The Greatest Talent of the Right Wing
(December 20, 1925)

An editorial that appeared on December 3 in the right-wing organ, the Shanghai
Republican Daily, states, "The warlords fear the revolutionary party, but since
when does the revolutionary party fear the warlords?" This is the reason they use
to oppose the following telegram from Wang Jingwei and others: "The plenary
sessions of the Central Executive Committee are open meetings. If held in Beijing, the meetings would be subject to external pressure from the warlords and to
internal obstruction by reactionary elements making use of the warlords." Thus
the Republican Daily thinks that by holding its plenary session in Beijing the
Central Executive Committee would be able to demonstrate courage and show
that it did not fear the warlords. Why is the Republican Daily wrong? It is wrong
in that it does not understand that there is a distinction between the open activities and the secret activities of a revolutionary party. When acting within the
enemy's sphere of influence, a truly revolutionary party organizes and meets in
total secrecy, while its proposals and propaganda are public. When within the
enemy's sphere of influence, if the party wants to hold a public meeting on party
organization, it must first obtain dispensation from the enemy. There must be at
least a few things that are in the enemy's interest before he will give his tacit
approval, much less his protection. But what kind of a party would this be? This
would simply be a friend of the enemy, and not a revolutionary party that wants
to overthrow the enemy. Duan Qirui gave permission for the right wing to hold
open meetings in Beijing, but would he permit Wang Jingwei, Tan Yankai, and
others like them to hold open meetings in Beijing? This paper also states that
Director General Sun Yatsen went to Beijing last year and was not afraid of
Duan Qirui. They ignore the fact that there were two factors that made it possible
for Director General Sun to go to Beijing last year. One factor was that, having
just taken office, Duan Qirui's political position was not yet secure, and he had
not yet decided on the policy of suppressing the Guomindang; and the other
factor was that power over the police was still in the hands of Feng Yuxiang,
who was sympathetic to the Guomindang. If it had not been for these two
factors, Mr. Sun would not have been able to go openly to Beijing. If Mr. Sun
were still alive, Duan Qirui would definitely not allow him to engage openly in

This text appeared in Zhengzhi zhoubao, No. 3, December 20, 1925. Our source is Mao
Zedong ji, Vol. 1, pp. 139-40.
the revolutionary movement in Beijing today, and he would certainly have to go
into hiding or flee somewhere else. In Beijing and in all places throughout China
that are under the control of the reactionary warlords, there are Guomindang
organizations. There are organs of all levels of the party everywhere, party
members and cadre comrades all hold frequent meetings, and they all have
various courageous tasks in the advancing struggle, in the attempt to destroy the
power of the enemy. But this is all in secret. Within these organizations and
tasks, it is only the left wing that is there, continually struggling. The right-wing
members of the party are all afraid to get near the front. The strong points of the
right wing are that they can open their mouths and spout a few slogans like
"Down with imperialism" or "Down with the warlords," and that they can also
recite the resolutions of the party strictly from memory. As for taking any real
measures to engage in real activities, they get frightened out of their wits if they
even hear about them. The right wing is all mouths, without hands and feet. They
only have the guts to hold meetings in front of Duan Qirui. They don't have the
guts to come to meetings in Guangzhou because the revolutionary atmosphere of
Guangzhou would scare them to death. They have resolved that their so-called
Second National Congress will be held in March of next year in either Shanghai
or Beijing. As I see it, if their congress really is able to convene (no matter how
many attend), they may not necessarily dare to hold it in Beijing, because the
dragon throne of Chief Executive Duan is already not very stable. They will
probably meet in Shanghai.¹ To hold the National Party Congress of the
Guomindang openly, right in the old lair of the imperialists, right in front of all
the foreign consuls and the City Council and that red-headed guy from the police
station of the big foreigners, that would really be a show of "courage." To be
able to hold meetings openly, right in front of the warlords and imperialists, this
is the greatest talent of the right wing. Left wingers could never match this!

-1926-

1. Mao's conjecture was correct. The Guomindang Party Congress which the Western
Hills Faction proposed to hold, in opposition to that of January 1926 in Guangzhou,
finally convened in April 1926 in Shanghai and elected Lin Sen as chairman of a rival
Central Executive Committee. The "Shanghai" Guomindang existed until the reunification
of the party following the reconciliation between Chiang Kaishek and the Wuhan or
"Left" Guomindang in September 1927.