Eight Great Conditions for Victory¹
(December 22, 1930)
I. The International Situation Is Conducive to the
Final Class Struggle, and Is Unfavorable for Imperialism
A. The Clashes and Fears of the Imperialists
Italy has fierce clashes with France, so it has gathered together those countries
hostile to France Germany, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Soviet
Union to form a bloc of seven countries to deal with France. France then
became terrified that Italy and Germany might stand on the side of the Soviet
Union. Germany says, if you (Britain, France, and the United States) do not
cancel my reparations, I shall make friends with the Soviet Union. Italy says, if
you do not permit me to build a big navy, I shall also be a friend of the Soviet
Union. It is terrible for those big imperialist countries (Britain, France, and the
United States) either to agree, or not to agree. All this shows that they have
irreconcilable clashes among them.
and unemployment in Britain have become very severe. Its foreign trade is not
profitable. Its domestic industries and commerce are all screaming, as if great
turmoil is about to burst out. So the British imperialists are in a panic, and want
to organize a five-man régime to cope with the turmoil by the use of concentrated power.² This shows that the internal problems are indeed considerable! In
the United States, goods are piled up and rotting, but seven million workers have
no food to eat.
The United States has produced too much wheat, and cannot sell it. The
capitalists only shout at the farmers who cultivate the land not to grow any more
wheat. But there are seven million workers who have no money to buy wheat to
B. The Development of the World Revolutionary Tide
party of the capitalists) all over the place, and it also has confrontations with the
police everywhere. In the streets, shootings with handguns are common occurrences. Clashes have even occurred over a performance in a theater (one opposing the imperialist wars), with the Nazi Party opposing its performance and the
Communist Party staging demonstrations in favor of performance. The streets
are simply zones of guerrilla warfare. Probably the German proletariat will soon
stage an insurrection.
workers have already begun to strike in Britain, and conditions are favorable for
the expansion of the strike to the whole country. The Communist Party is growing among the striking workers. Over 200,000 representatives of the National
Association of Mine Workers are under the leadership of the Communist Party.
This situation cannot be taken lightly!
massive unemployment in the imperialist United States, the Communist Party
has developed greatly, and the U.S. imperialists are so frightened that they have
organized a committee for the investigation of the Communist Party. According
to the report of the investigating committee, there are over 500,000 Communist
Party members. The Communist Party is already organizing large demonstrations, and working with great enthusiasm.
the White Russians. They want to destroy all the machines in factories and on the
railroads, thus making Soviet industry bankrupt, and then send troops to intervene. This big conspiracy has been discovered by the Soviet Union. Those
criminals have confessed that Britain is an accomplice. The Soviet Union has
told the whole world through the wireless about these confessions, and proclaimed the crimes of the imperialists. [People everywhere] have risen up to
oppose imperialism, and they are all red in the face [with anger]. Now the
Soviet proletariat are more united, and Communist Party members have organized patrols on horseback, which are busy patrolling factories and railroads.
II. The Domestic Situation Is Favorable for the Decisive
Class Battle, and Is Unfavorable for Chiang Kaishek and Lu Diping
A. The Clashes within the Ruling Class
(Seen from the Following Events)
Xueliang wants to reorganize twenty divisions, and Yan Xishan has reorganized
the Tenth Army, handing over the military and political management to Xu
Yongchang and Shang Zhen in name, but in reality controlling it in secret. Yan
and Zhang sent representatives to hold meetings in Tianjin. Feng Yuxiang nominally wants to transfer Sun Liangcheng, Song Zheyuan and others back to Gansu
and to concentrate in Shanxi, [X][X] in fact wants to attack Shaanxi. Zhang
Xueliang also tries hard to curry favor with Shi Yousan, and Shi Yousan is
meeting with various important personalities of the Zhang faction in Tianjin.
What tricks are being played? The trick is that Zhang Xueliang uses great
strength in pulling the subordinates of Yan and Feng over to expand his own
forces. He also wants to start chaotic fighting among the warlords. Chiang
Kaishek is still deploying heavy forces on the Longhai line,4 and has located one
field headquarters in Luoyang with Gu Zhujie as the commander. This is to
men and horses of the Eighth Route Army to attack Guangxi. The outcome of the
fighting is that the forces of Zhang and Guangxi have gained the upper hand,
thanks to the defeat they inflicted on the forces from Yunnan. Chiang Kaishek
could do nothing about it, and outwardly negotiated peace with them. Guangxi
is, however, still dominated by Huang Shaoxiong of Guangxi, and this issue is
still unresolved.
each other.
B. The Development of the Revolutionary Forces
Guo Rudong led troops to attack Hubei and by [X][X]. Who could have
known that when the troops arrived there, a whole battalion would riot. The large
uprising of one battalion of men indicates the extent of wavering and collapsing
of the enemy forces. Chiang Kaishek was seized by panic, and had to dismiss
Guo Rudong.
The First Army of the Red Army has been in northeast Hubei from the
beginning. In the past, Chiang Kaishek ordered Xiu Qianyuan to attack it, and
now he will also send Xiao Zhichu, and planes as well. This shows that he has no
way to deal with this revolutionary force.

--- Notes
Committee held at Huangpi in early to mid December of 1930. It was based on Mao's
speeches at this meeting. Thus, the substance is his, though he did not actually draft the
text.
Government to deal with the General Strike of 1926.
eat, and who are unemployed and hungry. On the one hand, the wheat is piled up
and rotting, and on the other hand, the workers are starving. You see how strange
things are under imperialism. The United States also produces a lot of silver,
which is stored and without borrowers. Thus, the price of silver has dropped
steeply, and it is really a big disaster. Iron, steel and rubber are also difficult to
sell. Therefore, over a hundred and thirty banks have collapsed within seven
days. This is the so-called panic of overproduction. Now the whole world is in
such a state.
In Japan, a big earthquake has taken place. Japan's industries started to panic
a long time ago. They have long demanded a policy of retrenchment (using less
money and doing less business). Now the big earthquake has occurred, destroying countless houses, factories, and bridges, and killing many people. With this
big blow of an iron hammer, the Japanese imperialists are crying out fearfully in
their distress.³
had been held in March 1930, to celebrate the successful renewal of the city after the
disaster, so the years 1923-1930 could have been seen as the period of the earthquake and
its aftermath, but that would scarcely have justified the verdict that the Japanese were
"crying out fearfully in their distress." Probably, as in the case of the "five-man dictatorship" in Britain mentioned above, Mao and his comrades simply did not know much about
the chronology of events outside China.
Xi'an across Henan to the sea in northern Jiangsu.
counterbalance Feng Yuxiang. A field headquarters was established in
Zhengzhou with He Yingqin5 as the commander, obviously targeting Shi
Yousan and the subordinates of Yan. In addition, Sun Lianzhong has been sent
to Yanzhou, Wang Jun has been deployed in Xuzhou and Jin Handing has been
stationed in Haizhou. All these are reactions against Zhang Xueliang. There are
troops all along the Longhai line. What is this trick? This is a preparation for
new major fighting. There were Chiang, Feng and Yan in the past, and there is a
Zhang Xueliang added now. We must use the decisive class battle to oppose
these big chaotic wars that massacre the workers and peasants!
tactics in Japan, and from 1924 on was closely associated with Chiang Kaishek in building
up the Guomindang's armed forces, first at the Huangpu Academy and then in the course
of the Northern Expedition. In 1929, he became chief of staff of the army, navy, and
airforce, and in March 1930 he was named minister of war in the national government. In
December 1930, when this document was composed, He had just been appointed to
command the first "bandit suppression campaign" against the Communists.
appointed to the command of the Twentieth Army by the Wuhan government in May
1927.

--- Notes

1. Italy has formed an alliance of seven countries with itself as the center.

2. Britain wants to set up a five-man dictatorship. The problems of strikes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 3, pp. 193-200.

1. The German Communist Party is staging uprisings everywhere. The German Communist Party is clashing with the National Socialist Party (the die-hard

2. The general strike of the mine workers in Britain. Ninety thousand mine

3. The Communist Party of the United States is working with great enthusiasm. In the past the U.S. Communist Party was not up to much. Now, with

4. The Soviet Union has proclaimed the crimes of the imperialists. The fiveyear industrial plan of the Soviet Union is developing day by day. The imperialists are terrified, and are trying to disrupt it from within in collusion with

1. The confrontations between Chiang and Zhang, Yan and Feng. Zhang

2. The issue of Guangxi remains unsettled. Chiang Kaishek has sent many

3. The small warlords of Sichuan and Yunnan are also preparing to fight with

1. A large uprising of one battalion of soldiers of the forces of Guo Rudong.6

2. The revolutionary forces in northeast Hubei cannot be crushed.

1. This document was drafted in the course of the enlarged plenum of the Front

2. The reference is presumably to the establishment of an inner cabinet by the British

3. The great Tokyo earthquake took place, of course, in 1923. A rebuilding festival

4. As noted earlier, the Longhai line was a major East-West rail artery extending from

5. He Yingqin (1890-1987), zi Jingzhi, was a native of Guizhou. He studied military

6. Guo Rudong (1892-1958), zi Songyun, was a native of Sichuan who had been