Jiang Jieshi Is Provoking Civil War

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Jiang Jieshi Is Provoking Civil War 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:

  • Chiang Kai-shek Is Provoking Civil War, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
  • Xinhua News Agency Reporter Criticizes and Condemns the «Chiang Kaishek Order» for Provoking Civil War and for Destroying World Peace, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 9, Routledge, New York and London, 2023.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a comment written by Comrade Mao Zedong for the New China News Agency in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China. It was first published on the 12th of August, 1945.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#JIANG JIESHI IS PROVOKING CIVIL WAR

#Mao Zedong
#Before the 12th of August, 1945

#★

A spokesperson for the Propaganda Department of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee has made a statement describing as «a presumptuous and illegal act» the order1 setting a time-limit for the surrender of the enemy and the puppets,2 which was issued by Zhu De, Commander-in-Chief of the 18th Group Army, on the 10th of August from the General Headquarters in Yan'an. This comment is absolutely preposterous. Its logical implication is that it was wrong of Commander-in-Chief Zhu De to act in accordance with the Potsdam Declaration3 and with the enemy's declared intention of surrendering and to order his troops to effect the surrender of the enemy and the puppets, and that on the contrary, it would have been right and legitimate to advise the enemy and puppets to refuse to surrender. No wonder that, even before the enemy's actual surrender, Jiang Jieshi, China's Fascist ringleader, autocrat, and traitor to the people, had the audacity to «order» the anti-Japanese armed forces in the Liberated Areas to «stay where they are, pending further orders», that is, to tie their own hands and let the enemy attack them. No wonder this selfsame Fascist ringleader dared to «order» the so-called underground forces (who are, in fact, puppet troops «saving the nation by a devious path»4 and Dai Li's5 secret police collaborating with the Japanese and puppets) as well as other puppet troops to «be responsible for maintaining local order», while forbidding the anti-Japanese armed forces in the Liberated Areas to «take presumptuous action on their own» against enemy and puppet forces. This transposition of the enemy and the Chinese is in truth a confession by Jiang Jieshi; it gives a vivid picture of his whole psychology, which is one of consistent collusion with the enemy and puppets and of liquidation of all those not of his ilk. However, the people's anti-Japanese armed forces in China's Liberated Areas will never be taken in by this venomous scheme. They know that Commander-in-Chief Zhu De's order is precisely the resolute fulfilment of the provision in Paragraph 2 of the Potsdam Declaration, «prosecute the war against Japan until it ceases to resist». On the other hand, Jiang Jieshi's so-called «orders» are precisely violations of the Potsdam Declaration, which he himself signed. One has only to make the comparison to see at once who is not «adhering faithfully to the provisions of the common agreements of the Allies».

Both the comment by the spokesperson for the Propaganda Department of the Nationalist Central Executive Committee and Jiang Jieshi's «orders» are from beginning to end provocations to civil war; at this moment, when attention at home and abroad is focused on Japan's unconditional surrender, their aim is to find a pretext for switching to civil war as soon as the War of Resistance ends. In reality, the Nationalist reactionaries are pitifully stupid. They have sought their pretext in Commander-in-Chief Zhu De's order for the surrender and disarming of the enemy and puppet troops. Can this be considered a clever pretext? No. That they seek a pretext in this way proves only that the Nationalist reactionaries are fonder of the enemy and puppets than of their compatriots and that they hate their compatriots more than they do the enemy and puppets. The Chunhua Incident6 was plainly an invasion of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region by Hu Zongnan's troops to provoke civil war, and yet the Nationalist reactionaries said it was a «rumour offensive» by the Communist Party of China. The Nationalist reactionaries found their long-sought-for pretext in the Chunhua Incident, but Chinese and foreign public opinion saw through it at once. So now they are saying that the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army should not demand that the enemy and puppet troops surrender their guns. In the eight years of the War of Resistance, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have suffered enough from the attacks and encirclements of both Jiang Jieshi and the Japanese. And now, with the War of Resistance coming to an end, Jiang Jieshi is hinting to the Japanese (and to his beloved puppet troops) that they should not surrender their guns to the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, but «only to me, Jiang Jieshi». One thing, however, Jiang Jieshi has left unsaid: «[...] so that I can use these guns to kill the Communists and wreck the peace of China and the world.» Isn't this the truth? What will be the result of telling the Japanese to hand over their guns to Jiang Jieshi and telling the puppet troops to «be responsible for maintaining local order»? The result can only be that a merger of the Nanjing and Chongqing regimes7 and cooperation between Jiang Jieshi and the puppets will take the place of «Sino-Japanese collaboration» and of cooperation between the Japanese and the puppets, and that Jiang Jieshi's «Anti-Communism and national reconstruction» will take the place of the «Anti-Communism and national reconstruction» of the Japanese and Wang Jingwei.8 Isn't this a violation of the Potsdam Declaration? Can there be any doubt that the grave danger of civil war will confront the people of the whole country the moment the War of Resistance is over? We now appeal to all our compatriots and to the Allied countries to take action, together with the people of the Liberated Areas, resolutely to prevent a civil war in China, which would endanger world peace.

After all, who has the right to accept the surrender of the Japanese and puppets? Relying solely on their own efforts and the support of the people, the anti-Japanese armed forces in China's Liberated Areas, to whom the Nationalist government refused all supplies and recognition, have succeeded by themselves in liberating vast territories and more than 100'000'000 people and have resisted and pinned down 56% of the invading enemy troops in China and 95% of the puppet troops. If not for these armed forces, the situation in China would never have been what it is today! To speak plainly, in China, only the anti-Japanese armed forces of the Liberated Areas have the right to accept the surrender of the enemy and puppet troops. As for Jiang Jieshi, his policy has been to look on with folded arms and sit around and wait for victory; indeed, he has no right at all to accept the surrender of the enemy and the puppets.

We declare to the three Allied Powers, to all our compatriots, and to the people of the whole world: The Supreme Command in Chongqing cannot represent the Chinese people and those Chinese armed forces which have really fought Japan; the Chinese people demand the right of the anti-Japanese armed forces of China's Liberated Areas under Commander-in-Chief Zhu De to send their representatives directly in order to participate in the acceptance of Japan's surrender and in the military control over Japan by the four Allied Powers, and also to participate in the future peace conference. If this is not done, the Chinese people will deem it most improper.

  1. See: Zhu De: Order to All Armed Forces in the Liberated Areas (10th of August, 1945. After this order was issued, on the 11th of August, the General Headquarters in Yan'an issued six successive orders, under which the armed forces of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Liberated Area (led by Comrade He Long), the Shanxi-Chaha'er-Hebei Liberated Area (led by Nie Rongzhen) and the Hebei-Rehe-Liaoning Liberated Area were to march on Inner Mongolia and the North-East; the armed forces of the Shanxi Liberated Area were to mop up the Japanese and puppet troops along the Datong-Puzhou Railway and in the Fenhe River Valley; and the armed forces of all the Liberated Areas were to launch vigorous offensives on all the main communication lines under enemy control to compel the Japanese and puppet troops to surrender. The units of the People's Liberation Army in all the Liberated Areas resolutely carried out these orders and won important victories. ↩

  2. Editor's Note: Here, «enemy» refers to the Japanese invading forces, and «puppets» refers to the puppet governments set up by the Japanese invaders and to the troops of these puppet governments, consisting largely of former Nationalist officials and of troops who had surrendered to Japan. ↩

  3. Editor's Note: This refers to the declaration made by China, Britain, and the United States at the Potsdam Conference on the 26th of July, 1945, requiring Japan to surrender. The main points of the declaration were that Japanese militarism must be eliminated for good and all; Japan's military forces must be completely disarmed; Japan's war industries must be dismantled; Japanese war criminals must be tried; the Cairo Declaration must be carried out, that is, Japan must renounce the territories it had stolen, such as Korea and China's Manchuria, Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands, and Japan's territory must be limited to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku, and various minor islands; and that the armed forces of the Allies were to occupy Japan until the establishment of a democratic Japanese government. The Council Union also signed the Potsdam Declaration after it declared war on Japan on the 8th of August, 1945. ↩

  4. Editor's Note: This refers to the dastardly practice of capitulating to Japan and fighting Communism followed by the Nationalist reactionaries during the War of Resistance Against Japan. The Nationalist reactionaries directed part of their troops and government officials to surrender to the Japanese invaders and then, as puppet troops and officials, to join the Japanese troops in attacking the Liberated Areas; this was what they cunningly named «saving the nation by a devious path». ↩

  5. Editor's Note: Dai Li was the Director of the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics of the Military Council of the Nationalist Party, one of the Nationalist Party's huge secret service agencies. ↩

  6. Editor's Note: On the 21st of July, 1945, the Provisional 59th Division and Second Cavalry Division under Hu Zongnan, Commander of the Nationalist Party's First War Zone, suddenly attacked Mount Yetai in Chunhua County in the Guanzhong sub-region of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. On the 23rd of July, Hu Zongnan sent his Third Reserve Division to join in the attack. On the 27th of July, the Communist-led forces withdrew on their own initiative from Mount Yetai and 41 villages west of it. The Nationalist forces continued their attacks on Xunyi, Yaoxan, and other points. On the 8th of August, the Communist-led forces struck back at the invading Nationalist troops and recovered the Mount Yetai area. ↩

  7. Editor's Note: Wang Jingwei's puppet regime was in Nanjing and Jiang Jieshi's regime was in Chongqing. The «merger of the Nanjing and Chongqing regimes» was a political plot hatched by Japanese imperialism and the pro-Japanese elements within the Nationalist Party of China. ↩

  8. Editor's Note: Wang Jingwei was a notorious Nationalist leader and pro-Japanese traitor. He openly surrendered to the Japanese invaders in December 1938 when he was Deputy Chairperson of the Nationalist Party of China and Chairperson of its People's Political Council. In March 1940, he became President of the puppet «Central Government» then formed in Nanjing. He died in Japan in November 1944. ↩