The Gravest Danger in the Current Situation

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of The Gravest Danger in the Current Situation 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:

• Oppose Capitulationist Activity, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• The Gravest Crisis in the Current Situation, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 7, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 2005.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an article written by Comrade Mao Zedong in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 30th of June, 1939. It was first published in the Jiefang, No. 75/76 (7th of July, 1939).

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#THE GRAVEST DANGER IN THE CURRENT SITUATION

#Mao Zedong

#30th of June, 1939

#★

On the second anniversary of the War of Resistance, the newspapers Jiefang [Liberation], Xinhua Ribao [New China Daily], and Xin Zhonghua [New China], and the magazine Military and Political Review of the Eighth Route Army, have asked me to write a commemorative article. I have collected many materials to hand, and planned to write an essay commemorating the second anniversary of the War of Resistance, entitled Once Again on Protracted War, to answer the criticisms, challenges, and questions regarding On Protracted War and On the New Stage that have come from certain quarters since their publication. Here, I can only briefly address the issue of the danger in the current situation.

Ever since the Chinese nation was confronted with the Japanese aggression, the first and foremost question has been to fight or not to fight. This question awakened serious controversy in the period from the 18th of September Incident of 1931 to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of the 7th of July, 1937. The conclusion reached by all patriotic political parties and groups and by all our compatriots was: «To fight is to survive, not to fight is to perish.» The conclusion reached by all the capitulationists was: «To fight is to perish, not to fight is to survive.» For a time, the roaring guns of the resistance at Marco Polo Bridge decided the issue. They proclaimed the first conclusion right and the second wrong. But why was the question settled only temporarily and not once and for all? Because the Japanese imperialists adopted the policy of inducing China to capitulate, the international capitulationists¹ tried to bring about a compromise, and certain people within our anti-Japanese front wavered. Now, the issue has been raised again, worded in a slightly different way as a question of «peace or war». Thus, a controversy has arisen inside China between those who favour continuing the war and those who favour making peace. Their respective standpoints remain the same: the conclusion of the war group is «to fight is to survive, to make peace is to perish»; the conclusion of the peace group is «to make peace is to survive, to fight is to perish». The former comprises all patriotic parties and all patriots and they make up the great majority of the nation, while the latter, that is, the capitulationists, constitutes only a small wavering minority within the anti-Japanese front. Consequently, the peace group has to resort to lying propaganda, and, above all, to anti-Communist propaganda. For example, it has fabricated and released a spate of false news, false reports, false documents, and false resolutions, such as: «the Communist Party engages in disruptive activities», «the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army are merely moving around without fighting and refuse to obey orders», «a separatist regime has been formed in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and is expanding beyond its confines», «the Communist Party is plotting to overthrow the government», and even, «the Council Union is plotting aggression against China». Its purpose is to make peace, or in other words to capitulate, by covering up the real facts and confusing public opinion. The peace group, the group of capitulationists, is doing all this because it cannot wreck Nationalist-Communist cooperation, split the Anti-Japanese National United Front, and surrender to Japan unless it combats the Communist Party, which is the initiator and champion of the united front. Second, it hopes that Japanese imperialism will make concessions. It believes that Japan is well-nigh exhausted and will change its fundamental policy, voluntarily withdrawing from central, southern, and even northern China, and that China can thus win without doing any more fighting. Third, it pins its hopes on international pressure. Many people in the peace group bank on the exertion of pressure by the Great Powers, not only on Japan, so that it will make some concessions and thereby facilitate a peace settlement, but also on the Chinese government, so that they can say to the war group: «Look! In the present international climate, we have to make peace!» «A Pacific international conference² would be to China's advantage. It would not be another Munich,³ but a step toward China's rejuvenation!» This forms the sum total of the views, tactics, and schemes of the peace group, the Chinese capitulationists. The drama is being acted out not only by Wang Jingwei himself, but, what is more serious, by many others like him, who are concealed within the anti-Japanese front and are collaborating with him in a kind of duet,⁴ or joint performance, with some wearing the white makeup of the stage villain and others the red makeup of the hero.

We Communists openly proclaim that, at all times, we stand with those who favour continuing the war, support all the national policies of the War of Resistance openly proclaimed by President Jiang Jieshi and the National Government in the past, and resolutely oppose those who favour making peace. We have but one desire, that is, together with all other patriotic political parties and all other patriots, to strengthen unity and strengthen the national united front and Nationalist-Communist cooperation, put the «Three People's Principles» into effect, support President Jiang and the National Government, carry the War of Resistance through to the end, fight all the way to the Yalu River, and recover all our lost territories.⁵ We firmly denounce the Wang Jingweis, both overt and covert, who are creating an anti-Communist climate, engineering «friction»⁶ between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party, and even trying to provoke another civil war between the two political parties. We say to them: In essence, your divisive schemes are nothing but preparations for capitulation, and your divisive and capitulationist policy simply reveals your general plan of selling out the interests of the nation for the selfish interests of a few individuals. People have eyes and will see through your scheming. We categorically repudiate the absurd view that a Pacific conference would not be an Asian Munich. Of course, the so-called Pacific conference would be an Asian Munich, a preparation for turning China into another Czechoslovakia. We firmly denounce the groundless assertion that Japanese imperialism may come to its senses and make concessions. Japanese imperialism will never change its fundamental policy of subjugating China. Japan's honeyed words after the fall of Wuhan — for instance, the suggestion that it would abandon the policy of «not accepting the National Government as the opposite party in negotiations»⁷ and would instead recognize it as such, or that it would withdraw its troops from central and southern China on certain conditions — are nothing but cunning bait to hook the fish, so that whoever swallows the bait must expect to be well and truly cooked. The international capitulationists are likewise pursuing a cunning policy to induce China to surrender. They have countenanced Japanese aggression against China, while they themselves «sit on top of the mountain to watch the tigers fight», waiting for the opportune moment to engineer a so-called Pacific conference for mediation in order to profit at others' expense. Anyone who pins their hopes on such schemers will likewise find that they have been badly duped.

What was once a question of whether or not to fight has now become a question of whether to continue the war or to make peace, but essentially it is the same question, the most important and fundamental of all questions. In the last six months, with Japan pressing on with its policy of inducing China to capitulate, with the international capitulationists intensifying their activities, and, above all, with some people in our anti-Japanese front wavering more than ever, a great clamour has arisen around the question of peace or war, so that capitulation has become the main danger in the present political situation. And the first and most important move the capitulationists are making to prepare for it is to fight Communism, that is, to break up Nationalist-Communist cooperation and the unity of the anti-Japanese front. In these circumstances, all patriotic political parties and all patriots must keep a close watch over the capitulationists' activities and must understand the main characteristics of the present situation, namely, that capitulation is the chief danger and that anti-Communism is the preparatory step to capitulation, and they must do their utmost to oppose capitulation and a split. No group of people must ever be allowed to undermine or betray the war against Japanese imperialism, a war which has cost the whole nation two full years of bloodshed. No group of people must ever be allowed to disrupt or split Nationalist-Communist cooperation and the Anti-Japanese National United Front, which has been forged by the common effort of the whole nation.

Fight on and persist in unity, and China will survive.

Make peace and persist in splitting, and China will perish.

Which to reject and which to accept? Our compatriots must quickly make their choice.

We Communists will definitely fight on and persist in unity.

All patriotic political parties and all patriots will fight on and persist in unity.

Even if the capitulationists who are plotting surrender and a split should get the upper hand for a while, they will eventually be unmasked and punished by the people. The historical task of the Chinese nation is to achieve liberation through united resistance. What the capitulationists desire is the exact opposite, but however much they may have the upper hand, however jubilant they may be, fancying that nobody dare harm them, they cannot escape punishment by the whole people.

Oppose capitulation and a split — this is the urgent task now confronting all the patriotic political parties and groups and all our compatriots.

#PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY, UNITE!

#PERSIST IN RESISTANCE AND UNITY, AND SUPPRESS ALL PLOTS FOR CAPITULATION AND A SPLIT!