At the Joint Meeting of the Central Executive Committee and Provincial and Municipal Party Headquarters of the Kuomintang[1]

(October 27–28, 1926)

I

The most important policy of our Party is the peasant policy. The advance collection of land taxes is enough to make the peasants suspicious of our Party. It would be more feasible to adopt the method of public bonds, taking from a small number of wealthy individuals.

II

Yesterday, according to Minister Song, the advance collection of land taxes yielded only two to three million yuan. Why cause tens of millions of peasants or the majority of the people to doubt whether our resolutions can be implemented over such a trifling sum? I still advocate issuing three million yuan in solid public bonds, to be raised from solid merchants.

[1] Sections I and II are part of Mao Zedong’s two speeches on “No Advance Collection of Land Taxes” at the Joint Meeting of the Central Executive Committee and Provincial and Municipal Party Headquarters of the Kuomintang on October 27 and 28, 1926. Section III is part of his speech on the 28th concerning the status and powers of the joint meeting and whether its resolutions are valid.

At the Joint Meeting of the Central Executive Committee and Provincial and Municipal Party Headquarters of the Kuomintang

III

The nature of the joint meeting was already made very clear by Chairman Tan at the opening.[1] Today, Comrade Ding[2] suddenly raised a question—what a strange thing. To say that the joint meeting has no status—why then did the Central Committee convene this meeting? Today, in amending the resolutions of the First and Second National Congresses, its actual powers have already surpassed those of the National Congress. I consider all the resolutions of the joint meeting to be completely valid, and furthermore, no one may come to amend them.

[1] Tan Yankai stated in his opening address: Because the Northern Expedition has achieved considerable success, “we should have new methods of response. Therefore, after discussion by the Central Standing Committee and the Political Council, it was deemed necessary to convene a National Congress to decide on policies. However, it is not easy to convene one at this time. If we convene a plenary session of the Central Committee, the number of participants would not be very large. Hence, we have asked the provinces to send delegates to join us in a meeting for discussion.” “At this meeting, all those present have the right to vote on resolutions.”

[2] Comrade Ding, i.e., Ding Huaifen, then a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang.