(February 16, 1930)

The Joint Conference of the Fourth Army Front Committee, the Western Jiangxi
Special Committee, and the Army Committees of the Fifth and Sixth Armies,
held at Pitou in Ji'an, met for four days, February 6 to 9.1 The political situation
at the time of the convening of the Joint Conference was that imperialism was
actively preparing war against the Soviet Union, that the world proletariat and
the oppressed colonial masses were rising up together to oppose imperialism,
that the confused wars among the Chinese warlords were expanding daily, that
financial and economic crisis was spreading throughout the whole country, that
the opposition movement of the workers, peasants, soldiers, and urban poor
was developing everywhere, and especially that the Red armed struggle in
several southern provinces, with Jiangxi as its center, was developing on a
large scale, with over three million workers, peasants, soldiers, and members
of the impoverished masses carrying the Red flag. The Joint Conference
clearly recognizes that with the movement of the imperialists to attack the
Soviet Union, a high tide of world revolution will burst out, that the high tide
of the Chinese revolution will arrive very soon, that Chinese soviets will
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 3, pp. 83-85, where it is
taken from two documentary collections published in China, one in 1979 and one in 1982.
1. This conference was convened by Mao in Pitou village, Donggu District, Ji'an xian.
As indicated in the final paragraph of the present text, Mao's Fourth Army Front Committee was transformed into a General Front Committee, and assumed overall control of the
operations of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Armies. Zhu De, commander of the Fourth
Army, Peng Dehuai, commander of the Fifth Army, and Huang Gonglue, commander of
the Sixth Army, all became members of the reorganized committee. At the same time, the
Western Jiangxi and Southern Jiangxi Special Committees were combined into a Southwest Jiangxi Special Committee. The conference adopted the February 7 Land Law,
translated above. Regarding broader questions of strategy, it not only reaffirmed the view,
which Mao had been putting forward since April 1929, that power could be seized in the
whole of Jiangxi in the relatively near future, but held out the prospect, in the present document, of a victory in the whole country which would contribute to the world revolution.
appear as successors to the Russian soviets, and that they will become a
powerful branch of the world soviets. Within China a Jiangxi soviet will
appear first, because the objective conditions and subjective forces are more
mature in Jiangxi than in other provinces. The Joint Conference clearly recognized that the armed struggle in the five provinces of Fujian, Guangdong,
Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Hunan, centered on Jiangxi, is a situation that is developing daily, that it is a fresh banner of the land revolution which affects the
entire country, that it is a powerful element pushing forward the revolutionary high tide in the whole country, and also that it has worldwide significance
as a powerful element providing armed support for the soviets and promoting
the world revolution.
On the basis of the above political assessment, the Joint Conference determined that the major tasks of the Party are: (1) to expand the territory of the
soviets, and in particular to raise the slogan of seizing the entire province of
Jiangxi; (2) to deepen the land revolution; (3) to expand the armed forces of the
workers and peasants. The realization of these three tasks will bring about the
successive elimination, under the Red flag, of the reactionary forces in the various southern provinces, will rally the broad popular masses together around the
Red flag, and will become a great force that will push forward the revolution in
the whole country. The Joint Conference also told our comrades, and all those
masses presently engaged in struggle, that the realization of these three tasks will
not come entirely without effort, that it can be obtained only through intense and
bitter struggle, and that with the advance of the revolutionary forces the struggle
will become greater and more arduous than ever before. For our opponent is not
just those who rule China-the bourgeoisie and the landlord class; it is also those
who rule the world the imperialists. But the future of the difficult struggle will
inevitably be that the high tide of the revolution in the whole country will help
the forces of revolution in the south, so the revolutionary forces in the south will
merge together with the revolutionary forces in the whole country to bury the
ruling classes completely.
The Joint Conference points out that there is a severe crisis in the Party in
western and southern Jiangxi. It consists in the fact that the local leading
organs of the Party at all levels are filled with landlords and rich peasants,
and the Party's policy is completely opportunist. If we do not thoroughly
clean up this situation, not only will it be impossible to carry out the Party's
great political tasks but the revolution will suffer a fundamental defeat. The
Joint Conference calls on all revolutionary comrades within the Party to
arise, overthrow the opportunist political leadership, eliminate the landlords
and rich peasants from the Party, and see to it that the Party is rapidly
bolshevized.
The revolutionary land law passed by the Joint Conference rejects the gradual
redistribution of land and points out that, no matter where it occurs, after an
uprising has driven out the despotic gentry, their lands must be confiscated