Telegram from the Executive Committee of the
All-China Peasant Association on Taking Office
(April 9, 1927)

The Central Party Headquarters in Wuhan, the national government, the National
Federation of Labor Unions, all provincial party headquarters, all provincial
governments, all provincial peasant associations, all provincial federations of
labor unions, all provincial associations of businessmen, all provincial federations of student unions, all provincial federations of teachers, officers and soldiers of the national revolution, and all newspapers:

The development of the peasant movement throughout the country has
gathered enormous momentum. Five provinces have already established provincial peasant associations; more than ten provinces have set up preparatory
offices for provincial peasant associations. There are already more than 10 million organized peasants in the whole country. A central national organization is
urgently required in order to unite the front of the peasants across the whole
country. On March 30, representatives from the peasant associations in
Guangdong, Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi, and from the Henan Armed
Peasants' Self-Defense Army, held a joint conference in Wuchang, and
elected Deng Yanda,¹ Mao Zedong, Tan Yankai,² Tan Pingshan,³ Xu Qian,

This telegram appeared in the Hankou Minguo ribao on April 17, 1927. Our source is the
text as reproduced in Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 9, pp. 219-20.
1. On Deng Yanda, see the note to the text of March 19, 1927.
2. On Tan Yankai, see the note to Mao's letter of December 3, 1920, and Mao's
discussion of his role in the text of July 1, 1923, translated above, "Hunan under the
Provisional Constitution."
3. Tan Pingshan (1887-1956) was a native of Guangdong. After graduating from
Beijing University in 1920, he participated in the organization of the Socialist Youth
League in Guangzhou, and by 1923 he was a leading figure in the Guangdong branch of
the Chinese Communist Party, which he represented at the Third Congress. At the First
Congress of the Guomindang in January 1924, he was one of three Communists elected a
full member of the Central Executive Committee. In November 1926 he went to Moscow
as Chinese Communist Party delegate to the Seventh Plenum of the Executive Committee
of the Comintern. On his return, he left Guangzhou for Wuhan, where at the time of the
Third Plenum he was elected to the presidium of the Political Council and took charge of
the Ministry of Peasant Affairs [Nongzheng bu]. This organ is often referred to as the
Ministry of Agriculture, but as the Resolution on the Peasant Question of March 16, 1927
(translated above), which announced its establishment, makes plain, it was concerned with
satisfying the demands of the peasants.