Opposition to the Right-Wing Conference
Spreads throughout the Whole Country
(January 10, 1926)

The right wing of the Guomindang, including Lin Sen, Zou Lu, Xie Chi, Zhang
Ji, Ju Zheng, Tan Zhen, Shi Ying, Ye Chucang, Shen Dingyi, Fu Rulin, Mao
Zuquan, Shao Yuanchong, and others¹ withdrew from the battlefront of the
national revolution just at the moment when the nationwide anti-imperialist
movement was reaching its peak and left-wing comrades were engaged in a
desperate struggle. Slowly, over a period of time, they have changed from a
revolutionary position to a nonrevolutionary position and then from a nonrevolutionary position to a counterrevolutionary position. It is for this reason that
they called the so-called Western Hills Conference. This Western Hills Conference has adopted an attitude that is absolutely identical with that of imperialism.
It has adopted a stance of attacking the left wing of the Guomindang and the
national government in Guangzhou. When the news was announced, the whole
nation was thrown into an uproar. The people of the entire nation love the
national government of the left wing of the Guomindang because it is truly
capable of opposing imperialism. How, then, can those who call themselves
members of the Guomindang scheme, on the contrary, to attack and destroy it?
So the left-wing members of the party and the organizations of the revolutionary
popular masses have joined together to oppose them, sending a flood of letters
and telegrams every single day since early December, as reported in the previous
issue of this magazine. We shall set out below, for all to examine, letters and
telegrams attacking the right wing received from various places in mid-December.

This text first appeared in Zhengzhi zhoubao, No. 4, January 10, 1926. Our source is Mao
Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 2, pp. 141-42.
1. The men listed here were, as Mao indicates, leading figures in the Western Hills
faction. On Zou Lu, see the note to Mao's article dated December 5, 1925, "Zou Lu and
the Revolution." On Lin Sen, see the relevant note to "The Central Executive Committee
Sternly Repudiates the Illegal Meeting," November 27, 1925. Xie Chi (1876-1939), zi
Huisheng, a native of Sichuan, and Zhang Ji (1882-1947), zi Puquan, a native of Zhili, were
both Guomindang veterans who had been among the first, in June 1924, to impeach the
Communists and demand their expulsion from the party. On Ye Chucang, see the note to "The
Causes of the Reactionary Attitude of the Shanghai Minguo ribao," December 20, 1925. On Ju
Zheng, see above, the note to the session of the First National Congress on January 20, 1924.
He played a major role in the Western Hills Conference, and was elected to the rival Central
Executive Committee in April 1926. The others mentioned by Mao were of lesser importance.

Of the several hundred thousand party members nationwide, not more than a few
thousand are real rightists, while the vast majority belong to the revolutionary
left wing. The organizations of the peasant, worker, merchant, and student popular masses throughout the country are all under the leadership of the left wing.
Within this single month, an antirightist atmosphere has spread throughout the
entire land. At present, the Second National Congress has already met and has
taken a very stern position vis-a-vis the right wing. Those who were there on
New Year's Day, when the congress reviewed the troops on the parade grounds
and the cry "Down with the right wing!" shook heaven and earth, could see the
direction in which things were moving. Last time we noted antirightist writings
through No. 20, so we here note them from No. 21 on.²

2. "Last time" refers to Mao's comment on December 13, 1925, "Revolutionary Party
Members rally en Masse..., which introduced "antirightist writings" Nos. 1 through 20.
As indicated in a note to that text, these materials, which are not by Mao, were omitted
from the Tokyo edition of Mao's works, and have not been translated here. the same
applied to documents Nos. 21 to 49, which followed this piece in Zhengzhi zhoubao.