On Coalition Government

On Coalition Government

I. The Fundamental Demands of the Chinese People

Comrades! The Seventh National Congress of our Party, so long awaited, is now in session, and on behalf of the Central Committee I am reporting to you. The present situation requires our Congress to discuss and decide many major questions. We will then explain our views to the Chinese people, and if they agree with our views, we will set to work together with them.

Our Congress is meeting in the following circumstances. After nearly eight years of resolute, heroic and unyielding struggle against the Japanese invaders, and after untold hardships, sacrifices and self-sacrifice, the Chinese people now face a new situation: the sacred and just war of the whole world against the fascist aggressors has won a victory of decisive significance, and the moment is approaching when the Chinese people, fighting in co-ordination with the Allied nations, will defeat the Japanese invaders. Yet China is still not united, the Japanese invaders are still oppressing us, and a grave crisis still exists in China. What should we do in these circumstances? Beyond all doubt, China urgently needs to bring together representatives of all parties, all groups and all independents to form a democratic provisional coalition government, so as to carry out democratic reforms, overcome the present crisis, mobilize and unify all the anti-Japanese forces of the whole country, fight effectively in co-ordination with the Allied nations, defeat the Japanese invaders, and liberate the Chinese people from the hands of the Japanese invaders. Then, on a broad democratic foundation, a National Assembly should be convened to establish a formal democratic government, likewise coalition in character and embracing representatives of a still wider range of parties, groups and independents, to lead the whole people of the liberated country in building China into a new country that is independent, free, democratic, unified, and strong and prosperous. In a word: take the road of unity and democracy, defeat the invaders, and build a new China.

We hold that only this course reflects the fundamental demands of the Chinese people. My report is therefore chiefly a discussion of these demands. Whether China should establish a democratic coalition government has become a question of keen concern to the Chinese people and to public opinion in the Allied countries, and my report will accordingly lay special emphasis on the question of the coalition government.

In the eight years of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the work of the Chinese Communist Party has overcome many difficulties and won very great achievements. But in the present situation, grave difficulties still lie before our Party and the people. The present situation demands that our Party undertake still more urgent and more practical work, continue to overcome difficulties, and struggle to fulfil the fundamental demands of the Chinese people.

II. The International and the Domestic Situation

Can the Chinese people achieve the fundamental demands we set out above? We believe that both possibilities exist, and that the outcome will be decided by the degree of awakening, unity and effort of the Chinese people. But the present international and domestic situation offers the Chinese people favourable conditions. If the Chinese people make good use of these conditions and press forward actively, resolutely and with sustained effort, there can be no doubt that they will defeat the invaders and build a new China. The Chinese people should redouble their efforts and struggle to accomplish their sacred task.

What is the present international situation?

Contrary to the expectations of all the reactionaries in China and abroad, the three great democracies — Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union — have remained united. Certain disputes existed between them in the past and may arise again in the future, but in the end unity prevails over everything. This is the condition that decides everything, and the Crimea Conference gave final proof of it. This condition came into being at a great turning point of world history — the 1940s. When the fascist war of aggression broke out and became a war threatening the peoples of the whole world, the reactionary forces that in effect helped the fascist aggressors against the unity of Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union were swept off the political stage in large numbers in many major countries (though not in all); the anti-fascist forces favouring that unity gained the upper hand; and this condition came into being. From the moment it appeared, the face of the world changed. The whole fascist force, together with its wandering ghosts in every country, must be wiped out. Major international questions must be settled by agreement under the leadership of the three, or five, great powers. Questions within each country must, without exception, be settled according to democratic principles. The world will be led toward progress, and never toward reaction. Such is the new face of our world. Of course, full vigilance is called for, with the understanding that certain temporary, even grave, twists and turns of history may still occur; the reactionary forces of the world-splitters — those in many countries who refuse to see their own peoples and foreign peoples win unity, progress and liberation, and who refuse to see Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, China and France continue in unity to lead the new world order — are still strong; whoever ignores this will make political mistakes. But the general trend of history has been settled and cannot be changed; the new face of the world has already appeared.

This new face is unfavourable only to the fascists and to the reactionaries of the various countries who in effect help them (China's included). For the people of every country and their organized democratic forces, it is gospel.

The people, and the people alone, are the motive force that creates the world. The people of the Soviet Union forged a mighty strength and served as the main force in striking down fascism. The great efforts of the peoples of the four great powers — Britain, the United States, China and France — and of the peoples of the other countries of the anti-fascist alliance made the defeat of fascism possible. Once fascism has been struck down, the peoples of all countries will build a world of firm and lasting peace. The United Nations conference opening in San Francisco on April 25 will be the starting point of such a peace.

The base text is the Wikisource version, noting '24 April 1945'. Of the twenty-five pieces this is second in length, about forty-four thousand characters and over two hundred paragraphs; the original report has five parts, and this edition carries the full text of that report.

The war has educated the people, and the people will win the war, win the peace, and win progress — such is the law of the new world situation of today.

This new situation is entirely different from that of the First World War and of the so-called 'peace' that followed it. At that time there was no Soviet Union such as exists today, nor had the peoples of Britain, the United States, China, France and the other countries of the anti-fascist alliance attained their present level of awakening, and naturally there could be no such world unity as today's under the leadership of the three, or five, great powers. We now find ourselves in a situation entirely new. What exists now is a world people who have awakened and united, and who are awakening and uniting still further, together with the organized strength of the people; this determines both the goal toward which the wheel of world history will turn and the road it will take to reach that goal.

After the fascist aggressor countries are defeated and a general peace has emerged, it does not follow that struggle will cease. The fascist remnant forces scattered far and wide are certain to make trouble. Within the camp of the war against fascist aggression there exist anti-democratic forces, and these will continue to oppress the people. Therefore, even after international peace is achieved, the struggle between the anti-fascist popular masses and the fascist remnants, the struggle between democracy and anti-democracy, will still fill most of the world. Only through long effort, once the fascist remnants and the anti-democratic forces have been overcome, can the broadest victory of the people be won. That day will not come quickly or easily, but it is bound to come. The victory of the anti-fascist war — the just Second World War — has opened the road to this postwar victory of the people's struggle; and only when the latter struggle is won can a firm and lasting peace be assured. Such is the bright future before the world's people.

Thanks to the unity of the three great democracies — Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union — and of the other European countries, the war to defeat fascist Germany once and for all will soon be over. The Red Army is already assaulting Berlin, the nerve centre of Hitler, and the city will fall before long. The British and American Allied forces are delivering the final blows to Hitler's remaining armies. The Italian people have risen in insurrection. All this will finally crush Hitler. After Hitler is defeated, a situation will appear in the world in which the liberation of Europe immediately increases the possibility of the liberation of Asia, and Asia in turn will be liberated.

Britain, the United States and China — the three great powers — are united in the cause of fighting the Japanese invaders. Thanks to the long, arduous struggle of the Chinese people through eight years of war, Britain's co-ordinated fighting in the East, and above all the American victories in the Pacific, the war has pressed to the very gates of Japan. The Japanese invaders are now in an extremely unfavourable position, and wavering has grown deeper among their army and people. But they still have strength; they are preparing for a protracted last-ditch struggle and hope, by playing on waverers inside China and inside the Allied nations, to obtain a compromise peace. Yet the interests of the entire peoples of all the Pacific countries demand the complete destruction of the Japanese invaders. The Soviet Union has abrogated the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, an act that has given tremendous encouragement to the Chinese people and to the peoples of the Pacific countries. In all these circumstances we must say this: a stretch of hard road still lies before us on the way to the final and complete destruction of the Japanese invaders, and we must on no account underestimate the enemy; but the assurance of victory is greater than ever, and victory we are certain to win.

The Chinese people have never enjoyed international conditions so favourable as those of today, and it is these conditions that have encouraged them to sustain the long war.

What is the present domestic situation in China?

China's long war has cost the Chinese people heavy sacrifices, and will cost them more. But at the same time it is precisely this war that has tempered, and will temper yet again, the heroically struggling Chinese people. The war has carried the awakening and unity of the Chinese people to a point reached neither in all of China's ancient history nor in any of the great popular struggles of the past hundred years. On the one hand, the Chinese people face not only a powerful national enemy but also a powerful domestic reactionary force that in effect helps that enemy. On the other hand, the Chinese people possess not only a level of awakening higher than at any time in the past, but also the powerful Chinese liberated areas and a nation-wide democratic movement rising ever higher — all of which are favourable domestic conditions. If it is true that every popular struggle in China over the past century ended in failure or setback because the necessary international and domestic conditions were lacking, then this time is different: compared with every previous occasion, all the necessary conditions are now more fully present, and the possibility of avoiding failure and achieving victory exists in full measure. If we can unite the whole people of the country, strive hard, and give proper guidance, we shall have victory.

The confidence of the Chinese people in uniting to defeat the invaders and build a new China has now grown enormously, and the moment has arrived for them to overcome every difficulty and realize their fundamental demands, which carry great historic significance. Is there any doubt about this? I believe there is none.

Such, then, is the general international and domestic situation at present.

III. The Two Lines in the War of Resistance Against Japan

Part two reviews the situation, mentioning the Yalta Conference and the 'democratic alliance' of the old Soviet Union and the new democratic countries, and contains the line 'the people, and only the people, are the motive force that creates world history' — a line often cited in connection with it.

The Crux of the Chinese Question

In speaking of the domestic situation, we must also make a concrete analysis of China's War of Resistance Against Japan.

China is one of the five largest countries in the worldwide war against fascism and is the principal country on the Asian continent fighting the Japanese invaders. The Chinese people have played, and will continue to play, an immense role not only in the War of Resistance Against Japan but also in safeguarding the peace of the postwar world, and a decisive role in safeguarding the peace of the East. Through eight years of the War of Resistance, the Chinese people have made great efforts for their own liberation and for the victory of the Allied nations. These efforts have been made principally by the Chinese people themselves. The broad masses of officers and men of the Chinese armies have shed their blood in battle at the front; China's workers, peasants, intellectuals and industrialists have laboured hard in the rear; the overseas Chinese have contributed money to help the war effort; and all the anti-Japanese political parties, except the elements opposed to the people, have done their part in the war. In short, for eight full years the Chinese people have fought valiantly against the Japanese invaders with their own blood and sweat. Yet for years the Chinese reactionaries have fabricated rumours and deceived public opinion so as to keep the truth about the role the Chinese people have played in the War of Resistance from seeing the light of day. At the same time, no one has yet drawn up a comprehensive summing-up of the varied experiences of China's eight-year War of Resistance. Our Congress should therefore make a fitting summing-up, both to educate the people and to serve as the basis for determining our Party's policy.

Speaking of summing up experience, everyone can see very clearly that two different guiding lines exist in China: one that can defeat the Japanese invaders, and one that not only cannot defeat them but is, in certain respects, in effect helping the Japanese invaders and harming the War of Resistance.

The negative policy of fighting Japan pursued by the Kuomintang government, together with its reactionary policy of actively persecuting the people at home, brought defeat in the war, the loss of most of the national territory, a fiscal and economic crisis, the oppression of the people, misery in the people's lives, and the wrecking of national unity; it obstructed the mobilization and unification of all the anti-Japanese forces of the Chinese people for effective warfare, and obstructed the awakening and unity of the Chinese people. But the movement for the awakening and unity of the Chinese people has not ceased; it has been developing, twists and turns notwithstanding, under the double oppression of the Japanese invaders and the Kuomintang government. Two lines — the line of the Kuomintang government, which oppresses the Chinese people and wages a passive war of resistance, and the line of the Chinese people, who awaken and unite to wage a people's war — have long existed in plain view in China. Herein lies the crux of all the Chinese questions.

A History That Followed a Winding Road

To make clear why this question of two lines is the crux of all the Chinese questions, we must look back at the history of our War of Resistance.

The War of Resistance of the Chinese people developed along a winding road. The war began as early as 1931. On September 18, 1931, the Japanese invaders seized Shenyang, and within a few months they occupied the three northeastern provinces, while the Kuomintang government adopted a policy of non-resistance. But the people of the three northeastern provinces and part of the patriotic army there, organized into the Anti-Japanese Volunteers of the Northeast under the leadership or assistance of the Chinese Communist Party and against the will of the Kuomintang government, waged heroic guerrilla warfare. This heroic guerrilla warfare grew to very large dimensions and, through many hardships and setbacks, was never wiped out by the enemy. In 1932, when the Japanese invaders attacked Shanghai, one group of patriots inside the Kuomintang, once again against the will of the Kuomintang government, led the Nineteenth Route Army in resisting the Japanese attack. In 1933, when the Japanese invaders attacked Rehe and Chahar, another group of patriots inside the Kuomintang, for the third time against the will of the Kuomintang government, organized the Anti-Japanese Allied Army and offered resistance. But none of these wars of resistance received any assistance whatsoever from the Kuomintang government, which stood by its policy of non-resistance, apart from the aid given by the Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party, other democratic groups and the overseas Chinese. On the contrary, both anti-Japanese actions, in Shanghai and in Chahar, were wrecked single-handedly by the Kuomintang government. And in 1933 the People's Government set up by the Nineteenth Route Army in Fukien was likewise wrecked by the Kuomintang government.

Why did the Kuomintang government of those days adopt a policy of non-resistance? The principal reason is that in 1927 the Kuomintang government wrecked the co-operation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the unity of the Chinese people.

In 1924, Dr. Sun Yat-sen accepted the proposal of the Chinese Communist Party and convened the First National Congress of the Kuomintang with Communists taking part, drew up the three great policies of alliance with Russia, co-operation with the Communist Party, and assistance to the peasants and workers, founded the Whampoa Military Academy, and brought about the national united front of the two parties, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, and of the people of all circles. Thus in 1925 the reactionary forces in Kwangtung were swept away, and in 1926-27 the victorious Northern Expedition was launched, occupying the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys, defeating the government of the northern warlords, and setting in motion a vast people's liberation struggle unprecedented in Chinese history. But in the late spring and early summer of 1927, at the very moment when the Northern Expedition was advancing, this national united front of the two parties and of the people of all circles, which represented the cause of the Chinese people's liberation, together with all its revolutionary policies, was wrecked by the treacherous, anti-popular 'Party-purging' and massacre policy of the Kuomintang authorities. Yesterday's allies — the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people — were regarded as enemies, while yesterday's enemies — the imperialists and the feudalists — were regarded as allies. That is how, by treachery and a sudden attack launched against the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people, the vigorous Chinese revolution was buried. From then on, civil war replaced unity, dictatorship replaced democracy, and a dark China replaced a bright China. But the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people were neither frightened, nor conquered, nor exterminated. They crawled up out of the earth, wiped the blood from their bodies, buried the bodies of their fallen comrades, and fought on again. They raised high the banner of revolution, mounted armed resistance, organized people's governments over vast areas of China, carried out land reform, and created a people's army — the Chinese Red Army — thereby preserving and developing the revolutionary strength of the Chinese people. The revolutionary Three People's Principles of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, discarded by the Kuomintang reactionaries, were taken up and carried on by the Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party and other democrats.

After the Japanese invaders pushed into the three northeastern provinces, the Chinese Communist Party in 1933 proposed to all the Kuomintang armies attacking the soviet areas and the Red Army that truce agreements be concluded, on three conditions — first, the cessation of attacks; second, the granting of freedom to the people; and third, the arming of the people — so that all might resist Japan together. But the Kuomintang authorities rejected this proposal.

Part four discusses the Party's twofold international duty and the land policy; it mentions reducing rent and interest, abolishing exorbitant taxes and levies, and a progressive tax on the excess. Part five has a further statement on inner-Party unity and self-criticism that may be read at the opening of the piece.

From then on, on the one hand, the civil-war policy of the Kuomintang government grew ever wilder; on the other hand, the voice of the Chinese people demanding an end to civil war and united resistance to Japan rose ever higher, and various patriotic popular organizations were set up in Shanghai and in many other places. In 1935-36 the main forces of the Red Army north and south of the Yangtze, under the leadership of our Party's Central Committee, made their way through untold hardships to the Northwest and joined forces with the Red Army there. In those same two years the Chinese Communist Party, adapting itself to the new situation, decided upon and carried out the new, complete political line of the anti-Japanese national united front, with unity in resistance to Japan and the establishment of a new-democratic republic as its goal of struggle. On December 9, 1935, the student masses of Peiping, under the leadership of our Party, launched a heroic patriotic movement, founded the National Liberation Vanguard of the Chinese nation, and spread this patriotic movement to all the big cities of the country. On December 12, 1936, two groups of patriots inside the Kuomintang who advocated resistance to Japan — the Northeastern Army and the Seventeenth Route Army — joined together to oppose courageously the Kuomintang authorities' reactionary policy of appeasing Japan and massacring their own people at home, and staged the famous Sian Incident. At the same time, other patriots within the Kuomintang were dissatisfied with the policies the Kuomintang authorities were then pursuing. Under these circumstances the Kuomintang authorities were compelled to abandon their civil-war policy and to concede the demands of the people. With the peaceful settlement of the Sian Incident as the pivot on which the situation turned, domestic unity took shape under the new conditions, and the War of Resistance flared up across the whole country. On the eve of the Lukouchiao Incident, in May 1937, our Party convened a National Representative Conference of historic significance, at which the new political line our Party had followed since 1935 was ratified.

From the Lukouchiao Incident of July 7, 1937, to the fall of Wuhan in October 1938, the Kuomintang government fought Japan with comparatively good effort. In this period, under the impact of the massive Japanese offensive and the rising national indignation of the people of the whole country, the Kuomintang government concentrated the emphasis of its policy on opposing the Japanese invaders; a high tide of the War of Resistance of the army and people of the whole country formed, and for a time a lively new atmosphere appeared. At that time the people of the whole country, we Communists, and the other democratic parties all placed great hopes in the Kuomintang government — that is, they hoped it would seize this moment of national peril and popular enthusiasm to carry out democratic reforms in earnest and put Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary Three People's Principles into effect. But that hope was disappointed. Through those two years, on the one hand, there was comparatively active resistance to Japan; on the other hand, the government authorities still opposed a people's war that would mobilize the broad masses, and still restricted the activities in which the people spontaneously united to carry on resistance and democracy. On the one hand, the attitude of the government toward the Chinese Communist Party and the other anti-Japanese parties changed somewhat compared with the past; on the other hand, it still refused the various parties equal status and placed restrictions of every kind on their activities, and many patriotic political prisoners were not released. Above all, the Kuomintang government retained the oligarchic autocracy it had maintained since launching the civil war in 1927, and failed to establish a democratic coalition government representative of the whole nation.

During this period we Communists pointed to the two lines in China's War of Resistance: either a people's all-round war, which would bring victory, or a war that oppressed the people and was fought by one side alone, which would bring defeat. We pointed out further that the war would be protracted and that many hardships were bound to be encountered; but that through the efforts of the Chinese people final victory would belong to the Chinese people.

The People's War

In this period the main forces of the Chinese Red Army, transferred to the Northwest under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, were reorganized into the Eighth Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army of China, while the Red Army guerrilla units remaining north and south of the Yangtze were reorganized into the New Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army of China, and both went successively to fight in North and Central China. The Chinese Red Army of the civil-war period, preserving and developing the democratic traditions of the Whampoa Military Academy and of the National Revolutionary Army of the Northern Expedition period, had once expanded to several hundred thousand men. Owing to the ruthless destruction by the Kuomintang government of the base areas in the South, the attrition of the Long March and other causes, its numbers had fallen to a few tens of thousands. So some people looked down on this army and thought that resistance to Japan depended chiefly on the Kuomintang. But the people are the best judges. They knew that although the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army were then small in number, they were of the highest quality, and only they could wage a genuine people's war; and that once they reached the anti-Japanese front and linked up with the broad masses there, their future would be boundless. The people were right. As I make this report, our regular army has grown to 910,000 men and the people's militia to over 2,200,000. Although our regular army today is still several hundred thousand men smaller in number than the existing Kuomintang armies (including both the central and the regional forces), judging by the amount of enemy and puppet troops it engages, by the extent of the front it holds, by its fighting capacity, by the vast masses, militia and people's self-defence corps that fight in co-ordination with it, and by its political quality and the unity and discipline within its ranks, it has already become the main force of China's War of Resistance Against Japan.

This army is strong because all who join it possess a conscious discipline; they have united and fought not for the private interests of a few individuals or a narrow clique, but for a just people's war, for the interests of the broad masses of the people, for the interests of the whole nation. To stand firmly with the Chinese people and serve them wholeheartedly — that is the sole purpose of this army.

In keeping with this purpose, the army has an indomitable spirit; it overwhelms every enemy and never yields to them. However arduous and difficult the circumstances, so long as a single man remains, that man will go on fighting.

In keeping with this purpose, the army has fine internal and external unity. Internally — between officers and men, between superiors and subordinates, among military work, political work and rear-service work; externally — between the army and the people, between the army and the government, between our forces and friendly forces: all must be united, and every phenomenon that impairs these unities must be overcome.

In keeping with this purpose, the army has a correct policy for winning over the officers and men of the enemy forces and for handling prisoners of war. All who come over, who turn against the enemy, or who, after laying down their arms, are willing to join in fighting the common enemy — whether enemy or puppet soldiers — are welcomed without exception and given appropriate education. No prisoner of war may be killed, maltreated or humiliated.

In keeping with this purpose, the army has developed the whole series of strategy and tactics required by a people's war; it is adept at waging flexible guerrilla warfare according to changing concrete conditions, and equally adept at mobile warfare.

In keeping with this purpose, the army has developed the whole series of political work required by a people's war, working to unite our own army, unite the friendly armies, unite the people, disintegrate the enemy army, and guarantee victory in battle.

In keeping with this purpose, under the conditions of guerrilla warfare, the whole army can — and has — used the intervals between fighting and training to produce grain and daily necessities, attaining self-sufficiency, semi-self-sufficiency or partial self-sufficiency, so as to overcome economic difficulties, improve the army's livelihood, and lighten the people's burden. On the various military base areas, too, every possibility has been used to establish many small-scale military industries.

This army is strong also because vast mass armed organizations — the people's self-defence corps and the militia — fight in co-ordination with it. In the Chinese liberated areas, all young and middle-aged men and women, and even the elderly, are organized into the anti-Japanese people's self-defence corps on the principles of voluntarism, democracy and non-detachment from production. The best elements of the self-defence corps, apart from those who join the army and the guerrilla units, are organized into the militia. Without the support of these mass armed forces, victory over the Japanese invaders would be impossible.

This army is strong also because it divides itself into two parts, the main-force formations and the local formations: the former can at any time undertake operations beyond the locality, while the latter are fixed to the task of defending the locality and attacking the local enemy in co-ordination with the militia and the self-defence corps. This division has won the genuine support of the people. Without this correct division — if, for example, attention were paid only to the main-force formations and the role of the local formations were neglected — victory over the Japanese invaders would likewise be impossible under the conditions of the Chinese liberated areas. As for the local formations, many armed work teams, comparatively sound in military, political and mass-mobilization work and given good training, have been organized to penetrate deep behind the enemy's lines and even behind those, strike at the enemy, and set the masses going in anti-Japanese struggle, thereby giving effective support to the operations on the frontal lines of the various liberated areas, with very great results.

In the Chinese liberated areas, under the leadership of the democratic governments, all the anti-Japanese people are called upon to organize themselves into workers', peasants', youth, women's, cultural and other occupational and functional bodies, and to throw themselves into every kind of work aiding the army — mobilizing the people to join the army, transporting grain for it, caring for the families of the anti-Japanese soldiers, and helping the army solve its material difficulties. More important in this connection is the mobilization of the guerrilla units, the militia and the self-defence corps to develop raids and demolition operations, scout out enemy conditions, clear out traitors, and transport and protect the wounded, directly aiding the army's operations. At the same time, the people of the whole liberated area throw themselves enthusiastically into political, economic, cultural and health construction. Most important here is the mobilization of the entire people to produce grain and daily necessities, and the requirement that all organs and schools, with few exceptions, engage in production for self-support in the intervals of work or study, so as to dovetail with the production for self-support of the people and the army — a great production movement has thus been created, sustaining the protracted War of Resistance; this is an especial feature of the Chinese liberated areas. In the Chinese liberated areas the enemy's ravages are exceptionally severe, and floods, droughts and insect plagues occur constantly. Yet the democratic governments of the liberated areas lead the entire people in overcoming, in an organized way, all kinds of difficulties; the great mass movements to exterminate locusts, harness the waters and relieve disaster have achieved successes without precedent in history, enabling the War of Resistance to be sustained over the long term. In short, everything for the front, everything for the defeat of the Japanese invaders and the liberation of the Chinese people — such is the general slogan and the general policy of the whole army and people of the Chinese liberated areas.

This is genuine people's war. Only such a people's war can defeat the national enemy. The Kuomintang has failed precisely because it bitterly opposed people's war.

Once the army of the Chinese liberated areas is equipped with modern weapons, it will be stronger than ever, and will be able to defeat the Japanese invaders once and for all.

The Two Battlefields

From the very beginning, the China battlefield was divided into two battlefields: the Kuomintang battlefield and the liberated-area battlefield.

After the fall of Wuhan in October 1938, the Japanese invaders halted their strategic offensive against the Kuomintang battlefield and gradually shifted their main military strength to the liberated-area battlefield; at the same time, playing on the defeatist mood of the Kuomintang government, they declared their willingness to seek a compromise peace with it, and lured the traitor Wang Ching-wei out of Chungking to set up a puppet government in Nanking and carry out a policy of national deception. From that time on, the Kuomintang government began a change of policy, gradually shifting its emphasis from the external to the internal. This showed itself first of all in its military policy: it adopted a passive policy of fighting Japan, preserving its military strength, and threw the burden of the war onto the liberated-area battlefield, letting the Japanese launch massive attacks on the liberated areas while it sat on the mountain watching the tigers fight.

In 1939 the Kuomintang government adopted the reactionary so-called 'Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties', taking back all the rights it had granted to the people and to the anti-Japanese parties in the early days of the war. From then on, in the areas under Kuomintang rule, the Kuomintang government drove every democratic party underground — first and foremost the Chinese Communist Party. The prisons and concentration camps of the provinces under Kuomintang rule filled up with Communists, patriotic youth and other democratic fighters. Within the five years from 1939 to the autumn of 1943, the Kuomintang government launched three large-scale 'anti-Communist onslaughts', splitting domestic unity and creating a grave danger of civil war. The famous affair of the 'dissolution' of the New Fourth Army and the annihilation of 9,000 of its troops in southern Anhwei took place in this period. To this very day the attacks by Kuomintang armies on the armies of the liberated areas have not stopped, nor is there any sign of their being prepared to stop. Under such circumstances, every kind of slander and abuse spewed forth from the mouths of the Kuomintang reactionaries: 'traitorous party', 'traitorous army', 'traitorous area', 'sabotaging the War of Resistance and endangering the state' — all the pet creations of these reactionaries for use against the Chinese people. On July 7, 1939, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued a declaration which, in the face of the crisis of the moment, put forward the slogan: 'Persist in the War of Resistance, oppose capitulation; persist in unity, oppose splits; persist in progress, oppose retrogression.' Under these timely slogans, within five years the three reactionary, anti-popular 'anti-Communist onslaughts' were effectively beaten back, and the crisis of the time was overcome.

In these years there was in fact no serious fighting on the Kuomintang battlefield. The edge of the Japanese invaders' blade was directed mainly at the liberated-area battlefield. By 1943 the liberated-area battlefield was holding 64 per cent of the invading Japanese forces in China and 95 per cent of the puppet troops, while the Kuomintang battlefield was holding no more than 36 per cent of the Japanese and 5 per cent of the puppets.

In 1944 the Japanese invaders launched the operation to open up the continental transport lines, and the Kuomintang battlefield stood helpless, devoid of all power of resistance; within a few months the vast territories of Honan, Hunan, Kwangsi and Kwangtung provinces fell into enemy hands. Only then did the proportion of the enemy borne by the two battlefields change somewhat. Yet even at the moment I am making this report, of the 40 Japanese divisions (not counting those in Manchuria) totalling 580,000 men engaged in the invasion of China, the liberated-area battlefield is engaging 22 and a half divisions, or 320,000 men — 56 per cent — while the Kuomintang battlefield engages only 17 and a half divisions, or 260,000 men — a mere 44 per cent. As for the puppet troops, the division of labour between the two battlefields has not changed at all.

It should further be pointed out that of the puppet troops, numbering more than 800,000 (including both the puppet regular forces and the puppet local armed units), the greater part consists of Kuomintang generals who led their troops over to the enemy, or was formed by Kuomintang officers who defected. The Kuomintang reactionaries supplied these puppet troops in advance with the treacherous nonsense of 'saving the nation by a curved line', and afterwards continued to support them morally and organizationally, enabling them to join the Japanese invaders in attacking the Chinese liberated areas. Moreover, large armies — as many as 797,000 men — have been mobilized to blockade and attack the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region and the liberated areas behind the enemy lines. Owing to the news blockade imposed by the Kuomintang government, most Chinese and foreigners are unable to know of this grave situation. Many people know only that there was a Mihailovich in Yugoslavia, and do not know that China has dozens of Mihailoviches.

The Chinese Liberated Areas

The Chinese liberated areas now hold a population of 95,500,000. Their territory stretches from Inner Mongolia in the north to Hainan Island in the south; wherever the enemy has gone, in most places, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the other people's armies are active. This vast Chinese liberated area comprises nineteen large liberated areas, covering Liaoning, Rehe, Chahar, Suiyuan, Shensi, Kansu, Ninghsia, Shansi, Hopei, Honan, Shantung, Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhwei, Kiangsi, Hupeh, Hunan, Kwangtung and Fukien provinces — in some of these provinces they occupy the greater part, in others a smaller part — with Yenan as the guiding centre of them all. In this vast liberated area, the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region west of the Yellow River has a population of 1,500,000; it is only one of the nineteen liberated areas and, except for the Chekiang East and Chiungai areas, the smallest of them measured by population. Some people, unaware of this state of affairs, imagine that the so-called Chinese liberated areas consist mainly of the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region. That is a misunderstanding created by the blockade policy of the Kuomintang government. In this vast liberated area, all the necessary policies of the anti-Japanese national united front have been put into effect, and elected governments have been established — or are being established — in which Communists co-operate with representatives of all parties, groups and independents, that is, local coalition governments, and the strength of the whole people has been mobilized. All this has enabled the Chinese liberated areas, under the pressure of a powerful enemy, under the blockade and attacks of the Kuomintang armies, and without any foreign aid whatsoever, to stand firm and grow day by day, shrinking the enemy-occupied areas and expanding the liberated areas, becoming the model of a democratic China and the pivot of co-operation with the Allied nations in driving out the Japanese invaders and liberating the Chinese people. The armies of the Chinese liberated areas — the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the other people's armies — have played a heroic, exemplary role not only in the fighting against Japan but also in carrying out the democratic policies of the anti-Japanese national united front. On September 22, 1937, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party issued a declaration recognizing Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles as what China needs today and pledging that our Party would strive for their thorough realization. In the Chinese liberated areas this declaration has been fully honoured.

The Areas Under Kuomintang Rule

The main ruling clique inside the Kuomintang has clung to dictatorial rule and carried out a passive policy of resistance to Japan and an anti-popular domestic policy. As a result, its armies have shrunk by more than half, and most of them have all but lost their fighting capacity; a deep gulf has opened between the clique and the broad masses of the people; the people's livelihood has been ruined, popular grievances have boiled over, and popular risings have flared up everywhere — a grave crisis; and the clique's role in the War of Resistance has not only been enormously reduced but has turned into an obstacle to the mobilization and unification of all the anti-Japanese forces of the Chinese people.

Why has this grave situation arisen under the leadership of the Kuomintang's main ruling clique? Because the interests this clique represents are those of China's big landlords, big bankers and big compradors. This tiny reactionary stratum monopolizes all the important military, political, economic and cultural organs under the control of the Kuomintang government. They put the preservation of their own minority interests in the first place and resistance to Japan in the second. They too talk of 'the nation above all', but their conduct does not accord with the demands of the great majority of the nation. They too talk of 'the state above all', but the state they mean is the feudal-fascist dictatorial state of the big landlords, big bankers and big compradors, not the democratic state of the popular masses. Hence they fear the people rising, fear the democratic movement, fear a genuine war of resistance mobilizing the whole people. Here lies the root cause of their passive policy in the war against Japan and of their reactionary anti-popular, anti-democratic, anti-Communist policy at home. Ask why they pursue such a two-faced policy — why, for instance, while resisting Japan on the one hand, they adopt a passive fighting policy on the other and are constantly chosen by the Japanese as targets for seduction into surrender; why, while proclaiming in words the development of China's economy, they in fact nurture bureaucratic capital — that is, the capital of the big landlords, big bankers and big compradors — monopolizing the main economic arteries of China and ruthlessly oppressing the peasants, the workers, the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie; why, while proclaiming in words 'democracy' and 'the return of power to the people', they in fact ruthlessly oppress the people's democratic movement and refuse the slightest democratic reform; why, while proclaiming in words that 'the Communist question is a political question and should be solved by political methods', they ruthlessly oppress the Chinese Communist Party militarily, politically and economically, regard it as their so-called 'first enemy' and the Japanese invaders as the 'second', and are actively preparing for civil war every day, scheming to wipe out the Communist Party; why, while proclaiming within the Kuomintang a 'sincere unity', they in fact encourage the central army to bully the regional armies (the so-called 'miscellaneous troops'), encourage the autocrats to bully the democrats, and encourage the various factions to oppose one another, so as to facilitate their dictatorial rule; why, while proclaiming in words the building of a 'modern state', they in fact fight tooth and nail to preserve that feudal-fascist dictatorial state of the big landlords, big bankers and big compradors; why, while maintaining diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union in form, they in fact adopt a hostile attitude toward the Soviet Union; why, while depending on British and American aid, they oppose British and American liberalism; why, while singing the 'Asia first, Europe later' tune in chorus with the American isolationists, so as to prolong the life of fascist Germany — that is, the life of all fascism — and thereby the life of their own fascist rule over the Chinese people, they at the same time play tricks in the family of nations, dressing themselves up as heroes of anti-fascism — the answer to all these self-contradictory, two-faced policies is one and the same: they spring from the social stratum of the big landlords, big bankers and big compradors, and from nowhere else.

But the Kuomintang is a complex party. It is ruled and led by this reactionary clique representing the big landlords, big bankers and big compradors, but the Kuomintang as a whole is not identical with this reactionary clique. Many of its leading figures do not belong to the clique and are attacked, cold-shouldered or looked down upon by it. Many more of its cadres and rank-and-file members, and of the rank and file of the Three People's Principles Youth Corps, are dissatisfied with the clique's leadership, and some even oppose it. The same situation exists in the Kuomintang armies, government offices, economic organs and cultural organs controlled by this reactionary clique. Within these armies and organs are hidden broad masses of progressive democrats. This reactionary clique is itself split into several factions struggling against one another; it is by no means a tight monolith. To regard the Kuomintang as uniformly reactionary is without doubt most improper.

The Comparison

From the Chinese liberated areas and the areas under Kuomintang rule, the Chinese people have obtained a clear comparison.

Is it not plain? Two lines — the line of people's war, and the line of passive resistance that opposes people's war — with these results: one line is victorious, even though it occupies the unfavourable position of the Chinese liberated areas, hemmed in by a bad environment and without any foreign aid; the other is defeated, even though it occupies the extremely favourable position of the areas under Kuomintang rule, with foreign aid flowing in.

The Kuomintang government blames its defeat on a lack of weapons. But let us ask: is it the Kuomintang armies or the armies of the liberated areas that lack weapons? The armies of the Chinese liberated areas are the most poorly armed of all the Chinese armies; they can only seize their weapons from the enemy's hands and manufacture them themselves under the most adverse conditions.

Are not the weapons of the Kuomintang's central armies far better than those of the regional armies? Yet in fighting capacity the central armies are mostly inferior to the regional ones.

The Kuomintang possesses vast human resources, yet under its mistaken conscription policy the replenishment of manpower is extremely difficult. The Chinese liberated areas, though cut up by the enemy and the scene of constant fighting, have prevented the abuse and waste of human resources through the universal application of a militia and self-defence corps system suited to the people's needs, and their mobilization of manpower is inexhaustible.

The Kuomintang possesses vast grain-rich areas, and the people supply it with 70,000,000 to 100,000,000 piculs of grain a year; but the greater part is pocketed by the officials who handle it, so that the Kuomintang armies are constantly short of grain and the soldiers are gaunt and yellow-faced with hunger. The main part of the Chinese liberated areas lies behind the enemy lines, ravaged by the enemy's 'burn all, kill all, loot all' policy, and some of it, like northern Shensi, is barren land; yet by their own efforts and by developing agricultural production they have solved the grain problem well.

The economic crisis in the Kuomintang areas is extremely severe; industry has largely collapsed, and even such daily necessities as cloth must be shipped in from the United States. The Chinese liberated areas, by developing industry, supply themselves with cloth and other daily necessities.

In the Kuomintang areas, the workers, peasants, shop assistants, public employees, intellectuals and cultural workers live in the extremity of misery. In the Chinese liberated areas the entire people have food to eat, clothes to wear, work to do and books to read, and in some places abundance of food and clothing has been achieved.

To make fortunes out of the national emergency during the war of resistance, with officials acting as merchants and corruption the fashion and all sense of shame swept away — such is one feature of the Kuomintang areas. Arduous struggle, setting a personal example, producing in addition to one's regular work, rewarding honesty and rooting out corruption — such is one feature of the Chinese liberated areas.

The Kuomintang areas strip the people of every freedom. The Chinese liberated areas give the people full freedom.

Blame others, or blame ourselves? Blame foreign countries for giving too little aid, or blame the dictatorial rule and corrupt incompetence of the Kuomintang government? Is this not perfectly plain?

Who Is It That Is Really 'Sabotaging the War of Resistance and Endangering the State'?

Is it not precisely the Kuomintang government that, on real and solid evidence, has sabotaged the Chinese people's War of Resistance and endangered the Chinese people's state? This government wholeheartedly waged civil war for a full ten years, turning its blade against its own fellow-countrymen and neglecting every kind of national defence, and by its policy of non-resistance it gave away the four northeastern provinces. When the Japanese pushed into China proper, it went in confusion from battle to battle, retreating from Lukouchiao all the way to Kweichow province. Yet the Kuomintang people say: 'The Communist Party is sabotaging the War of Resistance and endangering the state' (see the resolution of the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Kuomintang, September 1943). Their only evidence is that the Communist Party joined with all parties, groups and circles of the people to create the valiantly anti-Japanese Chinese liberated areas. The logic of these Kuomintang people is so different from the logic of the Chinese people that it is small wonder so many questions cannot be argued out with them.

Two questions:

First: what, in the end, caused the Kuomintang government to abandon so vast a territory and so numerous a people, extending from the Heilungkiang River to Lukouchiao, and again from Lukouchiao to Kweichow province? Was it not precisely the policy of non-resistance, the passive policy of resistance to Japan, and the domestic policy of opposing the people's war, adopted by the Kuomintang government?

Second: what, in the end, enabled the Chinese liberated areas to defeat the long and ruthless attacks of the enemy and puppet armies, to recover so vast a territory from the hands of the national enemy, and to liberate so numerous a people? Was it not precisely the correct line of people's war?

The So-Called 'Disobedience to the Government Orders and Military Orders'

The Kuomintang government also constantly accuses the Chinese Communist Party of 'disobedience to the government orders and military orders'. But we can only say this: it is fortunate that the Chinese Communists have preserved the common sense of the Chinese people and have not obeyed those so-called 'government orders and military orders' which in effect would have handed back to the Japanese the Chinese liberated areas that the Chinese people, through untold hardship, had wrested from the Japanese — such as the so-called 'Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties' of 1939; the so-called 'dissolution of the New Fourth Army' and 'withdrawal to the north of the old Yellow River' of 1941; the so-called 'dissolution of the Chinese Communist Party' of 1943; the so-called 'cancellation within a time limit of all troops except ten divisions' of 1944; and, in the recent negotiations, the demand that the army and the local governments be handed over to the Kuomintang, with the proviso that no coalition government be formed, that a few Communists merely be taken into the Kuomintang dictatorial government as officials, and that this arrangement be called a 'concession' by the Kuomintang government. It is fortunate that we have obeyed none of these things; we have thereby preserved a clean piece of land for the Chinese people and an army valiantly fighting Japan. Should not the Chinese people celebrate this 'disobedience'? Is it not enough that the Kuomintang government itself, with its fascist government orders and its defeatist military orders, delivered the vast territory and people from the Heilungkiang River to Kweichow province into the hands of the Japanese? Apart from the Japanese and the reactionaries, who welcomes these 'government orders and military orders' — what patriotic Chinese with a conscience could welcome them? Unless there is a coalition government that is not formal but real, not dictatorial but democratic, can it be imagined that the Chinese people would permit the Chinese Communists to hand over, on their own authority, this liberated Chinese liberated area and these people's armies that have rendered distinguished service in the anti-Japanese war, to the defeatist and fascist Kuomintang dictatorial government? Without the Chinese liberated areas and their armies, would the anti-Japanese cause of the Chinese people be what it is today? Could the future of our nation even be imagined?

The Danger of Civil War

Up to the present, the main ruling clique inside the Kuomintang has persisted in the reactionary policy of dictatorship and civil war. There are many signs that they have long been preparing, and are preparing now above all, for such an action: to wait until the armies of one of the Allied nations have driven the Japanese invaders from Chinese territory to a certain extent, and then to launch a civil war. They further hope that certain Allied generals will perform in China the role General Scobie performed in Greece. They applaud the massacres carried out by Scobie and the reactionary Greek government. They are trying to throw China back into the sea of civil war of 1927-1936. The main ruling clique of the Kuomintang is now, under the smokescreen of the so-called 'convening of the National Assembly' and 'political settlement', stealthily making its preparations for civil war. If the people of the country do not take heed, do not expose its schemes and do not stop its preparations, then some morning the roar of civil-war guns will be heard.

The Negotiations

In order to defeat the Japanese invaders and build a new China, and in order to prevent civil war, the Chinese Communist Party, after obtaining the agreement of the other democratic groups, put forward at the People's Political Council in September 1944 the demand for the immediate abolition of the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship and the formation of a democratic coalition government. Without doubt this demand was most timely, and within a few months it won the response of the broad masses of the people.

On the questions of how to abolish the one-party dictatorship, form a coalition government and carry out the necessary democratic reforms, we have had many negotiations with the Kuomintang government, but all our proposals have been rejected. Not only will it not abolish the one-party dictatorship or form a coalition government; it will not carry out a single one of the urgently needed democratic reforms — the abolition of the secret-service organs, the repeal of the reactionary laws suppressing the people's freedoms, the release of political prisoners, recognition of the legal status of all parties, recognition of the liberated areas, withdrawal of the armies blockading and attacking the liberated areas, and so on. This is how China's political relations have been brought to an exceedingly grave pass.

Two Prospects

Judging by the situation as a whole and by the above analysis of all the actual international and domestic circumstances, I ask everyone to take note and not imagine that everything in our cause will be smooth and beautiful. No, it is not so. In fact there are two possibilities, good and bad, and two prospects, good and bad. The continuation of dictatorial rule, with no democratic reforms permitted; the placing of the emphasis not on opposing the Japanese invaders but on opposing the people; the possibility that even after the Japanese invaders are defeated civil war may be launched and China dragged back into the old state of painful non-independence, non-freedom, non-democracy, disunity and poverty — that is one possibility, one prospect. This possibility and this prospect still exist, and they will not disappear, or vanish of themselves, merely because the international situation has improved, because the awakening of the people at home has grown, or because the organized strength of the people has developed. Those who hope to see this possibility and this prospect realized in China are, at home, the anti-popular clique inside the Kuomintang and, abroad, the reactionary elements imbued with imperialist ideas. That is one aspect, an aspect that must be watched and cannot but be watched.

But on the other hand, equally judging by the situation as a whole and by the analysis of all the circumstances at home and abroad, we can grasp the second possibility and the second prospect with still greater confidence and courage. That is: to overcome every difficulty, unite the whole people, abolish dictatorial rule, carry out democratic reforms, consolidate and expand the anti-Japanese forces, defeat the Japanese invaders thoroughly, and build China into a new country that is independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous. Those who hope to see this possibility and this prospect realized in China are, at home, the broad masses of the people, the Chinese Communist Party, and all other democrats and democratic groups; abroad, all nations that treat us as equals, and the progressive elements and the popular masses of foreign countries.

We know perfectly well that great difficulties, many obstacles and many roundabout roads still lie before us and the Chinese people. But we know equally well that we and the Chinese people are certain to overcome any difficulty and any obstacle, and to complete the historic task of China. To fight with all our strength against the first possibility and for the second, against the first prospect and for the second — that is the great task of us and of the Chinese people. The main conditions, the main aspects, at home and abroad, are favourable to us and to the Chinese people. All this I have already explained clearly. We hope that the Kuomintang authorities, in view of the trend of the world and the aspirations of the Chinese people, will resolutely change their present erroneous policy, so that the War of Resistance may be won, the Chinese people may suffer less, and new China may be born the sooner. Let them understand that, however roundabout the road, the task of winning the independence and liberation of the Chinese people is bound to be accomplished, and that the moment for it has already arrived. The great aspiration cherished by countless martyrs over the past hundred years and more is certain to be realized by our generation; whoever tries to stop it will find in the end that it cannot be stopped.

IV. The Policy of the Chinese Communist Party

Above, I have made an analysis of the two lines in China's War of Resistance Against Japan. Such an analysis is, in my view, absolutely necessary. For among the broad masses of the Chinese people there are still many who do not understand the concrete circumstances of China's War of Resistance. In the areas under Kuomintang rule and abroad, many people have been blinded by the blockade policy of the Kuomintang government. Before the Chinese and foreign press delegation and the American military observation group came to the Chinese liberated areas in 1944, many people there knew almost nothing about the liberated areas. The New York Times of January 28, 1945, said: 'The best way to settle the question of the Chinese Communists would be to let people travel freely between the two areas, and many misunderstandings would disappear.' But the Kuomintang government, greatly frightened, blocked the gate again as soon as the press delegation of 1944 had returned, and would not allow a single journalist to come to the liberated areas. The truth about the Kuomintang areas is blockaded by the Kuomintang government in exactly the same way. I therefore feel it our duty to make the truth about the 'two areas' as clear to people as we can. Only when the whole truth about China is clear can people understand why the policies of the two largest parties in China — the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Kuomintang — differ so widely, and why there is this struggle between two lines. Only then will people understand that the dispute between the two parties is not, as some say, an unnecessary, unimportant or even peevish quarrel, but a dispute of principle involving the life or death of several hundred million people.

In the grave situation of China's present political crisis, the Chinese people, all the democratic parties and democrats of China, all foreign peoples concerned about the Chinese situation, and the governments of many of the Allied nations all hope that China's divided state will give way again to unity, all hope that China will carry out democratic reforms, and all wish to know the policy the Chinese Communist Party holds for solving the many major current problems. Our Party members are naturally still more concerned about all this.

Our policy for the anti-Japanese national united front has always been clear, and these policies have been tested in the eight years of war. Our Congress should draw conclusions on this score, to serve as the compass for our future struggles.

In the following, I shall explain the definite conclusions on important policies that our Party has reached in order to solve the Chinese question.

Our General Programme

In order to mobilize and unify all the anti-Japanese forces of the Chinese people, to wipe out the Japanese invaders thoroughly, and to build a new China that is independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous, the Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party and all the anti-Japanese democratic parties urgently need a common programme mutually agreed upon.

This common programme falls into two parts, a general part and a concrete part. We shall take up the general programme first, and then the concrete programme.

On the fundamental premise of wiping out the Japanese invaders thoroughly and building a new China, and at the present stage of China's development, we Communists are at one, on the following basic point, with the broadest sections of China's population. That is to say: First, China should not be a state of the dictatorship of the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie — a feudal, fascist, anti-popular state system; for this anti-popular system has been shown by the Kuomintang's main ruling clique, through eighteen years of rule, to be completely bankrupt. Second, China cannot, and therefore should not attempt, to establish a state of the old-type democratic dictatorship of the pure national bourgeoisie. For in China, on the one hand, the national bourgeoisie has so far shown itself very weak both economically and politically; on the other hand, a new condition has long since arisen in China — the existence of a awakened Chinese proletariat with its leader, the Chinese Communist Party, which has demonstrated a mighty capacity on the Chinese political stage and which leads the broad peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, the intellectuals and other democratic elements. Third, at the present stage of China, when the task of the Chinese people is still to oppose national oppression and feudal oppression, and when the necessary social and economic conditions of Chinese society do not yet exist, the Chinese people cannot, and therefore should not attempt, to realize a socialist state system.

What, then, is our proposal? We propose that, after the thorough defeat of the Japanese invaders, a state system be established based on the absolute majority of the people of the whole country — a democratic alliance in a united front of the democratic classes. We call such a state system the new-democratic state system.

This is a state system that genuinely accords with the demands of the broadest sections of China's population. For, first, it has won and can win the agreement of the millions of industrial workers, the tens of millions of handicraftsmen and hired farm labourers; second, it has won and can win the agreement of the peasantry, who make up 80 per cent of China's population — 360,000,000 out of 450,000,000; and further, it has won and can win the agreement of the broad petty bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie, the enlightened gentry and other patriotic elements.

Naturally, these classes also have their differing demands, and in this respect contradictions still exist among them — for example, the contradiction between labour and capital. To deny these differing demands, to deny these contradictions, would be hypocritical and wrong. But these differing demands and contradictions, in the stage of the new-democratic system as a whole, will not and should not be allowed to develop beyond the point of their common demands; they can be regulated, and under such regulation all classes can join in carrying out the political, economic and cultural construction of the new-democratic state.

The new-democratic politics we advocate means overthrowing foreign national oppression, abolishing the feudal and fascist oppression at home, and — not erecting, after this overthrow and abolition, an old-type democratic political system — establishing a political system of the united front that unites all the democratic classes. This proposal of ours is in complete accord with the proposal of Dr. Sun Yat-sen. In the manifesto of the First National Congress of the Kuomintang, Dr. Sun said: 'The so-called system of civil rights in modern countries is usually monopolized by the bourgeoisie and has become a tool for oppressing the common people. But the principle of civil rights of the Kuomintang is to be shared by all the common people and is not to be monopolized by a few.' These are Dr. Sun's great political instructions, and the Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party and all other democratic elements must obey these instructions and carry them out resolutely, and must struggle resolutely against anyone, any group, that violates or opposes these instructions, so as to protect and develop this entirely correct principle of new-democratic politics.

The structure of the new-democratic state power should take the form of democratic centralism, with the people's congresses at all levels determining the major policies and electing the governments. It is at once democratic and centralized — that is, centralization on the basis of democracy and democracy under centralized guidance. Only this system can at once express the widest democracy, giving the people's congresses at all levels supreme authority, and concentrate the handling of state affairs, enabling the governments at all levels to deal in a concentrated way with all the affairs entrusted to them by the people's congresses, while safeguarding all the necessary democratic activities of the people.

The new-democratic state system and structure of state power also involve the question of federation. The various nationalities within China's borders should, on the principles of voluntariness and democracy, organize a Federal Republic of Democratic China, and on the basis of this federation organize a federal central government.

The army and the other armed forces are an important component of the state power organs of the new-democratic state; without them, the country cannot be defended. Like the other organs of state power, all the armed forces of the new-democratic state belong to the people and protect the people; they are entirely different from the old-type armies, old-type police and the like, which belong to a few and oppress the people.

The new-democratic economy we advocate likewise accords with Dr. Sun's principles. On the land question, Dr. Sun advocated 'land to the tiller'. On industry and commerce, Dr. Sun said in the manifesto cited above: 'Enterprises, whether Chinese or foreign, which are either monopolistic in character or too large for private management, such as banks, railways and shipping, shall be operated and administered by the state, so that private capital cannot control the livelihood of the nation — this is the essence of the regulation of capital.' At the present stage we are in complete agreement with Dr. Sun's these proposals on economic questions.

Some people suspect that the Chinese Communists oppose the development of individuality, oppose the development of private capitalism and oppose the protection of private property. In fact all such suspicions are groundless. National oppression and feudal oppression ruthlessly shackle the development of the individuality of the Chinese people, shackle the development of private capitalism, and destroy the property of the broad masses. The task of the new-democratic system we advocate is precisely to remove these shackles and stop this destruction, to guarantee that the broad masses can freely develop their individuality in social life, can freely develop that private capitalist economy which does not 'control the livelihood of the nation' but benefits it, and to safeguard all legitimate private property.

In accordance with Dr. Sun's principles and the experience of the Chinese revolution, the economy of China at the present stage must consist of three sectors — state-operated, privately operated and co-operative. And the 'state' operating the state sector must by no means be a state 'monopolized by a few', but must be a new-democratic state 'shared by all the common people'.

The new-democratic culture likewise should be 'shared by all the common people'; that is, it should be a national, scientific and mass culture, and never a culture 'monopolized by a few'.

All the foregoing constitutes the general programme — or basic programme — which we Communists advocate at the present stage, the stage of the bourgeois-democratic revolution as a whole. As against our future programme — the highest programme — of a socialist and communist system, this is our minimum programme. Carrying out this programme will advance China one step forward in respect of its present state and social character — that is, from a colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal state and social character to a new-type bourgeois-democratic state and social character; and after the Japanese invaders have been thoroughly wiped out, a country of this character can be established — independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous.

Carrying out this programme will not yet advance China to socialism. This is not a question of whether anyone subjectively wishes to make this advance or not; it is a question in which, objectively, the political and social conditions of China do not permit people to make this advance.

We Communists have never concealed our political views. Our future programme — the highest programme — is to advance China to socialism and communism; on this there is certainty and no doubt whatsoever. The name of our Party and our Marxist world-outlook clearly point out this future direction, infinitely bright and infinitely beautiful, our highest ideal. When each of us joined the Party, he had in mind these two clear aims: to struggle for the present new-type bourgeois-democratic revolution and to struggle for the future proletarian socialist revolution. As for the ignorant and contemptible hostility, slander, abuse or ridicule of the enemies of communism, we must resolutely repulse it. As for the doubters of good will, we should not repulse them but give them kind and patient explanations. On all this we are exceptionally clear, exceptionally definite, and in no way ambiguous.

But all Chinese Communists, all sympathizers with Chinese communism, must struggle for the aims of the present stage — must struggle against national oppression and feudal oppression, must struggle to deliver the Chinese people from the tragic fate of colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal servitude and to build an independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous China of the new-type bourgeois-democratic, new-democratic character — that is, of the character of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary Three People's Principles. And this we have indeed done: we Communists, together with the broad Chinese people, have fought heroically for this for twenty-five years.

Any Communist, any sympathizer of communism, who does not struggle for this aim, who holds this bourgeois-democratic revolution in contempt and relaxes his efforts toward it ever so slightly, slacks in it ever so slightly, shows the slightest disloyalty or lukewarmness, or is not prepared to give his blood and life for it, and instead talks idly about socialism and communism — such a person is consciously or unconsciously betraying socialism and communism to a greater or lesser degree, and is not a conscious and loyal communist. Only through democracy can one reach socialism — this is a fundamental tenet of Marxism. And in China the struggle for democracy will still be long. Without a new-democratic united and unified state, without the development of the state economy of a new-democratic state, without the development of a broad private capitalist economy and a co-operative economy, without the development of a national, scientific and mass culture — that is, of a new-democratic culture — without the emancipation and development of the individuality of several hundred million people — in a word, without a thorough new-type bourgeois-democratic revolution — to dream of building socialism on the ruins of colonial, semi-colonial and semi-feudal society is pure fantasy.

Some people do not understand why the Communists not only do not fear capitalism but advocate its development. Our answer is very simple: to replace the oppression of foreign imperialism and native feudalism with the development of capitalism is not only a step forward but an unavoidable process; it benefits not only the bourgeoisie but also the proletariat. In China today there is one foreign imperialism too many and one native feudalism too many, not one native capitalism too many; on the contrary, our capitalism is far too little. Strangely enough, some spokesmen of the Chinese bourgeoisie dare not put forward the demand for developing capitalism in a straightforward way, but must approach the question in a roundabout manner. Others go so far as to deny flatly that capitalism should be allowed broad development in China, and talk of advancing to socialism at one bound, of accomplishing 'the task of the Three People's Principles and of socialism at one stroke'. Clearly some of these phenomena reflect the weakness of the Chinese national bourgeoisie, and others are a means by which the big landlords and big bourgeoisie deceive the masses. We Communists, proceeding from our Marxist understanding of the laws of social development, know clearly that under Chinese conditions, under the rule of a new-democratic state, alongside the state's own economy and the individual economy of the working people and the co-operative economy, private capitalist economy must be given the facility for broad development, so as to benefit the country and the people and benefit the forward development of society. As for us Communists, no empty talk and no deception can confuse our clear heads.

Some people suspect that the Communists' declaration that they 'recognize the Three People's Principles as what China needs today and pledge to strive for their thorough realization' is not made in loyalty. This is due to a failure to understand that the basic principles of the Three People's Principles as explained by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in the manifesto of the First National Congress of the Kuomintang in 1924 and certain basic principles of our Party's programme at the present stage — our minimum programme — are in mutual accord. It should be pointed out that between Dr. Sun's Three People's Principles and our Party's programme at the present stage there is agreement only on certain basic principles, not complete agreement. Our Party's new-democratic programme is of course far more complete than Dr. Sun's; particularly in the twenty years since Dr. Sun's death the development of the Chinese revolution has brought an immense development to our Party's new-democratic theory, programme and practice, and still greater developments will follow. But Dr. Sun's Three People's Principles, in their basic character, are a new-democratic Three People's Principles, a new Three People's Principles distinguished from the old Three People's Principles that preceded them; they are certainly 'what China needs today', and certainly 'our Party pledges to strive for their thorough realization'. For us Communists, struggling for our Party's minimum programme and struggling for Dr. Sun's revolutionary Three People's Principles — that is, the new Three People's Principles — are in fundamentals (not in all respects) one thing, not two things. Hence it has been proved in the past and the present, and will be proved in the future: the Chinese Communists are the most loyal and the most thoroughgoing of those who seek to realize the Three People's Principles.

Some people suspect that once the Communist Party comes to power it will follow the Russian example and establish a dictatorship of the proletariat and a one-party system. Our answer is: a new-democratic state of the alliance of several democratic classes and a socialist state of the dictatorship of the proletariat are two things different in principle. Throughout the period of the new-democratic system in China there cannot, and therefore should not, be a system in which one class monopolizes state power and one party monopolizes the organs of government. So long as any party, social group or individual other than the Communist Party adopts an attitude of co-operation and not of hostility toward the Communist Party, we have no reason not to co-operate with them. Russian history formed the Russian system, in which the social system of the exploitation of man by man was abolished and the newest type of democracy — that is, the socialist political, economic and cultural system — was realized; all the parties opposing socialism were cast aside by the people, and the people supported only the Bolsheviks, and hence the Russian situation came into being, which for them was entirely necessary and entirely rational. But even in the organs of state power in Russia, where the Bolsheviks are the only party, what is practised is still the alliance of workers, peasants and intellectuals, or of the Party and non-Party people; it is not only workers or only Bolsheviks who may work in the organs of state power. Chinese history will form the Chinese system. For a long period to come there will arise in China a special form, entirely necessary and entirely rational for us and at the same time different from the Russian system — the new-democratic state form and form of state power of the alliance of several democratic classes.

Herein, too, another question is at the same time answered. That is: you Communists now advocate a coalition government because there is not yet a democratic electoral system and a coalition government is needed for united resistance to Japan; but in the future, when a democratic electoral system exists, why should you not form a one-party government by the majority party in the National Assembly instead of a coalition government? We answer: China's historical conditions determine this. As I said above, in China, because of the new condition that long ago arose — the existence of the Chinese Communist Party, which not only represents the proletariat but also, by its programme and its actual struggles, represents the broadest masses of the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie, the intellectuals and other democratic elements — everything has changed. Any government that shuts the Communist Party out of its door can accomplish not one good thing — such is the basic feature of China's entry into the new-democratic historical stage. As long ago as 1924, when Dr. Sun Yat-sen was alive, he in fact realized a coalition government in which Communists took part, and thereby he accomplished a great revolutionary work. After 1927 the Kuomintang government excluded the Communist Party and waged a ruthless anti-Communist war, and what this government did became counter-revolutionary work. Through eight years of the war, although the Kuomintang government, with a Japanese invader standing before it, has not to this day openly declared all-out war on the Communist Party, and has excluded it only by partial warfare, secret-agent repression, blockade, slander, preparations for civil war and refusal to allow the organization of a coalition government — nevertheless it has created for itself this situation: the more it excludes the Communist Party, the faster it slides downhill. If it continues to exclude the Party, that will mean preparing to slide to the very bottom of the slope. What does it mean, under Chinese conditions, for a government not to have the Communist Party in it? It means not having the broadest masses of the people. No one suspects that the Communists demand entry into the government in order to grab official posts; if the Communists join the government, that means carrying out the new-democratic reforms. When China in the future has a democratic electoral system, whether the Communist Party is the majority or a minority party in the National Assembly, the government should still be a coalition government working under a commonly accepted new-democratic programme; only so can the work of new-democratic construction be better accomplished. On this point the situation is already quite clear.

Our Concrete Programme

In accordance with the general programme set out above, each period must have its concrete programme. Throughout the stage of the bourgeois-democratic revolution — through several decades — our new-democratic general programme remains unchanged. But within the lesser stages of this great stage conditions have changed and are changing, and our concrete programme cannot but change accordingly — that is only natural. For example, in the Northern Expedition period, in the land-revolution period and in the period of the War of Resistance Against Japan, our new-democratic general programme did not change, but our concrete programme changed in these three periods, because our enemies and our friends changed from period to period.

At present the Chinese people are in the following situation: (1) the Japanese invaders have not yet been defeated; (2) the Chinese people urgently need to unite and to carry out a democratic reform, so as to bring about national unity, and speedily to mobilize and unify all the anti-Japanese forces to fight in co-ordination with the Allied nations and defeat the Japanese invaders; (3) the Kuomintang government is splitting the national unity and obstructing this democratic reform. Under these circumstances, what is our concrete programme — that is, the present demands of the Chinese people?

We hold that the following are appropriate, and they are the minimum.

The Chinese people demand the mobilization of all forces, in co-ordination with the Allied nations, thoroughly to wipe out the Japanese invaders and to establish international peace; they demand the abolition of the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship and the establishment of a democratic coalition government and a unified high command; they demand the punishment of those pro-Japanese elements, fascists and defeatists who have split the national unity and opposed the people, so as to bring about national unity; they demand the punishment of those reactionaries who have created the danger of civil war, so as to safeguard domestic peace; they demand the punishment of traitors, the suppression of the officers who surrendered to the enemy, and the punishment of Japanese spies; they demand the abolition of all the reactionary secret-service organs and secret-service activities that suppress the people, and the abolition of the concentration camps; they demand the repeal of all the reactionary laws suppressing the people's freedoms of speech, publication, assembly, association, thought, belief and person, so that the people may obtain full rights of freedom; they demand the recognition of the legal status of all democratic parties; they demand the release of all patriotic political prisoners; they demand the withdrawal of all the armies surrounding and attacking the Chinese liberated areas, and the use of these armies on the anti-Japanese front; they demand the recognition of all the anti-Japanese armies and elected governments of the Chinese liberated areas; they demand the consolidation and expansion of the liberated areas and their armies and the shrinking of the occupied areas; they demand help for the people of the occupied areas in organizing underground armies and preparing armed uprisings; they demand that the Chinese people be permitted to arm themselves of their own accord to defend their homes and the country; they demand the political and military reform of those armies under the direct command of the Kuomintang high command that are constantly defeated, constantly oppress the people and constantly exclude those who differ with them, and the punishment of the generals responsible for the defeats; they demand the improvement of the conscription system and of the livelihood of officers and men; they demand preferential treatment for the families of anti-Japanese soldiers, so that the officers and men at the front may fight with easy minds; they demand preferential treatment for the families of fallen soldiers and for disabled soldiers, and help for the livelihood and employment of demobilized soldiers; they demand the development of war industries to aid the fighting; they demand the fair distribution among all the armies fighting Japan of the arms and financial aid furnished by the Allied nations; they demand the punishment of corrupt officials and the realization of honest government; they demand the improvement of the conditions of the lower- and middle-rank public employees; they demand that the Chinese people be granted democratic rights of self-government; they demand the abolition of the pao-chia system that oppresses the people; they demand relief for the refugees and for disaster victims; they demand the establishment of large relief funds, to give broad relief after the recovery of the lost territory to the people who have suffered in the occupied areas; they demand the abolition of exorbitant taxes and levies and the institution of a unified progressive taxation; they demand rural reform — reduction of rent and interest, adequate protection of tenancy rights, low-interest loans to poor peasants, and the organization of the peasants, so as to facilitate the development of agricultural production; they demand the curbing of bureaucratic capital; they demand the repeal of the current policy of economic control; they demand an end to unlimited inflation and the unlimited rise of prices; they demand assistance to private industry — loans and capital, facilities for purchasing raw materials and marketing products; they demand the improvement of the workers' livelihood, relief for unemployed workers, and the organization of the workers, so as to facilitate the development of industrial production; they demand the abolition of party-controlled education and the development of a national, scientific and mass culture and education; they demand the guarantee of the livelihood of teachers and of academic freedom; they demand the protection of the interests of youth, women and children, relief for young people out of school, and the organization of youth and women so that they may take part on an equal footing in all kinds of work beneficial to the War of Resistance and to society, the realization of freedom of marriage and equality between men and women, and the provision of learning beneficial to youth and children; they demand the improvement of the treatment of the national minorities within China and their right of national self-determination and of forming, on the principle of voluntariness, a federated state in union with the Han people; they demand the protection of the interests of the overseas Chinese and assistance to those returning to China; they demand the protection of the foreign nationals who have fled to China to escape the oppression of the Japanese invaders and support for their struggle against Japan; they demand the improvement of Sino-Soviet relations, and so on. And to accomplish all this, what is most important is the demand for the immediate abolition of the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship and the establishment of a nation-wide, unified, democratic, coalition, provisional central government including representatives of all the anti-Japanese parties and of the independents. Without this precondition, it is impossible to carry out even slightly serious reforms on a national scale — that is, in the areas under Kuomintang rule.

Only these are the voice of the broad masses of the Chinese people, and likewise the voice of the broad public opinion of the Allied countries.

A minimum concrete programme mutually agreed upon by all the anti-Japanese democratic parties is absolutely necessary, and we are prepared to negotiate with them on the basis of the programme set out above. The various parties may have differing demands, but among the various parties there should be agreement upon a common demand.

Such a programme is, for the areas under Kuomintang rule, for the time being still a programme of demands; for the occupied areas, apart from the item of organizing underground armies and preparing armed uprisings, it is a programme that can be put into effect only after their recovery; for the liberated areas, it is a programme that was put into effect long ago and is being put into effect still.

Destroy the Japanese Invaders Thoroughly, Permit No Compromise Halfway

The present demands of the Chinese people — or concrete programme — set out above contain many major questions of wartime and postwar character which need to be explained below. In explaining them we shall criticize some of the erroneous views of the Kuomintang's main ruling clique, and at the same time answer some of the questions raised by other people.

First, destroy the Japanese invaders thoroughly, and permit no compromise halfway.

The Cairo Conference decided that the Japanese invaders should be made to surrender unconditionally, and this is correct. But at present the Japanese invaders are secretly carrying on activities designed to obtain a compromise peace, and the pro-Japanese elements in the Kuomintang government, through the Nanking puppet government, are carrying on intrigues with Japanese secret envoys without meeting any check; the danger of a compromise halfway has therefore not entirely passed. The Cairo Conference also decided that the four northeastern provinces, Taiwan and the Pescadores should be returned to China, and this is very good. But judging by the current policy of the Kuomintang government, it is impossible to rely on it to fight its way to the Yalu River and recover all the lost territory. In these circumstances, what should the Chinese people do? They should demand that the Kuomintang government destroy the Japanese invaders thoroughly and permit no compromise halfway. All intrigues for compromise must be stopped immediately. The Chinese people should demand that the Kuomintang government change its present passive policy of resistance to Japan and devote all its military strength to active warfare. The Chinese people should expand their own armies — the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the other people's armies — and wherever the enemy has gone, they should broadly and spontaneously develop anti-Japanese armed forces, in preparation for fighting in direct co-ordination with the Allied nations, recovering all the lost territory, and never relying on the Kuomintang alone. To destroy the Japanese invaders is the sacred right of the Chinese people. If any reactionary elements attempt to deprive the Chinese people of this sacred right, to suppress their anti-Japanese activities, to wreck their anti-Japanese forces, the Chinese people, after persuasion has failed, should strike back resolutely from the standpoint of self-defence. For such reactionary conduct of the Chinese reactionaries, betraying the interests of the nation, is nothing but aid to the Japanese invaders.

Abolish the One-Party Dictatorship, Establish a Coalition Government

Second, abolish the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship and establish a democratic coalition government.

In order to wipe out the Japanese invaders thoroughly, democratic reforms must be carried out throughout the country. And to do this, it is impossible unless the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship is abolished and a democratic coalition government is established.

The so-called Kuomintang one-party dictatorship is in fact the dictatorship of the anti-popular clique within the Kuomintang; it is the wrecker of Chinese national unity, the party responsible for the failures in the War of Resistance, and the fundamental obstacle to the mobilization and unification of all the anti-Japanese forces of the Chinese people. From the bitter experience of the eight years of the War of Resistance, the Chinese people have profoundly understood this, and naturally demand its immediate abolition. This anti-popular dictatorship is also the seedbed of civil war; if it is not abolished immediately, the terrible scourge of civil war will fall upon China again.

The voice of the Chinese people demanding the abolition of this anti-popular dictatorship has become so universal and so resounding that the Kuomintang authorities themselves have been compelled to admit publicly that 'the period of political tutelage must be ended early'. From this one can see to what lengths the loss of popular confidence in this so-called 'political tutelage', or 'one-party dictatorship', has gone, how its prestige has been swept to the ground. In China there is no longer anyone who dares to say that 'political tutelage' or 'one-party dictatorship' has any merit and should not be abolished or ended — that is a great change in the present situation.

That it should be ended is settled, beyond all doubt. But how is it to be ended? Here opinions diverge. One side says: end it immediately and establish a democratic provisional coalition government. The other side says: wait a while before ending it; convene a 'National Assembly' and 'return power to the people' — but the power is not to be returned to a coalition government.

What does this mean?

It is the manifestation of two ways of doing things: doing it in earnest, and doing it in pretence.

The first way — doing it in earnest. This means proclaiming at once the abolition of the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship and establishing a provisional central government jointly composed of representatives of the Kuomintang, the Communist Party, the Democratic League and the independents; promulgating a democratic programme of administration, like the 'present demands of the Chinese people' we set out above, so as to restore national unity and defeat the Japanese invaders; and, in order to discuss these matters, convening a round-table conference of representatives of all parties, groups and independents, reaching agreement, and setting to work. This is the policy of unity, and the Chinese people resolutely support it.

The second way — doing it in pretence. This means, defying the demands of the broad masses and of all the democratic parties, obstinately convening a so-called 'National Assembly' stage-managed single-handedly by the anti-popular clique of the Kuomintang, passing in that assembly a so-called 'constitution' which in fact preserves dictatorship and opposes democracy, draping that unlawful so-called 'National' government — arbitrarily imposed on the people by a few dozen Kuomintang appointees, without any basis in the popular will — in the garb of 'legality', making a show of 'returning power to the people', while in fact 'returning' it to the anti-popular clique within the Kuomintang. Whoever objects is accused of wrecking 'democracy' and wrecking 'unity', and provides the 'justification' for issuing punitive orders against him. This is the policy of split, and the Chinese people resolutely oppose it.

The steps our anti-popular 'heroes' are preparing to take on the basis of this policy of split carry the danger of pushing themselves onto a blind alley. They are preparing to put a rope around their own necks and tie it so that it can never be untied — and the name of this rope is the 'National Assembly'. Their original intention was to use the so-called National Assembly as a talisman: to brandish it, first, to block the coalition government, second, to maintain their dictatorial rule, and third, to manufacture pretexts for civil war. But the logic of history will move in precisely the opposite direction from what they imagine: they will 'lift a rock only to drop it on their own feet'. For everyone now knows that in the areas under Kuomintang rule the people have no freedom; in the areas occupied by the Japanese the people cannot take part in elections; and in the Chinese liberated areas, which do have freedom, the Kuomintang government refuses to recognize them. Under such circumstances, where are the people's delegates to come from? Where is the National Assembly to come from? What is now being clamoured for is the so-called National Assembly forged single-handedly by the Kuomintang dictatorial government back in the civil-war period, eight years ago. If this assembly is held, it is bound to provoke nationwide opposition of the people; how, one may ask, will our anti-popular heroes get down from the stage? In the final analysis, if the forged National Assembly is convened, it will do nothing but push its conveners onto a blind alley and create a situation of collapse and disintegration.

We Communists do not want China to come to such a pass, and therefore we propose two steps to save China: the first, in the present period, through agreement among representatives of all parties, groups and independents, to establish a provisional coalition government; the second, in the future period, through free and unconstrained elections, to convene a National Assembly and establish a formal coalition government. In both cases it is a coalition government — uniting the representatives of all classes and parties willing to take part, and under a common democratic programme struggling for the present defeat of Japan and the future building of the nation.

Whatever ideas the Kuomintang or any other party, group or individual may entertain — willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously — China can take only this road. This is a necessary and unavoidable law of history, and no force can turn it back.

On this question, and on any other question concerning democratic reform, we Communists declare: no matter how the Kuomintang authorities continue to cling to their erroneous policy, and no matter how they use negotiations as a means of gaining time and hoodwinking public opinion, the moment they are willing to abandon their present erroneous policy and agree to democratic reforms, we are willing to resume negotiations with them. But the basis of negotiations must be the general policy of resistance to Japan, unity and democracy; all so-called schemes, plans or empty talk that depart from this general policy, however pleasant they may sound, we cannot endorse.

The Freedom of the People

Third, the freedom of the people.

The target of the Chinese people's present struggle for freedom is directed first and foremost at the Japanese invaders. But the Kuomintang government strips the people of their freedom and ties their hands and feet so that they cannot oppose the Japanese invaders; unless this question is solved, it is impossible to mobilize and unify all the anti-Japanese forces on a national scale. In our programme we have put forward the abolition of the one-party dictatorship and the establishment of a coalition government, the abolition of the secret services, the repeal of the laws suppressing freedom, the punishment of traitors, spies, pro-Japanese elements, fascists and corrupt officials, the release of political prisoners, the recognition of the legal status of all the democratic parties, the withdrawal of the armies surrounding and attacking the liberated areas, the recognition of the liberated areas, the abolition of the pao-chia system, and many other economic, cultural and popular-movement demands — precisely in order to loosen the ropes fastened upon the people and to give them the freedom to fight Japan, to unite, and to be democratic.

Freedom is won by the people in struggle; it is not a gift bestowed by anyone. The people of the Chinese liberated areas have already won their freedom. The people of other places can, and should, win the same freedom. The more freedom the Chinese people have won, the greater their organized democratic strength, and the greater the possibility of forming a unified provisional coalition government. Once such a coalition government is formed, it will in turn give the people full freedom, and thereby consolidate its own foundation. Only then will it become possible, after the Japanese invaders have been wiped out, to hold free and unconstrained elections throughout the country, to convene a democratic National Assembly, and to establish a unified formal coalition government. Without the freedom of the people there can be no genuinely elected National Assembly and no genuinely elected government — is this not perfectly clear?

The freedoms of speech, publication, assembly, association, thought, belief and person of the people are the most important freedoms. Within China, only the liberated areas have carried them out thoroughly.

In 1925, in his testament on his deathbed, Dr. Sun Yat-sen said: 'For forty years I have devoted myself to the cause of the national revolution, the aim of which has been the freedom and equality of China. My forty years of experience have taught me that to attain this aim we must arouse the masses of the people and unite with the nations of the world that treat us as equals and fight together with us.' The unworthy successors who betrayed Dr. Sun do not arouse the masses; they oppress them, stripping them clean of their freedoms of speech, publication, assembly, association, thought, belief and person. And the Communist Party, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the liberated areas, which do arouse the masses in earnest and do protect the people's rights of freedom, are branded 'traitorous party', 'traitorous army' and 'traitorous area'. We hope the days of this topsy-turvy state of affairs will soon be gone. If it is prolonged any further, the Chinese people will not endure it.

The Unity of the People

Fourth, the unity of the people.

In order to wipe out the Japanese invaders, to prevent civil war, and to build a new China, a divided China must be turned into a united China — this is the historic task of the Chinese people.

But how is unity to be achieved? The despotic unity of the dictators, or the democratic unity of the people? Ever since Yuan Shih-kai, the northern warlords stressed despotic unity. But what was the result? Contrary to these warlords' wishes, what they got was not unity but division, and in the end they rolled off the stage themselves. The anti-popular clique of the Kuomintang copied Yuan Shih-kai's old road and pursued despotic unity; it fought civil war for a full ten years, and the result was that a Japanese invader was fought into the country and the clique itself scurried up Mount Omei. Now it shouts again from the mountain about the theory of despotic unity. But for whom is it shouting? Is there any patriotic Chinese with a conscience who wants to listen? After sixteen years of northern warlord rule and eighteen years of Kuomintang dictatorial rule, the people have had ample experience and have bright eyes; they want the democratic unity of the popular masses, not the despotic unity of the dictators. As long ago as 1935 we Communists put forward the policy of the anti-Japanese national united front, and not a day has passed without our fighting for it. In 1939, when the Kuomintang pushed its reactionary 'Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties', the crisis of capitulation, split and retrogression arose, and the Kuomintang people shouted loudly their theory of despotic unity, we said again: 'Let there be unity for resistance, not unity for capitulation; unity for solidarity, not unity for splits; unity for progress, not unity for retrogression. Only the latter unity is genuine unity; all the rest is sham unity.' Six more years have passed, and the question remains the same.

Can there be unity without the freedom of the people and without their democratic politics? With them, unity comes at once. The movement of the Chinese people for freedom, for democracy and for a coalition government is precisely the movement for unity. In our concrete programme we have put forward many demands for freedom and democracy and the demand for a coalition government, precisely for this purpose. Unless the dictatorship of the anti-popular clique within the Kuomintang is abolished and a democratic coalition government is established, not only can no democratic reform be carried out in the areas under Kuomintang rule, and not only can the army and people there not be mobilized to fight effectively in co-ordination with the Allied nations and wipe out the Japanese invaders thoroughly — what is worse, the terrible scourge of civil war will develop. All this is now a matter of common knowledge. Why do so many democrats, in parties and out of parties — including many democrats inside the Kuomintang itself — demand a coalition government with one voice? Because they have clearly seen the crisis of the situation: without it the crisis cannot be overcome, and the aims of united resistance to the enemy and of united national construction cannot be achieved.

The Army of the People

Fifth, the army of the people.

The Chinese people want freedom, unity and a coalition government; they want the Japanese invaders wiped out thoroughly and a new China built. Without an army that stands on the standpoint of the people, none of this can be done. The only army that stands thoroughly on the standpoint of the people is at present still only the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, and that is far from enough; yet the anti-popular clique inside the Kuomintang racks its brains to wreck and destroy these armies. In 1944 the Kuomintang government put forward a so-called 'hint' demanding that the Communist Party 'cancel within a time limit' four-fifths of the army of the liberated areas. In 1945, in the most recent negotiations, it demanded that the Communist Party hand over the whole of the liberated-area army to it, and then it would grant the Communist Party 'legal status'.

These people say to the Communists: hand over your army, and I will give you freedom. According to this doctrine, parties without armies ought to have freedom. But in 1924-27, when the Chinese Communist Party had only a very few troops, the Kuomintang government's 'Party-purging' and massacre policy came down upon it, and its freedom vanished along with everything else. The China Democratic League and the democratic elements inside the Kuomintang have no armies today, and they also have no freedom. For eighteen years the workers, peasants, students and all the progressive sections of the cultural, educational and industrial circles under Kuomintang government rule have had no freedom either. Is this because they organized some army, practised some 'feudal segmentation', set up some 'traitorous area', or violated some 'government orders and military orders'? No — it is quite the opposite: it is precisely because they have done none of these things.

'The army belongs to the state' — very correct. There is no army in the world that does not belong to a state. But belonging to what state? The feudal-fascist dictatorial state of the big landlords, big bankers and big compradors? Or the new-democratic state of the popular masses? China should establish only a new-democratic state, and on the foundation of that state establish a new-democratic coalition government; all the armies of China should belong to that state and that government, so as to safeguard the freedom of the people and effectively oppose foreign invaders. The moment a new-democratic coalition government and a unified high command appear in China, the army of the Chinese liberated areas will hand itself over to them immediately. But all the Kuomintang armies must be handed over at the same time.

In order to defeat the Japanese invaders and build a new China, in order to win freedom and unity for China, and in order to prevent civil war and safeguard domestic peace, the Chinese people must perform a task from which they cannot shrink: to reform those armies of the Kuomintang government that are constantly defeated in fighting Japan and whose purpose is to oppose the people, exclude those who differ, and prepare for civil war, and to turn them into an army of the people. The soldiers and the great mass of officers of the Kuomintang armies were originally good; they were originally active in resisting Japan and fought heroically. Nor do they wish to oppose the Communist Party, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the liberated areas. It is solely because the Kuomintang high command and the corrupt generals violate the democratic tradition which Dr. Sun Yat-sen himself founded while alive, and practise their own defeatist and fascist leadership, their reactionary political work and their reactionary secret-service network, that this army is forced onto the standpoint of opposing the people; and they have plunged this army into a grave condition in which relations between officers and men within it and between the army and the people outside it have deteriorated to the extreme, its fighting capacity is weak, life is bitter, the conscription system breeds a hundred abuses, and the rural population is not even permitted to arm itself to defend its homes. All this must be reformed, and it must on no account be allowed to drag on like this much longer. Such reform is demanded not only by the Chinese people, but by the broad public opinion of the Allied countries, and by all the soldiers and the great mass of officers within the Kuomintang armies themselves.

In 1924 Dr. Sun Yat-sen said: 'From today on we must open a new era of the national revolution. ... The first step is to unite the armed forces with the people; the second step is to make the armed forces the armed forces of the people.' Following this policy, the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army have become 'the armed forces of the people' — that is, an army of the people — and so they can win victories. In the early period of the Northern Expedition the Kuomintang armies accomplished what Dr. Sun called 'the first step', and so they won victories. From the later period of the Northern Expedition down to the present they have thrown away even 'the first step' and have taken their stand on the standpoint of opposing the people, and so they have rotted and degenerated day by day; apart from being 'experts at civil war', they cannot but be 'laymen' at fighting a foreign war. All the patriotic officers in the Kuomintang armies with a conscience should rise and restore Dr. Sun's spirit and reform their armies.

In the work of reforming the old armies, all officers who can be educated should be given appropriate education, helped to acquire correct views, rid themselves of outworn views, and continue to serve in the army of the people.

To struggle for the creation of an army of the Chinese people is the duty of the whole nation and of all the democratic parties. Without a people's army the people have nothing. On this question, idle talk must on no account be allowed to take the place of real work.

We Communists are willing to support the work of reforming China's armies. The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army should regard as friendly armies, and give appropriate help to, all armies willing to unite with the people and oppose the Japanese invaders, provided they do not oppose the Chinese liberated areas.

Land

Sixth, the land question.

In order to wipe out the Japanese invaders and build a new China, land reform must be carried out and the peasants emancipated. Dr. Sun Yat-sen's proposal of 'land to the tiller' is the correct proposal for the present epoch of the bourgeois-democratic revolution.

Why do we call the revolution of the present epoch 'bourgeois-democratic in character'? It means this: the object of this revolution is not the bourgeoisie in general, but national oppression and feudal oppression; the measures of this revolution do not, in general, abolish private property, but, in general, protect private property; and the result of this revolution will clear the road for capitalism and enable it to develop. 'Land to the tiller' means transferring the land from the feudal exploiters into the hands of the peasants, making it the private property of the peasants, emancipating the peasants from the feudal land relations, raising agriculture from its old backward level to a modernized level, and thereby providing a market for industry and creating the possibility of transforming an agrarian country into an industrial one. The proposal of 'land to the tiller' is therefore a bourgeois-democratic proposal, not a proletarian-socialist one; it is the proposal of all revolutionary democrats, not of us Communists alone. The difference is that under Chinese conditions we Communists alone take this proposal with the utmost seriousness, not only preaching it but carrying it out. Who, then, are the revolutionary democrats? Besides the proletariat, which is the most thoroughgoing of the revolutionary democrats, the peasants are the largest body of revolutionary democrats. The overwhelming majority of the peasants — that is, all except that section of rich peasants which carries the feudal tail — positively demand 'land to the tiller'. The urban petty bourgeoisie is also revolutionary-democratic; 'land to the tiller' develops the productive forces of agriculture and is in their interest. The national bourgeoisie is a wavering class; they need markets, and they too approve of 'land to the tiller'; but most of them are tied to the land, and many of them fear 'land to the tiller'. The ones who resolutely oppose 'land to the tiller' are the anti-popular clique inside the Kuomintang, because they represent the big landlords, big bankers and big compradors. There is no party in China that represents the peasants alone, and the parties of the national bourgeoisie have no resolute land programme. Consequently, only the Chinese Communists — who possess a resolute land programme, who struggle seriously for the interests of the peasants, and who thereby have won the broadest peasant masses as their great allies — have become the leaders of the peasants and of all revolutionary democrats.

In 1927-36 the Chinese Communist Party carried out Dr. Sun's proposal of 'land to the tiller'. And the ones who bared their fangs and claws and waged ten years of anti-popular war — that is, war against 'land to the tiller' — were precisely that body which had gathered within it all the unworthy successors of Dr. Sun Yat-sen: the anti-popular clique inside the Kuomintang.

During the War of Resistance the Chinese Communist Party made a big concession, changing the policy of 'land to the tiller' into the policy of reducing rent and interest. This concession was correct: it helped to bring the Kuomintang into the war against Japan, and it united the landlords and peasants of the liberated areas against the Japanese invaders. Provided no special obstacles arise, we are prepared to continue this policy after the war — first to realize the reduction of rent and interest throughout the country, and then to seek appropriate methods for attaining 'land to the tiller' step by step.

But the people who betrayed Dr. Sun oppose not only 'land to the tiller'; they oppose even the reduction of rent and interest. The Kuomintang government itself promulgated laws such as the '25 per cent reduction of rent', but it never carried them out itself; they were put into effect only in the Chinese liberated areas, and for this very fact a 'crime' was invented: these areas were branded 'traitorous areas'.

During the War of Resistance there appeared the so-called theory of two stages — a national stage and a democratic and livelihood stage — and it is erroneous.

'With the great enemy at the gate, democracy and the people's livelihood should not be mentioned — wait until the Japanese have gone' — such is the nonsense of the Kuomintang's anti-popular clique, and its purpose is to prevent the thorough victory of the War of Resistance. Some people have actually chimed in with it, unconsciously acting as the tail of this nonsense.

'With the great enemy at the gate, the Japanese cannot be driven out unless the questions of democracy and the people's livelihood are solved' — such is the correct thesis of China's revolutionary democrats, proved by the whole of modern Chinese history and above all by the eight years of the War of Resistance, and proved also by the anti-fascist struggles of the peoples of France, Italy, Poland, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Hungary and other countries. What was carried out in Poland and other countries was not our reduction of rent and interest but 'land to the tiller'.

During the War of Resistance, everything was subordinated to the war; the reduction of rent and interest, like all the democratic reforms, served the war and was not pursued in isolation. In order to unite every social stratum against the common enemy, we did not abolish the landlords' ownership of land, but appropriately safeguarded the payment of rent and interest, encouraged the transfer of landlords' capital into industry, and further enabled the enlightened gentry to take part, together with other representatives of the people, in social work and government work. As for the rich peasants, we encouraged them to develop production. All this was included in our line of resolutely carrying out democratic reform in the rural areas, and it was entirely necessary.

Two lines: either resolutely to oppose the Chinese peasants' solution of the questions of democracy and livelihood, thereby making oneself corrupt and impotent and incapable of fighting Japan; or resolutely to support the Chinese peasants' solution of the questions of democracy and livelihood, thereby winning as one's great ally the greatest force in the country, which makes up 80 per cent of the population, and organizing a powerful fighting strength. The former is the line of the Kuomintang government; the latter is the line of the Chinese liberated areas.

To waver between the two, to profess support for the peasants but not resolutely to carry out the reduction of rent and interest, the arming of the peasants and the establishment of democratic rural political power — such is the line of the opportunists.

The anti-popular clique of the Kuomintang has mobilized all its forces to shoot every kind of venomous arrow at the Chinese Communist Party: open and hidden, military and political, bloody and bloodless. The dispute between the two parties, in its social character, is in substance a dispute over the question of rural relations. At what point, then, have we offended the anti-popular clique of the Kuomintang? Is it not precisely on this question? And is it not precisely on this question that the anti-popular clique of the Kuomintang, welcomed and encouraged by the Japanese invaders, has rendered them a great service? The so-called 'Communist Party sabotages the War of Resistance and endangers the state', the so-called 'traitorous party', 'traitorous army', 'traitorous area', the so-called 'disobedience to the government orders and military orders' — are these not precisely because on this question the Chinese Communist Party has done genuine work that accords with the interests of the nation?

The peasants — these are the source of China's workers; in the future tens of millions of peasants will move into the cities and into the factories. If China needs to build a powerful national industry and many modern big cities, a long process of transforming the rural population into an urban population will be required.

The peasants — these are the market of Chinese industry; only they can supply the richest grain and raw materials and absorb the broadest output of industrial goods.

The peasants — these are the source of the army; the soldiers are peasants in uniform, and they are the sworn enemies of the Japanese invaders.

The peasants — these are the main foundation of Chinese democracy at the present stage. If China's democrats do not rely on the support of the 360,000,000 peasant masses, they will accomplish nothing at all.

The peasants — these are the main foundation of China's cultural movement at the present stage. The so-called liquidation of illiteracy, the so-called universal education, the so-called mass literature and art, the so-called popular health movement — apart from the 360,000,000 peasants, would not the greater part of all this become empty words?

When I speak of 'main foundation', I of course do not mean to ignore the political, economic and cultural importance of the remaining 90,000,000-odd people — still less to ignore the working class, the most awakened section of the Chinese people and the one qualified to lead every democratic movement. No misunderstanding should arise on this score.

To understand all this is absolutely necessary, not only for the Chinese Communists but for all democrats.

Once the land system is reformed — even merely reformed in its first steps, as in the reduction of rent and interest — the peasants' interest in production increases. Then, helping the peasants to organize, on the principle of voluntariness, into agricultural producers' co-operatives and other co-operatives, the productive forces will develop. Such producers' co-operatives can at present only be collective and mutual-aid organizations of labour built on the foundation of the peasants' individual economy (the foundation of the peasants' private property) — such as labour-exchange teams, mutual-aid groups and the like; but the development of the productive forces and the increase in output have already been astonishing. This system has already become universal in the Chinese liberated areas, and it should be extended as widely as possible in the future.

One point should be noted here. Labour-exchange teams and similar co-operative organizations existed among the peasants long ago, but in those days they were merely the manifestation of the peasants' miserable life. The labour-exchange teams in the Chinese liberated areas today have changed both in form and in content; they are the manifestation of the peasant masses' efforts to develop their own productive forces and to win a life of comfort. Whether the policies of all the political parties of China and their practice succeed or fail, whether their effects on the Chinese people are good or bad, great or small — in the final analysis the test is whether they help the development of the productive forces of the Chinese people, and how much. Do they shackle the productive forces, or do they emancipate them? Only by wiping out the Japanese invaders thoroughly, carrying out land reform, emancipating the peasants, developing modern industry, and building a new China that is independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous — only all this can emancipate the productive forces of Chinese society, and only this is welcome to the Chinese people.

One further point should be noted. Intellectuals who come from the cities to work in the villages find it difficult to understand the present rural features of a dispersed, backward, individual economy; in the liberated areas there must be added to these the features of temporary enemy segmentation and guerrilla warfare. Not understanding these features, they often, and most improperly, observe rural problems and handle rural work with the views they acquired in city life or city work, thereby becoming divorced from the rural realities and unable to merge themselves with the peasants. This state of affairs must be overcome by education.

The broad masses of China's revolutionary intellectuals should realize the necessity of uniting themselves with the peasants. The peasants need them and are waiting for their help. They should go to the villages with ardour, take off their student clothes and put on coarse cloth, be willing to begin with the smallest tasks, there learn the demands of the peasants, help the peasants to awaken and organize, and struggle to fulfil the rural democratic revolution — one of the most important tasks of the Chinese democratic revolution.

After the Japanese invaders are wiped out, the land of the Japanese invaders and of the important traitor elements should be confiscated and distributed to the landless and land-poor peasants.

Industry

Seventh, the question of industry.

In order to defeat the Japanese invaders and build a new China, industry must be developed. But under the leadership of the Kuomintang government everything depends on foreign countries, and its fiscal and economic policy destroys every branch of economic life; even the small-scale industry that alone exists in the areas under Kuomintang rule has been driven, for the most part, into bankruptcy. Unless the political system is reformed, all the productive forces will meet destruction — agriculture so, and industry likewise.

Taken as a whole, without an independent, free, democratic and unified China there can be no industrial China. To wipe out the Japanese invaders — that is the struggle for independence. To abolish the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship, to form a democratic coalition government, to realize the freedom of the people, the unity of the people and the army of the people, to carry out land reform and emancipate the peasants — that is the struggle for freedom, democracy and unity. Without independence, freedom, democracy and unity, there can be no truly large-scale industry on a national scale. Without industry there can be no solid national defence, no welfare of the people, no wealth and strength of the nation. The history of the 105 years since the Opium War of 1840, and above all the eighteen years of Kuomintang rule, have made this point abundantly clear to the Chinese people. A China that is not weak and poor but strong and prosperous is bound up with a China that is not a colony or semi-colony but independent, not semi-feudal but free and democratic, not divided but united. In a semi-colonial, semi-feudal, divided China, to develop industry, to build up national defence, to bring welfare to the people and wealth and strength to the nation — how many people have dreamed this dream for how many years, and all the dreams have come to nothing. Many well-meaning educators, scientists and students kept aloof from politics, imagining that they could serve the country with what they had learned, and their dreams too came to nothing, one and all. This is good news: the collapse of these naive dreams is precisely the starting point for the wealth and strength of China. In the War of Resistance the Chinese people have learned much; they know that after the Japanese invaders are wiped out it is necessary to build a new-democratic China that is independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous — and these conditions are interlinked and not one of them can be dispensed with. If this comes to pass, China has hope. The emancipation of the productive forces of the Chinese people, and the possibility of their full development, depend upon the realization of new-democratic political conditions throughout China. More and more people understand this point with every passing day.

After the new-democratic political conditions have been obtained, the Chinese people and their government must take practical steps, over a number of years, gradually to establish heavy and light industry, so as to raise China from the status of an agrarian country to the status of an industrial country. If the new-democratic independence, freedom, democracy and unity of China have no solid economic foundation — no agriculture far more advanced than at present, no large-scale industry holding an overwhelming position in the national economy, and no transportation, trade, finance and other undertakings corresponding to them — then this new-democratic independence, freedom, democracy and unity cannot be consolidated.

We Communists are willing to join with all the anti-Japanese democratic parties of the country and with every section of the industrial and commercial world in struggling for these aims. The Chinese working class will play a great part in this task.

Ever since the First World War the Chinese working class has begun to struggle consciously for the independence and liberation of China. In 1921 its vanguard came into being — the Chinese Communist Party. From then on the liberation struggle of China entered a new stage. In the three periods of the Northern Expedition, the land revolution and the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Chinese working class and its vanguard made immense efforts and contributions of great value to the cause of the Chinese people's liberation. In the struggle to wipe out the Japanese invaders once and for all, and especially in the struggle to recover the big cities and the main lines of communication, the Chinese working class will play a very great part. After the war against Japan is over, it may confidently be predicted that the efforts and contributions of the Chinese working class will be greater still. The task of the Chinese working class is to struggle not only for the independence, freedom, democracy and unity of China, but also for the industrialization of China and the modernization of its agriculture.

Under the new-democratic state system, a policy of adjusting the interests of labour and capital will be adopted. On the one hand, the interests of the workers will be protected; according to differing circumstances, the eight-hour to ten-hour working day will be instituted, together with appropriate unemployment relief, social insurance and the rights of trade unions. On the other hand, the legitimate profits of state enterprises, private enterprises and co-operative enterprises, provided they are rationally managed, will be guaranteed. In a word, both sides, labour and capital, will strive together for the development of industrial production.

To develop industry, large amounts of capital are required. Where is the capital to come from? From two sources only: chiefly from the accumulation of capital by the Chinese people themselves, and at the same time from foreign aid. Foreign investment is welcome to us, on condition that it respects Chinese law and benefits the Chinese economy. An undertaking beneficial both to the Chinese people and to foreign peoples is this: that China, having obtained solid domestic peace and international peace, and having achieved a thorough political reform and land reform, should be able to develop vigorously large-scale light and heavy industry and a modernized agriculture. On this foundation the capacity to absorb foreign investment will be very great. A politically retrogressive and economically impoverished China is harmful not only to the Chinese people but to foreign peoples as well.

After the Japanese invaders are wiped out, the enterprises and property of the Japanese invaders and of the important traitor elements should be confiscated and placed at the disposal of the government.

Culture, Education and the Intellectuals

Eighth, the questions of culture, education and the intellectuals.

Among the calamities that national oppression and feudal oppression have inflicted upon the Chinese people are the calamities inflicted upon the national culture. The culture and education that have progressive significance, and the cultural workers and educators, have suffered more deeply still. In order to sweep away national oppression and feudal oppression, and in order to build a new-democratic China that is independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous, large numbers of educators and teachers of the people, scientists, engineers, technicians, doctors, journalists, writers, literary men, artists and ordinary cultural workers of the people are needed, to work arduously in the spirit of 'serving the people' and 'merging themselves with the people'. All such intellectuals, provided they have served the people with achievement, should be respected by the government and society, and regarded as the precious wealth of the state and society. China is a country whose culture has been held back by national oppression and feudal oppression, and the liberation struggle of the Chinese people urgently needs intellectuals; hence the question of the intellectuals is one of particular importance. In the popular liberation struggles of the past half-century, especially since the May Fourth Movement, and in the eight years of the war against Japan, the broad masses of revolutionary intellectuals have played a very great role in the cause of the Chinese people's liberation, and in the struggles to come they will play a greater role still. Hence the government should in the future systematically train cadres of every kind of intellectual from among the broad masses of the people, and pay attention to uniting with and educating all the useful intellectuals already available.

To wipe out illiteracy among 80 per cent of the population is a necessary condition for building the new China.

All slavish, feudal and fascist culture and education should be swept away by appropriate but resolute steps.

The grave condition of ignorance about hygiene, of disease and pestilence, which has been imposed upon the Chinese people in body and spirit by national oppression and feudal oppression, should be met with active measures of reform and remedy, and public health work should be extended.

Toward the old cultural workers, the old educational workers and the old-style doctors, the attitude should be to educate them by appropriate methods, so that they may acquire new views and new methods and serve the Chinese people.

The aim of the national culture and the national education of China should be new-democratic; that is, China should establish her own new culture and new education — national, scientific and of the people.

As for foreign culture, the policy of excluding everything foreign is wrong; progressive foreign culture should be absorbed as fully as possible, to serve as a mirror for China's cultural movement. The policy of blind submission is also wrong; foreign culture should be absorbed critically, on the basis of the actual needs of the Chinese people. As for China's ancient culture, likewise, it should be neither rejected wholesale nor accepted blindly, but assimilated critically, so as to advance the new-democratic culture of China.

Under the general policy of struggling for the cause of the liberation of the Chinese people, Communists should unite well with all intellectuals, irrespective of class, belief or party.

The National Minorities

Ninth, the question of the national minorities.

The anti-popular clique of the Kuomintang denies that China is a country of many nationalities, and calls the various national minorities — the Mongols, the Hui, the Tibetans, the Yi (whom they write with the character for 'barbarian'), the Miao and the Yao (whom they write with the character for 'dog') — mere 'branches of the clan'. Toward the various national minorities they have inherited wholesale the reactionary policy of the Manchu government and of the northern warlords — oppression and exploitation without limit. The massacre of the Mongol people of the Ickchao League in 1943, the armed suppression of the national minorities in Sinkiang from 1944 down to the present, and the massacres of the Hui people of Kansu in recent years — these are clear proofs. This is the fascist great-Han-chauvinist ideology and policy on the national question, a complete betrayal of Dr. Sun Yat-sen.

In 1924, in the manifesto of the First National Congress of the Kuomintang, Dr. Sun Yat-sen wrote: 'The nationalism of the Kuomintang has two meanings: first, the liberation of the Chinese nation itself; second, equality among all the nationalities within China.' And: 'The Kuomintang solemnly declares its recognition of the right of self-determination of all the nationalities within China; after victory in the war against imperialism and the warlords, a free and united Chinese Republic (a free federation of all the nationalities) shall be organized.'

The Chinese Communist Party is in complete agreement with Dr. Sun's national policy set out above, and Communists should actively help the broad masses of the various national minorities to struggle for its realization. They should help the broad masses of the national minorities, including all the leaders who have ties with the masses, to win their political, economic and cultural liberation and development, and should help them form their own armies of the national minorities to defend the interests of the masses. Their languages, scripts, customs, habits and religious beliefs should be respected.

For many years the attitude of the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region and the liberated areas of North China toward the Mongol and Hui peoples has been correct, and their work has yielded results.

Foreign Affairs

Tenth, the question of foreign affairs.

The Chinese Communist Party agrees to the Atlantic Charter and to the resolutions of the international conferences of Moscow, Cairo, Tehran and the Crimea, because the resolutions of these international conferences all help to defeat the fascist aggressors and to maintain world peace.

The Chinese Communist Party particularly endorses with warm approval the resolutions of the Crimea Conference. The Crimea Conference decided to defeat fascist Germany finally and to eliminate fascism and the causes that give rise to it; to eliminate the last remnants of fascism in the liberated areas of Europe, to establish domestic peace in the various countries, and to establish democratic institutions of the peoples' own choosing; and, as to the procedure for establishing democratic institutions: 'to organize provisional authorities broadly representative of all democratic elements in the population, and to ensure through free elections at the earliest opportunity the establishment of governments responsive to the will of the people.' The Crimea Conference further decided that Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union should remain united to preserve 'a solid and lasting' world peace, and that a world peace organization should be speedily established.

We hold that the Crimea line accords with the basic policy of the Chinese Communist Party for solving the questions of the East and of China. In wiping out the Japanese invaders and solving the Chinese question, the following points must be realized. First, the Japanese invaders must be finally defeated, and Japanese fascism, militarism and the causes that give rise to them must be thoroughly eliminated; no compromise halfway is permitted. Second, the last remnants of fascism in China must be eliminated; not the slightest trace may be allowed to remain. Third, China must establish domestic peace; civil war must not be fought again. Fourth, the Kuomintang dictatorial rule must be abolished; and after its abolition, first, it must be replaced by a nation-wide, unified, provisional coalition government broadly composed of representatives of all the democratic elements of the Chinese population — this is the first step; then, after the recovery of the lost territory, through free and unconstrained elections, a formal coalition government responsive to the will of the people must be established — this is the second step; and neither of these two steps may be omitted. According to the Crimea line, and in the light of China's own conditions, we must act in this way.

The basic principles of the foreign policy of the Chinese Communist Party are: on the basis of wiping out the Japanese invaders thoroughly, preserving world peace, mutually respecting the independence and equal status of states, and mutually promoting the interests and friendship of nations and peoples — to establish and consolidate diplomatic relations with all countries, and to settle all questions of mutual relations, wartime and postwar, such as co-ordinated operations, peace conferences, trade and investment.

As to the establishment of an organization for the safeguarding of international peace and security after the war, the Chinese Communist Party fully agrees with the proposals made at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference and the decisions taken on this question at the Crimea Conference. The Chinese Communist Party welcomes the United Nations Conference at San Francisco. The Chinese Communist Party has already sent its own representatives to join the Chinese delegation to the San Francisco Conference, so as to express the will of the Chinese people.

We hold that the Kuomintang government must stop its hostile attitude toward the Soviet Union and quickly improve Sino-Soviet relations. The Soviet Union was the first country to abolish the unequal treaties and conclude with China a new treaty of equality. When the First National Congress of the Kuomintang convened under Dr. Sun Yat-sen's own chairmanship in 1924, and during the Northern Expedition that followed, the Soviet Union was the only country then aiding China's war of liberation. After the July 7th Incident of 1937 began the nation-wide resistance, the Soviet Union was again the first country to aid China in opposing the Japanese invaders. The Chinese people are grateful to the Soviet government and the Soviet people for this aid. We hold that the final and thorough solution of the Pacific question is impossible without the participation of the Soviet Union.

We hold that the great efforts made by the two great powers, Britain and the United States — and especially by the United States — in the common cause of fighting the Japanese invaders, and the sympathy and aid extended to China by the governments and peoples of the two countries, deserve our gratitude.

But we demand that the governments of the Allied nations, above all the governments of Britain and the United States, pay serious attention to the voice of the broadest masses of the Chinese people, and not let their own foreign policies run counter to the will of the Chinese people and thereby injure or forfeit the friendship of the Chinese people. We hold that any foreign government which aids the Chinese reactionaries in their opposition to the democratic cause of the Chinese people will be committing a very great error.

The Chinese people welcome the measures by which many foreign governments have announced the abolition of the unequal treaties with China and the conclusion of new treaties of equality, thereby according the Chinese people an equal status. But we hold that the conclusion of treaties of equality does not by itself mean that China has actually attained true equality of status. This true equality of status in fact can never depend on the good will of foreign governments and foreign peoples alone; it must depend chiefly on the efforts of the Chinese people themselves, on their building China politically, economically and culturally into a new-democratic country that is independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous. Otherwise there will be only formal independence and equality, without the reality. That is to say, under the current policy of the Kuomintang government, China will never win true independence and equality.

We hold that after the Japanese invaders have been defeated and have surrendered unconditionally, in order to eliminate Japanese fascism and militarism and the political, economic and social causes that give rise to them, it is necessary to help all the democratic forces of the Japanese people to establish a democratic system of the Japanese people. Without such a democratic system of the Japanese people, Japanese fascism and militarism cannot be thoroughly eliminated, and the peace of the Pacific cannot be assured.

We hold that the Cairo Conference's decision for the independence of Korea was correct, and the Chinese people should help the Korean people to win their liberation.

The United States has already promised independence to the Philippines. We hope Britain will also permit independence to India. For an independent and democratic India is needed not only by the Indian people but by the peace of the world.

As for the countries of the South Seas — Burma, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies and French Indochina — we hope that Britain, the United States, France and the Netherlands, after helping the peoples of those countries to defeat the Japanese invaders, will, following the attitude adopted by the Crimea Conference toward the liberated areas of Europe, grant the peoples of those countries the right to establish independent and democratic state systems. As for Siam, it should be handled by the method applied to the fascist satellite countries of Europe.

The late President Roosevelt of the United States said: 'The world has become small.' Indeed it is so. The American people, whom the Chinese people used to feel were living in a place very far away, now feel themselves near neighbours. The Chinese people will join with the peoples of the great powers — America, Britain, the Soviet Union and France — and with the peoples of all countries in the world, to build together a 'solid and lasting' world peace.

Such, in the main, is our explanation of the concrete programme.

Let me say it again: without a nation-wide, unified, democratic coalition government, none of all these concrete programmes can be smoothly realized throughout China.

In the twenty-four years of its struggle for the liberation of the Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party has created a position such that any party or social group, whether Chinese or foreign, that adopts the attitude of ignoring or failing to respect the views of the Chinese Communist Party acts most improperly. There have been such people in the past and there are such people now, who have tried to go their own way and dared to ignore or fail to respect our views; but the result has been one and the same — it cannot be done. What is the reason? Nothing else than this: our views, our policies, the new-democratic general and concrete programmes we have put forward and are carrying out at the present stage of China, accord with the interests of the broadest masses of the Chinese people. We are the most faithful spokesmen of the Chinese people, and whoever dares to ignore or fail to respect us is in fact ignoring or failing to respect the broadest masses of the Chinese people, and is bound to fail.

The Tasks in the Areas Under Kuomintang Rule

I have explained above, at length, our Party's new-democratic general and concrete programmes. Beyond doubt these programmes are to be carried out throughout China, and the whole international and domestic situation opens up this prospect to the Chinese people. But the present circumstances compel us to make distinctions in carrying them out, for the areas under Kuomintang rule, the occupied areas and the liberated areas differ from one another. Different tasks arise from the different conditions of these three kinds of areas; some I have already mentioned above, and some must be added below.

In the areas under Kuomintang rule the people have no freedom of patriotic activity, and the democratic movement is regarded as unlawful; nevertheless, the active activities of many strata, many democratic parties and many democrats are developing. In January of this year the China Democratic League issued a declaration demanding the end of the Kuomintang one-party dictatorship and the formation of a coalition government. Many circles of society have issued declarations of a like character. Considerable sections of the Kuomintang rank and file, and many important figures in the party, show growing doubt and dissatisfaction with the policies of their own party's leading organs, feel ever more keenly the danger that their party is isolating itself from the broad Chinese people, and demand a timely democratic reform. The democratic movement of the workers, peasants, public employees, merchants, industrialists, cultural workers, students, educators and women — and even of a section of the army — centring on Chungking, is developing. All this presages the gradual convergence of the democratic movements of all the oppressed strata upon a common goal. The weakness of the movement is that the basic strata of society have not yet joined it in a broad way: the greatly suffering peasants, workers, soldiers and lower public employees, so very important, are not yet organized. Another weakness is that among the democratic elements taking part in the movement there are still many who lack a clear and resolute spirit for changing the situation according to democratic principles. But the situation at home and abroad is compelling all the oppressed strata, parties, groups and individuals to awaken and unite gradually, and to exercise their sacred right of resisting Japan and saving the nation. No matter how the Kuomintang government suppresses them, it cannot halt the development of this movement.

The democratic movement of all the oppressed strata, parties, groups and individuals in the areas under Kuomintang rule should achieve a broad development, and its scattered forces should gradually be unified, so as to struggle for the realization of national unity, the establishment of a coalition government, the defeat of the Japanese invaders and the building of a new China. To this end, the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese liberated areas should give them every possible aid.

In the areas under Kuomintang rule, Communists should continue to carry out the broad policy of the anti-Japanese national united front. No matter who he is — even if he opposed us yesterday — provided he no longer opposes us today, we should unite with him and struggle for the common goal. All the work of the Chinese Communists is subordinated to the general goal of mobilizing and unifying all forces to wipe out the Japanese invaders thoroughly and build a new China.

The Tasks in the Japanese-Occupied Areas

In the occupied areas, Communists should call upon all the anti-Japanese people to learn from the example of France and Italy, to organize themselves in bodies of every kind, to organize underground armies and prepare armed uprisings, so that when the moment is ripe, co-ordinating with the armies attacking from outside, they may crush the Japanese invaders by combined action from within and without. The ruthless ravages, plundering, violations and humiliations inflicted by the Japanese invaders and their faithful lackeys upon our brothers and sisters in the occupied areas have aroused the fire-like anger of all Chinese; the hour of revenge and the wiping out of shame is fast approaching. Inspired by the victorious warfare of the Eastern and Western fronts and of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, the people of the occupied areas have raised their anti-Japanese feelings to a very high pitch, and they urgently need to organize themselves in order to win their liberation as quickly as possible. Therefore we must raise the work in the occupied areas to a position of equal importance with the work in the liberated areas. Large numbers of workers must be sent to work in the occupied areas. Large numbers of activists must be trained and promoted from among the people of the occupied areas to take part in the work there. Among the occupied areas, the four northeastern provinces have been occupied longest, and are the industrial centre and troop-base of the Japanese invaders; we should intensify the underground work there. Toward the exiled people of the Northeast we should intensify the work of uniting them, in preparation for the recovery of the lost territory.

In all the occupied areas, Communists should carry out the broadest policy of the anti-Japanese national united front: no matter who he is, provided he opposes the Japanese invaders and their faithful lackeys, he should be united with, in the struggle against the common enemy.

It is necessary to warn all the puppet soldiers, puppet police and other personnel who help the enemy against their own compatriots: they should quickly recognize their criminal conduct, turn back in time, and help their compatriots against the enemy, so as to redeem their crimes. Otherwise, on the day the enemy collapses, national discipline will not be lenient with them.

Communists and anti-Japanese people should carry on the work of winning over and persuading all the puppet organizations that have masses in them, so that they may come over to the front against the national enemy. At the same time, investigation work should be conducted on those traitor elements whose crimes are enormous and who refuse to reform, so that on the day the lost territory is recovered they may be speedily brought to justice according to law.

As for the reactionary elements inside the Kuomintang who organize traitors to oppose the Chinese people, the Chinese Communist Party, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the other people's armies — their treacherous crimes against the nation must be pointed out to them, and they must be warned to repent at an early date. Otherwise, on the day the lost territory is recovered, the traitors and the organizers of traitor bodies will certainly be punished together, without any leniency whatsoever.

The Tasks in the Chinese Liberated Areas

Through the great struggles of the Chinese people in the Chinese liberated areas, the whole of our Party's new-democratic programme has been turned, and is being turned, into a programme warmly supported and resolutely carried out by the people, and remarkable results have been achieved and a great anti-Japanese strength has been gathered; henceforth this strength should be developed and consolidated in every direction.

Under present conditions, the army of the Chinese liberated areas should launch extensive attacks on all the places occupied by the enemy and puppets that it is possible to capture — whether occupied long ago or newly occupied — so as to expand the liberated areas and shrink the occupied areas.

But at the same time it should be noted that the enemy is still powerful; he is certain to launch attacks on the liberated areas, and the army and people of the liberated areas must be ready at all times to smash his attacks, and must attend to all the work of consolidating the liberated areas.

Every effort should be made, under all possible conditions, to expand the army, the guerrilla units, the militia and the self-defence corps of the liberated areas, and to intensify their training and consolidation and increase their fighting capacity, so as to prepare ample military strength for the strategic offensive in co-ordination with the Allied nations.

In the liberated areas, the army on the one hand should carry out the work of supporting the government and cherishing the people, while on the other hand the government should lead the people in carrying out the work of supporting the army and giving preferential treatment to the families of anti-Japanese soldiers, so that the relations between the army and the people may be still further improved.

In the elected three-thirds-system governments of the various liberated areas — that is, the local coalition governments — Communists should, in their government work and their social work, continue the policy of the past: to co-operate well with all the anti-Japanese democratic elements, on the common new-democratic programme, irrespective of class, party or belief.

Likewise in military work, Communists should co-operate well, inside and outside the armies of the liberated areas, with all the anti-Japanese democratic elements willing to co-operate with us, and together build a powerful people's army for the great purpose of wiping out the Japanese invaders and defending democratic China.

In order to heighten the enthusiasm of the worker and peasant masses in resisting Japan and in production, the policy of appropriate but resolute reduction of rent and interest and the improvement of the treatment of workers and office employees should continue to be carried out. The cadres of the liberated areas must set themselves earnestly to learn economic work. Every possible force must be mobilized to develop on a large scale the agriculture, industry and trade of the liberated areas and to improve the livelihood of the army and the people, so as to prepare the necessary material conditions for sustaining the long war and wiping out the Japanese invaders. To this end, labour emulation must be organized, and labour heroes and model workers rewarded. After the Japanese invaders have been wiped out in the cities, our cadres must quickly learn to handle the economic work of the cities.

In order to raise the level of consciousness of the popular masses of the liberated areas — above all the broad workers, peasants and soldiers — and to train large numbers of working cadres, the culture and education of the liberated areas should be developed. In advancing their work, the cultural and educational workers of the liberated areas should proceed from the present rural features, from the needs of the rural population and from the principle of voluntariness, adopting appropriate content and forms.

In advancing all the work of the liberated areas, the local manpower and material resources must be used with the greatest care; everywhere there must be long-term planning, and waste and misuse must be avoided. This is necessary not only for defeating the Japanese but for building the new China.

In advancing all the work of the liberated areas, great attention must be paid to helping the local people manage their own affairs, and great attention must be paid to training local cadres in large numbers from among the finest of the local people. All those who come from other places, if they do not merge themselves with the local people, if they do not help the local cadres with ardour, diligence and in a way suited to the circumstances, and cherish them as their own brothers and sisters, will never be able to accomplish the great task of the rural democratic revolution.

Wherever they go, the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the other people's armies should immediately help the local people to organize not only militia and self-defence corps led by local cadres, but also local units and local formations led by local cadres. Then, in turn, main-force units and main-force formations led by local people can come into being. This is a most important task. Unless it is fulfilled, no solid anti-Japanese base areas can be established, nor can the people's army grow.

Of course, all the local people should warmly welcome and help the personnel and armies coming from other places, so as to accomplish the common task.

Everyone's attention should be drawn to the question of how to deal with hidden national saboteurs. Open enemies and open national saboteurs are easy to identify and easy to deal with. Hidden enemies and hidden national saboteurs are not easy to identify, and therefore not easy to deal with. Hence toward the latter, an attitude at once serious and prudent must be taken.

In accordance with the principle of freedom of religious belief, the Chinese liberated areas permit the existence of all religions. Whether Christianity, Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism or any other religion, so long as the believers abide by the laws of the government, the government protects them. Believers and non-believers alike have their freedom, and compulsion or discrimination is not permitted.

Finally, our Congress should propose to the people of all the liberated areas that a Conference of the People's Representatives of the Chinese Liberated Areas be convened in Yenan as quickly as possible, to discuss unifying the actions of all the liberated areas, strengthening the anti-Japanese work of all the liberated areas, supporting the anti-Japanese democratic movement of the people in the areas under Kuomintang rule, supporting the underground-army movement of the people in the occupied areas, and promoting the unity of the whole Chinese people and the formation of the coalition government. The Chinese liberated areas have now in fact become the pivot on which the broad masses of the whole country depend for resisting Japan and saving the nation; the hopes of the broad masses of the whole country are placed upon us, and it is our duty not to disappoint them. The convening of the Conference of the People's Representatives of the Chinese Liberated Areas will give an immense impetus to the cause of the national liberation of the Chinese people.

V. Unite the Whole Party and Struggle to Fulfil the Party's Tasks

Comrades, so immense are our tasks, and so concrete and clear our policies — with what attitude toward work should we carry out these policies and fulfil these tasks?

The present international and domestic situation shows before us and the Chinese people a bright future, and conditions more favourable than any before — this is obvious and beyond doubt. But at the same time grave difficulties still exist. Whoever sees only the bright side and not the side of difficulties will not be able to struggle well for the fulfilment of the Party's tasks.

Our Party, together with the Chinese people, has created great strength for the Chinese people throughout the twenty-four years of the Party's history and throughout the eight years of the War of Resistance; the achievements of our work are obvious and beyond doubt. But at the same time shortcomings still exist in our work. Whoever sees only the achievements and not the shortcomings will likewise not be able to struggle well for the fulfilment of the Party's tasks.

Since its birth in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party has passed through three great struggles in its twenty-four years of history — the Northern Expedition, the land revolution, and the War of Resistance Against Japan, which has not yet ended. From its very beginning our Party has been a party founded on the theory of Marxism, because that theory is the crystallization of the most correct and most revolutionary scientific thought of the world proletariat. As soon as the universal truth of Marxism was integrated with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution, the face of the Chinese revolution was entirely transformed, and the whole historical stage of new democracy came into being. Armed with Marxist theory and ideas, the Chinese Communist Party has brought forth a new style of work among the Chinese people, which consists principally in integrating theory with practice, maintaining the closest ties with the popular masses, and practising self-criticism.

The universal truth of Marxism, reflecting the practical struggles of the proletariat of the whole world, becomes a usable weapon of the Chinese people only when it is integrated with the concrete practice of the revolutionary struggles of the Chinese proletariat and the broad masses of the people. And this is precisely what the Chinese Communist Party has done. The growth and progress of our Party have taken place in the course of resolute struggles against all dogmatism and empiricism that violate this truth. Dogmatism divorces itself from concrete practice, while empiricism mistakes partial experience for universal truth; both these opportunist ideologies run counter to Marxism. In the twenty-four years of its struggles our Party has overcome, and is still overcoming, these erroneous ideologies, and thereby our Party has been greatly consolidated ideologically. Our Party now has 1,210,000 members, the overwhelming majority of whom joined during the war against Japan, and among them there exist all kinds of unwholesome ideas; the same is true of the members who joined before the war. The rectification work of the past few years has achieved great results, and these unwholesome ideas have been greatly corrected. This work should be continued in the future; in the spirit of 'learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the sickness to save the patient', ideological education within the Party should be expanded on a still greater scale. The leading cadres at all levels and in all places must understand that this close integration of theory with practice is one of the distinguishing marks setting us Communists apart from every other party. Hence the mastery of ideological education is the central link in uniting the whole Party for great political struggles. If this task is not accomplished, none of the political tasks of the Party can be fulfilled.

Another distinguishing mark of us Communists, setting us apart from every other party, is our closest ties with the broadest masses of the people. To serve the Chinese people heart and soul, never to divorce ourselves from the masses; to proceed in everything from the interests of the people and not from the interests of one's own small group or oneself; to make responsibility to the people identical with responsibility to the leading organs of the Party — these are our starting points. Communists must at all times be ready to uphold truth, because every truth accords with the interests of the people. Communists must at all times be ready to correct their mistakes, because every mistake runs counter to the interests of the people. Twenty-four years of experience tell us that every correct task, policy and style of work accords with the demands of the masses in the given time and place, and maintains ties with the masses; and every erroneous task, policy and style of work fails to accord with the demands of the masses in the given time and place, and is divorced from the masses. Dogmatism, empiricism, commandism, tailism, sectarianism, bureaucratism, warlord ways, arrogant work-styles — all these malpractices are bad, are intolerable, and must be corrected wherever found, precisely because they divorce us from the masses. Our Congress should call upon the whole Party to be vigilant and to watch every comrade at every link of the work, so that no one becomes divorced from the masses. Every comrade should be taught to love the people, to listen carefully to their voice, to merge himself with the masses wherever he goes, not standing above them but among them, and, in accordance with their level of consciousness, to awaken them and raise their level, helping them step by step to organize themselves and to unfold all the necessary struggles permitted by the internal and external circumstances of the given time and place, on the principle of their own inner willingness. In all work, commandism is wrong, because it outruns the level of consciousness of the masses, violates the principle of their willingness, and suffers from the ailment of impatience. Our comrades must not imagine that everything they understand, the masses understand equally well. Whether the masses have understood, and whether they are willing to act, can be known only by going among them and finding out. If we do this, commandism can be avoided. In all work, tailism is also wrong, because it lags behind the level of consciousness of the masses, violates the principle of leading the masses a step forward, and suffers from the ailment of slowness. Our comrades must not imagine that everything they do not yet understand, the masses are equally unable to understand. Often the broad masses have run ahead of us, urgently needing to advance a step further; but our comrades, instead of serving as leaders of the broad masses, echo the views of a section of the backward elements, mistake their views for those of the broad masses, and become the tail of the backward elements. In short, every comrade must be made to understand that the highest standard for all the words and deeds of us Communists is whether they accord with the maximum interests of the broadest masses of the people and whether they are supported by the broadest masses of the people. Every comrade must be made to understand that, so long as we rely on the people, firmly believing that the creative powers of the masses are inexhaustible and therefore trusting them and merging ourselves with them, then no difficulty can be overcome and no enemy can crush us — they will only be crushed by us.

Whether we practise serious self-criticism is also one of the distinguishing marks setting us apart from other parties. As we have said, a house must be cleaned regularly, or dust will accumulate; a face must be washed regularly, or it will be covered with grime. The minds of our comrades and the work of our Party also gather dust, and should also be cleaned and washed. 'Running water does not grow stagnant, and a door-hinge is never eaten by worms' — this means that by constant motion they resist the erosion of micro-organisms and other organisms. For us, the regular examination of our work, the spreading of the democratic style in the course of examination, fearlessness of criticism and self-criticism, and the practice of 'saying all one knows and saying it without reserve', 'the blame lies with the speaker, but the hearer is warned', 'correct what is wrong, and be on guard against what is not' — these beneficial maxims of the Chinese people are the sole effective method of resisting the erosion of such political micro-organisms as errors and shortcomings, upon the minds of our comrades and the body of our Party. The rectification movement, whose purpose was 'learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and curing the sickness to save the patient', achieved such great effect precisely because in this movement we unfolded criticism and self-criticism that was correct and not distorted, serious and not perfunctory. Starting from the maximum interests of the broadest masses of the Chinese people, we Communists believe that our cause is entirely just, and we are ready to sacrifice everything personal, even our lives, for our cause. Is there any erroneous thought, view, opinion or method that does not accord with the people's needs and that we should be loath to discard? Should we welcome any political dust, any political micro-organism, to defile our clean faces and erode our healthy bodies? Countless revolutionary martyrs have laid down their lives for the interests of the people, and every one of us who lives feels a pang at the thought of them; is there any personal interest, or any error or shortcoming, that we cannot sacrifice for them?

Comrades, when our Congress has closed, we shall go to the battlefield and, in accordance with its resolutions, struggle to strike down the Japanese invaders and build a new China. To this end we must unite with the whole people of the country. I say it again: whatever class, party, group or individual he may belong to, provided he favours striking down the Japanese invaders and building a new China, we must unite with him. To this end we must unite our Party better and more firmly than ever before, under the organization and discipline of democratic centralism; whatever comrade it may be, provided he is willing to abide by the Party's programme, constitution and resolutions, we must unite with him. In the Northern Expedition period our Party had no more than 50,000 members, and most of them were later dispersed by the enemy of those days. In the land-revolution period it had no more than 300,000 members, and most of these too were later dispersed by the enemy of those days. Today we have more than 1,200,000 members; this time, whatever happens, we must not allow ourselves to be dispersed by the enemy. Provided we can absorb the experience of the three periods, adopt a modest attitude, guard against arrogance, and unite better with all our comrades within the Party and with the whole people outside it, we can be assured not only that we shall not be dispersed by the enemy, but on the contrary that we shall resolutely, thoroughly, cleanly and completely wipe out the Japanese invaders and their faithful lackeys, and that after wiping them out we shall build an independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous China.

The experience of the three revolutions, and above all the experience of the War of Resistance, has given us and the Chinese people this confidence: without the efforts of the Chinese Communist Party, without the Chinese Communists as the mainstay of the Chinese people, China's independence, freedom, democracy and unity would be impossible, and so would its industrialization and the modernization of its agriculture.

Comrades, I firmly believe that the Chinese Communist Party, with the experience of three revolutions behind it, is capable of fulfilling our great political tasks.

Mill upon mill of martyrs of the people and of the Party have laid down their lives heroically before us for the interests of the people; let us hold high their banner and march forward along their bloodstained trail!

An independent, free, democratic, unified and strong and prosperous China will soon be born; let us greet this great day!

Down with the Japanese invaders!

Long live the liberation of the Chinese people!

Delivered April 24, 1945; by Mao Zedong (on behalf of the CCP Central Committee).