Imperialism and All Reactionaries Are Paper Tigers

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Imperialism and All Reactionaries Are Paper Tigers 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 edition: Talk With the American Correspondent Anna Louise Strong, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an interview given by Comrade Mao Zedong to the American correspondent Anna Louise Strong in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 6th of August, 1946. It was first published in Amerasia, No. 4 (April 1947).

The interview is a very important statement made by Comrade Mao Zedong on the international and domestic situation not long after the conclusion of the Second World War. Here, Comrade Mao Zedong put forward his famous thesis: «All reactionaries are paper tigers.» This thesis armed the people of China ideologically, strengthened their confidence in victory, and played an exceedingly great role in the People's War of Liberation.

Comrade Lenin once said, in his speech Two Years of Council Rule, on the 7th of November, 1919:

We see that imperialism, which seemed such an insuperable colossus, has proved before the whole world to be a colossus with feet of clay [...].

In the same way, Comrade Mao Zedong regarded imperialism and all reactionaries as paper tigers; both dealt with the essence of the matter. This thesis is a fundamental strategic concept for the revolutionary people. Since the period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War, Comrade Mao Zedong repeatedly pointed out: strategically, with regard to the whole, revolutionaries must look down on the enemy, dare to struggle against them, and dare to seize victory; at the same time, tactically, with regard to each part, each specific struggle, they must take the enemy seriously, be prudent, carefully study and perfect the art of struggle, and adopt forms of struggle suited to different times, places, and conditions, in order to isolate and wipe out the enemy step by step. On the 1st of December, 1958, at the Wuchang Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Comrade Mao Zedong wrote the article On the Question of Whether Imperialism and All Reactionaries Are Real Tigers, in which he stated:

Just as there is not a single thing in the world without a dual nature (this is the law of the unity of opposites), so imperialism and all reactionaries have a dual nature — they are real tigers and paper tigers at the same time. In past history, before they won State power and for some time afterward, the slaveowning class, the feudal landlord class, and the bourgeoisie were vigorous, revolutionary, and progressive; they were real tigers. But with the lapse of time, because their opposites — the slave class, the peasant class, and the proletariat — grew in strength step by step, fought against them, and became more and more formidable, these ruling classes changed step by step into the reverse, changed into reactionaries, changed into backward people, changed into paper tigers. And eventually, they were overthrown, or will be overthrown, by the people. The reactionary, backward, decaying classes retained this dual nature even in their last life-and-death struggles against the people. On the one hand, they were real tigers; they ate people, ate people by the millions and tens of millions. The cause of the people's struggle went through a period of difficulties and hardships, and along the path, there were many twists and turns. To destroy the rule of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat capitalism in China took the Chinese people more than 100 years and cost them tens of millions of lives before the victory in 1949. Look! Were these not living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers? But in the end, they changed into paper tigers, dead tigers, tofu tigers. These are historical facts. Have people not seen or heard about these facts? There have indeed been thousands and tens of thousands of them! Thousands and tens of thousands! Hence, imperialism and all reactionaries, looked at in essence, from a long-term standpoint, from a strategic standpoint, must be seen for what they are — paper tigers. On this, we should build our strategic thinking. On the other hand, they are also living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers, which can eat people. On this, we should build our tactical thinking.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#IMPERIALISM AND ALL REACTIONARIES ARE PAPER TIGERS

#INTERVIEW WITH THE AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT ANNA LOUISE STRONG

#Mao Zedong

#6th of August, 1946

#★

QUESTION: Do you think there is hope for a political, a peaceful settlement of China's problems in the near future?

ANSWER: That depends on the attitude of the US government. If the American people stay the hands of the US reactionaries who are helping Jiang Jieshi fight the civil war, there is hope for peace.

QUESTION: Suppose the United States gives Jiang Jieshi no help, besides that already given,¹ how long can Jiang Jieshi keep on fighting?

ANSWER: More than a year.

QUESTION: Can Jiang Jieshi keep on that long, economically?

ANSWER: He can.

QUESTION: What if the United States makes it clear that it will give Jiang Jieshi no more help from now on?

ANSWER: There is no sign yet that the US government and Jiang Jieshi have any desire to stop the war within a short time.

QUESTION: How long can the Communist Party keep on?

ANSWER: As far as our own desire is concerned, we don't want to fight even for a single day. But if circumstances force us to fight, we can fight to the finish.

QUESTION: If the American people ask why the Communist Party is fighting, what should I reply?

ANSWER: Because Jiang Jieshi is out to slaughter the Chinese people, and if the people want to survive, they have to defend themselves. This the American people can understand.

QUESTION: What do you think of the possibility of the United States starting a war against the Council Union?

ANSWER: There are two aspects to the propaganda about an anti-Soviet war. On the one hand, US imperialism is indeed preparing a war against the Council Union; the current propaganda about an anti-Soviet war, as well as other anti-Soviet propaganda, is political preparation for such a war. On the other hand, this propaganda is a smokescreen put up by the US reactionaries to cover many actual contradictions immediately confronting US imperialism. These are the contradictions between the US reactionaries and the American people and the contradictions of US imperialism with other capitalist countries and with the colonial and semi-colonial countries. At present, the actual significance of the US slogan of waging an anti-Soviet war is the oppression of the American people and the expansion of the US forces of aggression in the rest of the capitalist world. As you know, both Hitler and his partners, the Japanese militarists, used anti-Soviet slogans for a long time as a pretext for enslavement of the people at home and aggression against other countries. Now, the US reactionaries are acting in exactly the same way.

To start a war, the US reactionaries must first attack the American people. They are already attacking the American people — oppressing the workers and democratic circles in the United States politically and economically and preparing to impose fascism there. The people of the United States should stand up and resist the attacks of the US reactionaries. I believe they will. The United States and the Council Union are separated by a vast zone, which includes many capitalist, colonial, and semi-colonial countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Before the US reactionaries have subjugated these countries, an attack on the Council Union is out of the question. In the Pacific, the United States now controls areas larger than all the former British spheres of influence there put together; it controls Japan, that part of China under Nationalist rule, half of Korea, and the South Pacific. It has long controlled Latin America. It seeks also to control the whole of the British Empire and Western Europe. Using various pretexts, the United States is making large-scale military arrangements and setting up military bases in many countries. The US reactionaries say that the military bases they have set up and are preparing to set up all over the world are aimed against the Council Union. True, these military bases are directed against the Council Union. At present, however, it is not the Council Union, but the countries in which these military bases are located, that are the first to suffer US aggression. I believe it won't be long before these countries come to realize who is really oppressing them, the Council Union or the United States. The day will come when the US reactionaries find themselves opposed by the people of the whole world.

Of course, I do not mean to say that the US reactionaries have no intention of attacking the Council Union. The Council Union is a defender of world peace and a powerful factor preventing the domination of the world by the US reactionaries. Because of the existence of the Council Union, it is absolutely impossible for the reactionaries in the United States and the world to realize their ambitions. That is why the US reactionaries rabidly hate the Council Union and actually dream of destroying this socialist State. But the fact that the US reactionaries are now trumpeting so loudly about a Soviet-American War and creating a foul atmosphere, so soon after the end of the Second World War, compels us to take a look at their real aims. It turns out that, under the cover of anti-Soviet slogans, they are frantically attacking the workers and democratic circles in the United States and turning all the countries which are the targets of US external expansion into US dependencies. I think the American people and the peoples of all countries menaced by US aggression should unite and struggle against the attacks of the US reactionaries and their lackeys in these countries. Only by victory in this struggle can a Third World War be avoided; otherwise, it is unavoidable.

QUESTION: That is very clear. But suppose the United States uses the atomic bomb? Suppose the United States bombs the Council Union from its bases in Iceland, Okinawa, and China?

ANSWER: The atomic bomb is a paper tiger which the US reactionaries use to scare people. It looks terrible, but in fact it isn't. Of course, the atomic bomb is a weapon of mass destruction, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people, not by one or two new types of weapon.

All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality, they are not so powerful. From a long-term standpoint, it is not the reactionaries, but the people who are really powerful. In Russia, before the March Revolution in 1917, which side was really strong? On the surface, the Tsar was strong, but he was swept away by a single gust of wind in the March Revolution. In the final analysis, the strength in Russia was on the side of the councils of workers', peasants', and soldiers' deputies. The Tsar was just a paper tiger. Wasn't Hitler once considered very strong? But history proved that he was a paper tiger. So was Mussolini, so was Japanese imperialism. On the contrary, the strength of the Council Union and of the people in all countries who loved democracy and freedom proved much greater than had been predicted.

Jiang Jieshi and his supporters, the US reactionaries, are all paper tigers too. Speaking of US imperialism, people seem to feel that it is terrifically strong. Chinese reactionaries are using the «strength» of the United States to frighten the Chinese people. But it will be proved that the US reactionaries, like all the reactionaries in history, do not have much strength. In the United States, there are others who are really strong — the American people.

Take the case of China. We have only millet plus rifles to rely on, but history will finally prove that our millet plus rifles is more powerful than Jiang Jieshi's aeroplanes plus tanks. Although the Chinese people still face many difficulties and will long suffer hardships from the joint attacks of US imperialism and the Chinese reactionaries, the day will come when these reactionaries are defeated and we are victorious. The reason is simply this: the reactionaries represent reaction, we represent progress.