Strengthening Party Work and Our Position on
Sun Yatsen's Attendance at the Northern Peace
Conference

(Central Circular no. 21)

(November 1, 1924)

To leading comrades of each prefectural committee, district committee, and
small group:

The resolution of the last Enlarged Plenum and several previous documents
issued by the Central Bureau have repeatedly stressed the point that inner-party
organizational work is the central task of the Party, with which all internal and
external developments are closely related. Recently Party work has become
heavier day by day, but inner-party organization has made no outstanding progress. Some local committees have not reported [to the Central Bureau] for a long
time. Some others have sent reports, but they are either completely unsystematic
or just too brief, and therefore give no clear idea of the progress of the work. If
such a careless attitude continues, it will have very bad effects. Notice is hereby
given once again to every comrade in a responsible position that in the days to
come he must be sure to pay particular attention to putting this matter right, and
at the very least accomplish the following tasks:

1. Group and local meetings must be held as usual without interruption.
2. At the meetings, concrete political questions should be constantly raised
for discussion in order to educate each comrade on the basis of our stand stated
in the official organ of our Party.
3. Responsible Party headquarters or group leaders should design work, assign jobs to all comrades, and train each of them to be a truly capable Party
member.
4. Directives from the Central Bureau should be immediately laid before a

Our translation is based on Zhonggong zhongyang wenjian xuanji, Vol. 1, 1921-1925, pp.
299-300, where the text is followed by the indication "based on the original document in
the Central Party Archives."


meeting for discussion whenever they arrive, and should be put into effect as far
as possible. Any obstacles that may be encountered during implementation, and
the result, must be reported to the Central [Bureau].
5. Committee or group leaders should report to the Central [Bureau] at least
once a week on the work done during that week.
6. The report ought not to be unduly sketchy, but should give a systematic
explanation of the details of every item of your work.

Chairman: T. S. Chen
Secretary: T. T. Mao

P.S. (Nov. 6) After sending out this circular, the Central Bureau has slightly
changed its policy. Now we have no fundamental objection to Sun Yatsen's
participation in the Northern Peace Conference,¹ but would seriously admonish
him to speak at the conference in conformity with the Party Program and the
Political Program of the Guomindang, as well as the Manifesto on the Northern
Expedition, and to expose the plot of the imperialists and warlords to act in
collusion at the conference for invading and ruling China.

1. On November 2, 1924, Cao Kun, who in the previous year had forced Li Yuanhong
to resign as president and taken his place, was himself compelled to abandon the presidency and placed under house arrest by Feng Yuxiang. Feng, Duan Qirui, and Zhang
Zuolin met in Tianjin on November 19 and organized a new government with Duan Qirui
as provisional chief executive. Together, they sent Sun Yatsen an invitation to come to the
north to discuss plans for national peace. The Guomindang was at first divided: the
left-wing and Communist members objected, fearing that Sun might make too many
concessions; the right-wing and conservative members favored a compromise with the
northern warlords in order to further the party's political power. Sun Yatsen left
Guangdong on November 13, 1924, and arrived in Beijing on December 31, 1924, via
Shanghai, Japan, and Tianjin.

—1925—