Unite All Anti-Japanese Forces and Combat the Anti-Communist Right-Wingers

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Unite All Anti-Japanese Forces and Combat the Anti-Communist Right-Wingers 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:

• Unite All Anti-Japanese Forces and Combat the Anti-Communist Die-Hards, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• The Situation and Tasks in the Stage of Mutual Support, First English Edition, Vol. 7, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 2005.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a speech delivered by Comrade Mao Zedong at a mass rally to denounce Wang Jingwei and support Jiang Jieshi in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 1st of February, 1940. It was first published in the Jiefang, No. 98/99 (20th of February, 1940).

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#UNITE ALL ANTI-JAPANESE FORCES AND COMBAT THE ANTI-COMMUNIST RIGHT-WINGERS

#SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE MASS RALLY TO DENOUNCE WANG JINGWEI AND SUPPORT JIANG JIESHI

#Mao Zedong

#1st of February, 1940

#★

Comrades!

Why are we, the people of all circles in Yan'an, meeting here today? We are here to denounce the traitor Wang Jingwei, support Jiang Jieshi, unite all anti-Japanese forces, and combat the anti-Communist Right-wingers. Recently, Wang Jingwei signed a treaty with Japan that completely sells out China. We had been fighting Japan for two and a half years and had achieved a breakthrough. The enemy went crazy and did a deal with Wang Jingwei, who sold out the country. Now, the situation is different in several ways, and now we have several new tasks, which are what I want to talk about today. The weather is so cold today, yet so many people are here. We are not afraid of the cold, because we want to clear up a number of things.

#1. JAPAN WANTS TO TURN CHINA INTO A COLONY, AND WANG JINGWEI, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF CHINA'S BIG BOURGEOISIE, HAS KNELT DOWN BEFORE JAPAN

Time and again, we Communists have pointed out that Japanese imperialism is set in its policy of subjugating China. Whatever cabinet changes there may be in Japan, it will not change its fundamental policy of subjugating China and reducing it to a colony, because if this policy were to change, then Japan's militarist-capitalist government would fall. Frightened out of his wits by this fact, Wang Jingwei, the political representative of the pro-Japanese faction of the Chinese big bourgeoisie, grovels before Japan and concludes a traitorous pact, betraying China to Japanese imperialism. Moreover, he wants to set up a puppet government and army in opposition to the anti-Japanese government and army. He also has a puppet Nationalist Party, in opposition to the anti-Japanese Nationalist Party. His policy has three main principles: support Japan, overthrow Jiang Jieshi, and combat Communism. Supporting Japan means kneeling down before the Japanese masters and giving the Chinese people, from the hair on their heads to the soles of their feet, to the Japanese masters. Of late, he has hardly mentioned opposition to Jiang Jieshi and is said to have shifted over to «alliance with Jiang», in an attempt to pull Mr. Jiang into the water. But Mr. Jiang sees through it, realizing that this is simply a Japanese ruse to stop the anti-Japanese war, to split the Nationalist Party, and to overthrow Mr. Jiang. Mr. Jiang is an intelligent person who understands all this. In the past, he sharply rejected Wang Jingwei's declaration, and now he has also sharply rejected the agreement between Japan and Wang Jingwei, and, moreover, has called on the masses of the people to fight to the end against Japan, advising those who harbour illusions of peace to hurry up and look around. Anti-Communism is the main objective both of Japan and of Wang Jingwei. Knowing that the Communist Party is the most resolute in fighting Japan and that Nationalist-Communist cooperation means greater strength for resistance, they are trying their hardest to break up this c-operation and to separate the two political parties, or better still, to set them to fighting each other. Hence they have used the Right wing within the Nationalist Party to create trouble everywhere. In Hunan, there was the Pingjiang Massacre;¹ in Henan, the Queshan Massacre;² in Shanxi, the old army attacked the new army;³ in Hebei, Zhang Yinwu attacked the Eighth Route Army;⁴ in Shantung, Qin Qirong attacked the guerrillas;⁵ in eastern Hubei, Cheng Ruhuai killed between 500 and 600 Communists;⁶ and as for the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, the Right-wing elements are trying to set up a spy network from the inside and enforce a «blockade» from the outside, and are preparing an armed attack.⁷ In addition, they are manufacturing thousands of pieces of intelligence to deceive Mr. Jiang; they have arrested a large number of progressive young people and put them in concentration camps;⁸ they have hired that metaphysics-monger Zhang Junmai to make reactionary proposals for the liquidation of the Communist Party, the abolition of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and the disbandment of the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies; and they have hired the Trotskijite Ye Qing and others to write articles insulting the Communist Party. All this has one purpose only — to disrupt resistance to Japan and turn the Chinese people into colonial slaves.⁹ All of this, in a word, is the plot of Japan and those Chinese big bourgeois who are capitulationists or are preparing to join the capitulationists and to destroy China. We are holding this mass rally today precisely to oppose this plot, to expose this plot. This rally of ours is called a rally to denounce Wang Jingwei and support Jiang Jieshi, which shows what our orientation is. We have no other orientation that that of opposing the treasonous capitulation of Wang Jingwei and of supporting Mr. Jiang to fight Japan to the end.

#2. STRIVE FOR A TURN FOR THE BETTER, AND OPPOSE PESSIMISM AND DESPAIR

Here, I want to say a little more about the situation as it is now. Everyone understands that the Wang Jingwei clique and the anti-Communist Right-wingers in the Nationalist Party have been working in collusion, one from the outside and the other from the inside, and have created pandemonium.

This state of affairs has infuriated large numbers of people, who think that the resistance to Japan is now finished and done for, and that the members of the Nationalist Party are all scoundrels who ought to be opposed. We must say that their fury is entirely justified, for how can anybody help becoming infuriated in the face of such a grave situation? But resistance to Japan is not finished and done for, nor are all Nationalist Party members scoundrels. Different policies should be adopted toward the different factions of the Nationalist Party. Although both national destruction and national reconstruction, both a turn for the worse and a turn for the better, exist and are possibilities, domestic and international conditions all determine that China can be rebuilt, that China can take a turn for the better. This is definitely not a time for defeatism and pessimism. I wrote a textbook last June, entitled On Protracted War, and last November, I wrote another textbook, entitled On the New Stage, both of which adamantly rejected the theory of national destruction and the theory of a quick victory. Regarding the Nationalist Party, I have stated firmly that most of its members have a bright future, that it is only a small portion of them who have a bleak future. These are the views of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; they are not just my personal views. They are also the views of the vast majority of the people throughout the country; they are not just the views of the Communist Party of China. Just look at how the vast majority of the people throughout the country have welcomed the proposals of the Communist Party, and you will understand this. But not everyone agrees with our views. There are some people who do not understand the bigger picture. It is they who do not agree with us. When we came out with these two pamphlets, there were quite a few people who were sceptical of these views of ours. There are some people who are still sceptical of our views. This is especially because the Right wing of the Nationalist Party everywhere stirs up provocative strange things, such as «Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Political Parties», and so on, which, added to the fact that an atmosphere of domestic peace is brewing everywhere, really confuses a lot of people. They do not know how to distinguish between the minority and the majority, and they do not know that, in dealing with a minority of bad eggs, we must use a policy different from that used to deal with the majority of anti-Japanese elements.

Those conscienceless scoundrels who had the audacity to stab the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies in the back, to perpetrate the massacres at Pingjiang and Queshan, to disrupt the Border Region, and to attack progressive armies and organizations and progressive individuals — these scoundrels must not be tolerated, but must be dealt counter-blows; any concession to them is out of the question. Otherwise, unity will be broken, resistance against Japan will fail, and China will perish. For they are so utterly devoid of conscience that they are even creating «friction» and perpetrating massacres and splits after our national enemy has penetrated deep into our territory and the nation and its people face a life-and-death crisis. Whatever they may think, they are actually helping Japan and Wang Jingwei, they are actually subverting the national policy of a unified War of Resistance, serving as good friends to the Chinese traitors, and some of them have been undercover traitors from the very outset. Failure to punish them, and failure to strike the necessary blows against those who have dared to attack the progressive anti-Japanese forces, would be a mistake; it would be an encouragement to the collaborators and traitors, it would be disloyalty to the national resistance and to our homeland, and an invitation to the scoundrels to disrupt the united front. It would be a violation of the policy of our Party. However, the sole purpose, of the policy of dealing blows to the capitulators and the anti-Communist Right-wingers is to keep up the resistance to Japan, maintain unity and progress, and safeguard the anti-Japanese united front. Therefore, we should show goodwill toward those Nationalist Party members who are not capitulators or anti-Communist Right-wingers, but are loyal to the War of Resistance; we should unite with them, respect them and be willing to continue our protracted cooperation with them, so as to put our country in order. Whoever does otherwise is also violating the policy of the Party.

The policy of our Party is two-fold: on the one hand, to unite all the progressive forces and all people loyal to the cause of resisting Japan, and, on the other, to oppose all the heartless scoundrels, the capitulators, and the anti-Communist Right-wingers. Both these aspects of our policy have a single objective — to bring about a turn for the better and defeat Japan — and this objective can be achieved.

Why is it that the objective of bringing about a turn for the better and defeating Japan can be achieved? We have many domestic and international conditions. Which conditions? The first one is the existence of the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies. Whoever wants to revolt, whoever wants to capitulate — first of all, we will not accept it, and we will definitely fight them to the end. The second condition is the vast majority of Nationalist Party members, who also oppose capitulating to Japan, are in favour of the War of Resistance, and want unity and progress. This is true of everyone in the Nationalist Party except the capitulators, the anti-Communists, and the Right-wing elements. The third condition is the anti-Japanese progressive elements among the members of every political party and faction throughout China, who also oppose capitulation, a split, and retreat. These three items are the domestic conditions. The fourth condition is the fact that the Japanese plan to destroy China is extremely rigid. The Japanese militarists and capitalists have laid out two paths before the Chinese people and told us to choose one of them. These two paths are: either the nation will be destroyed, or it will be liberated. There is no middle road. The fifth condition is that, today, there is still no way to resolve the contradiction between Japan, on the one hand, and Britain, the United States, and France, on the other hand. Since the outbreak of the imperialist Second World War in Europe, the situation has changed greatly. One of the important changes has been the reduction in the position of Britain and France in East Asia. As a result, the East Asian Munich Conference that they wanted to convene very soon has become impossible. Unavoidably, this has greatly disappointed a number of people. There were some people who, in the first half of last year, were still suggesting that the nine-nation treaty conference be used to solve the Chinese question. With the outbreak of the war in Europe, they had no choice but to change their tune to propose that the Chinese question could be solved only along with the European question. The United States is still «sitting on top of the mountain to watch the tigers fight». It still wants to make Japan and China fight it out. It is now holding the Pacific Conference. Since Japan is not attending, the United States, too, is reluctant. Although the United States has annulled the trade treaty with Japan, it still wants to do business, which means giving Japan the resources to wage war well. At the same time, it may still give China a little bit of material aid. As I see it, the plan of the US capitalists is to prepare to come out and intervene sometime in the second half of this year or next year and order Japan to cough up a portion of the loot, in the name of the «Open Door Policy». The United States will share the loot with Japan, because the United States believes that Japan's economic strength cannot hold out beyond the second half of this year or beyond next year. This wishful thinking of the US capitalists is the same as the wishful thinking of the pro-European, pro-US faction of the Chinese big bourgeoisie (which is different from the pro-Japanese faction of the Chinese big bourgeoisie). The two are singing a duet. Thus, the danger of a peaceful compromise has certainly not been eliminated, and the fact that at present they are not singing the peace song is strictly temporary. In the future, they will return to strumming the old melody again. But, just for the present, there is a rather serious contradiction between Japan, on the one hand, and Britain, the United States, and France, on the other hand, and this is one condition that may turn the situation around for China. The sixth condition is the strength of the Council Union and its policy of actively assisting China. Everyone understands this quite clearly. Anyone who thinks that they can bypass the Council Union and covertly go on to solve the European question is definitely mistaken. Anyone who thinks that they can bypass the Council Union and covertly go on to solve the East Asian question is also mistaken. Even though there are some wishful thinkers, both in China and abroad, who are still thinking of ignoring the Council Union or are even thinking of preparing to stir up some anti-Soviet magic, this is nothing but wishful fantasy. This, too, is an important condition that may make it possible to turn the situation in China around. Generally speaking, the three domestic conditions — the adherence to an anti-Japanese standpoint by the Communist Party, the Nationalist Party, and the people — and the three international conditions — the strength and rigidity of Japan, the situation of Britain, the United States, and France, and Soviet aid to China — all these conditions are creating a tendency for the situation to take a turn for the better.

The task of the Communist Party and the people all over the country is to unite all the forces of resistance and progress, to combat all the forces of capitulation and retrogression, and to work hard to stop the present deterioration and change the situation for the better. This is our fundamental policy. Seen in this way, what basis is there for pessimism or despair? Clearly, there is none. We are optimistic, we shall never become pessimistic or despairing. We are not afraid of any attacks by the capitulators or the anti-Communist Right-wingers. We must smash them, and we certainly shall. China will surely achieve national liberation; China will never perish. China will surely achieve progress, the present retrogression is only a temporary phenomenon.

#3. STRESS UNITY AND PROGRESS, AND KICK OUT JAPANESE IMPERIALISM

In our meeting today, we also want to make it clear to the people throughout the country that the unity and progress of the whole nation are essential to the War of Resistance. Some people emphasize resistance alone and are reluctant to emphasize unity and progress, or even fail to mention them. This is wrong. How can the War of Resistance be maintained, how can Wang Jingwei be overthrown, how can Japanese imperialism be driven out, without genuine and firm unity, without rapid and solid progress? It would be an utterly impossible pipe-dream. The anti-Communist Right-wingers within the Nationalist Party emphasize unification, but their so-called unification is not genuine, but a sham, not a rational, but an irrational unification, not a unification in substance, but in form. They howl for unification, but what they really want is to liquidate the Communist Party, the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, on the pretext that China cannot be unified so long as these exist. They want to turn everything over to the Nationalist Party, and not merely to continue, but to extend their one-party dictatorship. If this were to occur, what unification could there be? Truth to tell, if the Communist Party, the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, and the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region had not stepped forward and sincerely advocated ending the civil war and uniting for resistance to Japan, there would have been nobody to initiate the Anti-Japanese National United Front or to take the lead in the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident, and there would have been no possibility at all of resisting Japan. And if today, the Communist Party, the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, and the anti-Japanese democratic base areas did not step forward and sincerely sustain the resistance to Japan and combat the dangerous tendencies towards capitulation, a split, and retrogression, the situation would indeed be in a terrible mess. The several hundred thousand troops of the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies are holding 2/5 of the enemy forces in check by engaging 17 out of the 40 Japanese divisions.¹⁰ Yet they have received only 730'000 yuan in pay. The Eighth Route Army got 600'000, the New Fourth Army 130'000, which makes a total of 730'000, but with devaluation of the currency by 75%, each person received less than 1 yuan per month, so why should these armies be disbanded? The Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region is the most progressive region in the country, it is a democratic anti-Japanese base area. Here there are: first, no corrupt officials; second, no local tyrants and evil gentry; third, no gambling; fourth, no prostitutes; fifth, no concubines; sixth, no beggars; seventh, no narrow self-seeking cliques; eighth, no atmosphere of dejection and laxity; ninth, no professional friction-mongers; and, tenth, no war profiteers. Why then should the Border Region be abolished? Only people without any sense of shame dare suggest anything so shameful. What right have these Right-wing elements to breathe a word against us? No, comrades! What needs to be done is not to abolish the Border Region, but to get the whole country to follow its example, not to disband the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, but to get the whole country to follow their example, not to liquidate the Communist Party, but to get the whole country to follow its example, not to pull progressive people back to the level of backward people, but to get the latter to catch up with the former. We Communists are the staunchest advocates of unification; it is we who have initiated and maintained the united front and who have put forward the slogan for a unified democratic republic. Who else could have proposed these things? Who else could have put them into effect? Who else could be content with a monthly allowance of only 5 yuan?¹¹ Who else could have formed such a clean and incorruptible government? There is unification and unification. The capitulators have their idea of unification, they want to unify us into capitulating; the anti-Communist Right-wingers have their idea of unification, they want to unify us into splitting and retrogression. Could we ever accept these ideas of theirs? Can any unification that is not based on resistance, unity, and progress be considered genuine? Or rational? Or real unification? What a pipe-dream! It is to put forward our own idea of unification that we are meeting here today. Our idea of unification is identical with that of all the people of China, of every person with a conscience. It is based on resistance, unity, and progress. Only through progress can we achieve unity; only through unity can we resist Japan; and only through progress, unity, and resistance can the country be unified. This is our idea of unification, a genuine, rational, real unification. The idea of a sham, irrational, and formal unification is one which would lead to national subjugation and which is held by persons utterly devoid of conscience. These people want to destroy the Communist Party, the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, and the anti-Japanese democratic base areas, and wipe out all the local anti-Japanese forces, in order to establish unification under the Nationalist Party. This is a plot, an attempt to perpetuate autocratic rule under the guise of unification, to sell the dog-meat of their one-party dictatorship under the label of the sheep's head of unification; it is a plot of brazen-faced braggarts who are lost to all sense of shame. We are meeting here today precisely to punch holes in this paper tiger of theirs. Let us relentlessly combat these anti-Communist Right-wingers.

#4. THE TEN MAJOR TASKS OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY

We shall resolutely combat the Right-wing elements, firmly unite with the progressives, and use these two policies to reach our overall goal of a turn for the better and triumphing over the Japanese bandits. There is much work for us to do toward this end. Just a few days ago, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held a meeting and decided upon ten major tasks to strive for a turn for the better. What are these ten major tasks? I shall now read to you comrades the resolution of the Party's Central Committee.¹²

Comrades, these are the ten major tasks recently decided upon by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Do you believe that these ten major tasks are appropriate? These ten tasks constitute a suitable remedy for our ills; they are bound to snatch the patient from the jaws of death and to drive out Japanese imperialism. The ten major tasks were put forward by the Communist Party, but when it comes to undertaking them, it cannot be done by the Communist Party alone; it has to be done by the people of the whole country. This is not something that concerns only the Communist Party as a single political party, but rather something that concerns the people of the whole country. It is something of concern to all those with a conscience who wish to save the nation. Of course, Japanese imperialism is not happy about these ten major tasks, nor are Wang Jingwei, the anti-Communists, and the Right-wing elements. That they are unhappy is as it should be; there is no need for us to try to please them. Let them be displeased about this. We are holding this meeting today, because we wish to shout out our cry to all people, political parties, and groups throughout the country, to save our homeland, which is in peril, to create a New China, to drive out Japanese imperialism, to overthrow Wang Jingwei, and to overthrow that bunch of anti-Communist «heroes». We wish to proclaim loudly the following slogans:

#SUPPORT THE NATIONAL POLICY OF CARRYING THE WAR OF RESISTANCE THROUGH TO THE END, AND OPPOSE WANG JINGWEI'S TRAITOROUS AGREEMENT!

#PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY, UNITE TO SUPPORT PRESIDENT JIANG AND OVERTHROW THE CHINESE TRAITOR WANG JINGWEI!

#SUPPORT THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT AND OVERTHROW WANG JINGWEI'S PUPPET «CENTRAL GOVERNMENT»!

#SUPPORT NATIONALIST-COMMUNIST COOPERATION, AND SMASH WANG JINGWEI'S POLICY OF ANTI-COMMUNISM!

#ANTI-COMMUNISM IS WANG JINGWEI'S PLOT TO SPLIT THE UNITED FRONT — DOWN WITH ALL ANTI-COMMUNIST CHINESE TRAITORS!

#STRENGTHEN NATIONAL UNITY AND ELIMINATE INTERNAL «FRICTION»!

#REFORM DOMESTIC AFFAIRS, CARRY FORWARD THE MOVEMENT FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT, AND ESTABLISH DEMOCRATIC POLITICS!

#LIFT THE BAN ON POLITICAL PARTIES AND LEGALIZE THE ANTI-JAPANESE POLITICAL PARTIES AND ORGANIZATIONS!

#FIGHT FOR THE PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH, THE PRESS, ASSEMBLY, AND ASSOCIATION, IN ORDER TO RESIST JAPAN AND SAVE THE NATION!

#DEVELOP THE MASS MOVEMENT, REDUCE RENT, INTEREST, AND TAXES, AND IMPROVE THE WORKERS' LIVELIHOOD!

#CONSOLIDATE THE ANTI-JAPANESE BASE AREAS, AND COMBAT THE PLOT OF THE CHINESE TRAITORS, ANTI-COMMUNISTS, AND RIGHT-WING ELEMENTS TO SABOTAGE THEM!

#SUPPORT THE TROOPS WITH A FINE RECORD OF SERVICE IN RESISTANCE TO JAPAN, AND GIVE AMPLE MATERIAL ASSISTANCE TO THE FRONT!

#DEVELOP A CULTURE OF NATIONAL RESISTANCE, PROTECT THE PROGRESSIVE YOUTH, AND SUPPRESS THE SPEECH OF CHINESE TRAITORS!

#LONG LIVE THE NATIONAL LIBERATION OF CHINA!