national enemy, disrupt Nationalist-Communist cooperation, or launch civil war against the Communists, we will always keep our promise not to overthrow the Nationalist regime or to confiscate the land of the landlords by force. We have kept this pledge in the past, are doing so now, and will continue to do so in the future. That means that only when the Nationalist Party capitulates to the enemy, disrupts cooperation, and launches civil war will we be forced to cancel our pledge, for these are the only circumstances which would make it impossible for us to keep it. In the third place, the original Council Government was reorganized in the very first year of the War of Resistance, and the «three-in-one» combination of democratic government has long been in operation, but to this day, the Nationalist Party has not fulfilled its promise to recognize the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and, what is more, it accuses us of «feudal separatism». Mr. Jiang Jieshi and other members of the Nationalist Party! You should know that what you call «separatism» — the state of affairs in which the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and other anti-Japanese base areas are not recognized by the Nationalist government — is not of our seeking, but has been entirely forced on us by yourselves. What reason do you have for accusing us of «separatism» while you go back on your own words, refuse the recognition you pledged to the Border Region, and refuse to acknowledge its democratic government? Day in and day out, we ask you to acknowledge that you want to abandon «separatism» «in the hope that State power can be unified throughout the country»; yet you continue to refuse and always blame us for continuing to practise «separatism» — who then is responsible? What reason does Mr. Jiang have for railing against «separatism» in his China's Destiny, without showing the slightest sense of his own responsibility in the matter, though he himself is General Director of the Nationalist Party and head of its government? Availing ourselves of the occasion of the 11th Plenary Session, at which Mr. Jiang Jieshi has again demanded that we fulfil our promise, we demand that he fulfil his promise to give legal recognition to the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, where the Council Power has long been abolished and the Principle of Democracy has long been in practice, and to the anti-Japanese democratic base areas behind the enemy's lines as well, so that State power can be unified throughout the country. If you persist in your policy of non-recognition, it will mean that you want us to continue with «separatism», and that, as in the past, the blame will fall entirely on you and not on us. In the fourth place, it is a long time since the Red Army changed its «name and designation», became «reorganized as part of the National Revolutionary Army», and was «placed under the Military Council of the National Government»; this pledge was fulfilled long ago. The only force directly under the Central Committee of the Communist Party and not under the Military Council of the National Government is the New Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army; the reason is that it was proscribed as a «rebel army» and «disbanded» on the 17th of January, 1941 by the Military Council in a counter-revolutionary order sabotaging the War of Resistance and endangering the State, that this army of 100'000 soldiers could no longer be under the unified leadership of the government, and that, moreover, it was subjected to daily attacks by the Nationalist troops. Yet this army has consistently fought the Japanese in central China and fulfilled the first three of the four pledges; furthermore, it is willing to come «under the Military Council of the National Government» once again, and asks Mr. Jiang Jieshi to repeal the order for its disbandment and restore its designation, so as to enable it to fulfil the fourth pledge.

The document concerning the Communist Party adopted at the 11th Plenary Session also stated:

As for the other problems, they can all be raised at the National Assembly for discussion and solution, since the present session has resolved that a National Assembly should be convened and a Constitution drawn up and promulgated within one year after the conclusion of the war.

The «other problems» here referred to are the abolition of the Nationalist dictatorship, the abolition of the Fascist secret service, the establishment of democratic rule throughout the country, the abolition of economic controls, exorbitant taxes, and miscellaneous levies harmful to the people, the application on a nationwide scale of the agrarian policy of reducing rent and interest and of the economic policy of helping small and middle industries, and improving the workers' livelihood. In its declaration of the 22nd of September, 1937 calling for united efforts to save the nation, our Party stated:

Democracy should be put into effect and a National Assembly convened to frame and adopt a Constitution and draw up a policy of national salvation. To enable the Chinese people to lead a happy and prosperous life, effective measures must first be taken to provide famine relief, ensure a stable livelihood, develop defence industries, deliver the people from suffering, and improve their living conditions.

Since this declaration was accepted in its entirety by Mr. Jiang Jieshi in a statement on the very next day (the 23rd of September), he should not merely ask the Communist Party to keep the four pledges it put forward, he should also ask himself, the Nationalist Party, and the Nationalist government to carry out the provisions we have quoted. Mr. Jiang Jieshi is not only the General Director of the Nationalist Party, he has also become President of the Nationalist government (nominally, the National Government); he should therefore conscientiously carry out these provisions about democracy and the people's livelihood, honour the innumerable promises he himself has made to us Communists and to the people throughout the country, and should stop repudiating his promises and acting highhandedly, saying one thing and doing another. Together with the whole people, we Communists want deeds and not more empty, deceitful words. If deeds are forthcoming, we shall rejoice; empty words without deeds will not deceive the people for long. What we ask of Mr. Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalist Party is the following:

• Carry the War of Resistance through to the end and avert the danger of capitulation.
• Continue cooperation and avert the crisis of civil war.
• Recognize the democratic government in the Border Region and in the anti-Japanese base areas behind the enemy lines, reinstate the New Fourth Army, stop the anti-Communist campaign, and withdraw the 400'000 to 500'000 troops now encircling the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.
• Stop using the People's Political Council as a private agency of the Nationalist Party for stirring up anti-Communist opinion, lift the ban on freedom of speech, assembly, and association, and abolish the one-party dictatorship of the Nationalist Party.
• Reduce rent and interest, improve the living and working conditions of the workers, and help the small and middle industries.
• Abolish the secret service, put an end to Fascist education, and introduce democratic education.

You yourselves have promised to do most of these things. If you fulfil these demands and promises, we assure you that we shall continue to fulfil our promises. We are ready to resume the talks between the two political parties at any time, if Mr. Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalist Party are ready.

In short, of the three possible directions which the Nationalist Party may take, the first, capitulation and civil war, is the road of destruction for Mr. Jiang Jieshi and the Nationalist Party. The second, demagogic deception for the purpose of gaining time while clinging to Fascist dictatorship and actively conducting secret preparations for civil war, likewise offers no salvation for Mr. Jiang and the Nationalist Party. Only the third direction, the complete abandonment of the erroneous course of Fascist dictatorship and civil war and the pursuit of the correct course of democracy and cooperation, can bring Mr. Jiang Jieshi, the Nationalist Party, and the people throughout the country onto the road of salvation. However, Mr. Jiang and the Nationalist Party have so far done nothing to convince the people that they intend to move in the third direction; hence, the people throughout the country must remain on guard against the extremely grave danger of capitulation and civil war.

Let all patriotic members of the Nationalist Party unite and forbid the Nationalist authorities to go in the first direction, prevent them from continuing in the second, and demand that they take the third!

Let all patriotic anti-Japanese political parties and people unite and forbid the Nationalist authorities to go in the first direction, prevent them from continuing in the second, and demand that they take the third!

An unparalleled change is imminent in the world. We hope that Mr. Jiang Jieshi and the members of the Nationalist Party will conduct themselves well at this great turning point of our era. We hope that all patriotic political parties and patriotic people will conduct themselves well at this great turning point of our era.