OPEN LETTER TO THE PEOPLE OF THE WHOLE COUNTRY ON THE BETRAYAL OF CHINESE NATIONAL INTERESTS BY THE KUOMINTANG REACTIONARY GOVERNMENT

11 December 1931

[Text] Dear Beloved workers, peasants, soldiers and revolutionary students! The Kuomintang reactionary government is once more engaging in new secret deals to betray China, the Chinese national interests, and the Chinese people. According to the news in the papers: The Kuomintang government has reorganized the setting up of a neutral zone in Chinchow, has brought in the organizing of international control of Tientsin and has recognized all previous secret treaties betraying the country and the national interests.

Brothers and sisters! Do you all understand what this means? It means that tens of thousands of li of territory in Manchuria and several tens of millions of people are irrevocably lost to Japanese Imperialism and for them to trample upon! It means that Chinchow and Tientsin are to be presented on a platter to International Imperialism, and for them to despoil! And it is to put heavy chains and shackles on the 400 million people of China so that generation upon generation of our children will be forever subjugated to the oppression and exploitation of Japanese and International Imperialism and become slaves without a country! Brothers and sisters! This is unprecedented and shocking news of plotting to betray the nation, but the reactionary ruling class is clamoring such lies as "revolutionary diplomacy," "final preparations," and "march forth to recover lost territory." This is truly the most shameless plot ever hatched under the sun!

Brothers! Sisters! Can we allow the reactionary rule to connive freely with imperialism to carve us up like sheep? Can we watch our land being forcefully taken away by Japanese imperialism? Can we endure the cruelest kind of oppression, slaughter, and humiliation suffered by slaves in the colonies? Can we silently watch our own brothers being whipped, insulted, and slaughtered? Can we unfeelingly watch our sisters being molested, insulted, and raped? No! No! Ten thousand times no! We must rise up unison to oppose, oppose the aggression of Japanese and international imperialism; oppose the shameless capitulation of the Kuomintang rulers, to imperialism, and its betrayal of China! Go on strike, boycott classes, and stop work! Seize the weapons of the reactionaries to arm ourselves and let us all strive to drive out Japanese imperialism and overthrow the running dogs of imperialism--the Kuomintang!

Brothers! Sisters! Can we still have any illusions and hopes for the Kuomintang rule? The Kuomintang rule has brought year after year of famine without end, caused tens of millions of the working masses to live a life of suffering, homeless, destitute, hungry, and cold, turned millions of jobless workers in the streets with no means of livelihood, fomented endless wars of the warlords which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of soldiers, whose bones lie scattered in the wilderness, made orphans and widows homeless, manufactured countless tragic incidents and secret treaties undermining national interests and humiliating the nation, and caused China to fall under the iron heel of imperialism with no hope of emancipation. Can we have one more minute of patience with the reactionary rule whose crimes stink to high heavens? No, no, ten thousand times no! What should we do, then? We should all rise as one and topple this reactionary rule of the Kuomintang! Organize and unite, prepare our forces and weapons, and carry out armed uprisings to overthrow the Kuomintang rule and establish a people's own government! Carry out a war of anti-imperialism and national liberation under the leadership of our own political power!

Brothers! Sisters! Can we be victorious over Japanese and international imperialisms after we overthrow the reactionary rule and organized our own political power to fight a revolutionary war? Can we smash the well-trained and well-supported troops of imperialism? Yes, yes, ten thousand times yes! After 4 years of massive war, the powerless worker and peasant masses of Russia relied on their own power, and the leadership of the Bolsheviks to smash the allied army of 14 nations. And so can we. The unity of tens of millions of people is a force that is superior than all the planes and artillery of the imperialists! And, what is more, we have the proletariat of the world, the oppressed slaves of the colonies, and the USSR, which occupies one-sixth of the world, on our side. Rise up, overthrow the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang, establish our own government, and wage a bloody war to the death with Imperialism!

Brothers! Sisters! The Provisional Central Soviet Government announces to you: The soviet government is the only revolutionary government that opposes imperialism to the end. With the objective to achieve a complete independence and liberation of the Chinese nation, we oppose all open and secret, unequal treaties between the reactionary government of China and imperialism; we oppose secret diplomacy; we propose the routing of all land, sea, and air forces of imperialism from China; we propose the confiscation of all banks, mines, railways, and enterprises of imperialism in China; we deny all foreign debts; we regard the Kuomintang governments in Nanking and Kwantung as no different from the traitorous government of landlords and the capitalist class, and they have no right whatsoever to represent the working masses of China. The soviet government holds that all negotiations and agreements between them and imperialism are null and void. With regard to the Manchuria incident, we

propose the immediate and unconditional pull-out of all Japanese troops from China, abrogate all Sino-Japanese treaties, confiscate all Japanese banks, mines, railways, and business enterprises in China, recover all foreign concessions, abolish consular jurisdictional rights, and draft new and equal treaties with due respect to the independence and freedom of Soviet China. Otherwise, we shall carry out a resolute war of national liberation against the Japanese imperialists. However, in order to attain the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation, in order to carry out the war of national liberation and achieving victory, it is necessary to first of all overthrow the traitorous, counterrevolutionary Kuomintang government, the betrayer of Chinese national interests, and establish a soviet type democratic dictatorship of workers and peasants over the entire country.

Brothers! Sisters! Imperialist aggression is becoming more and more ruthless, the national betrayal of the Kuomintang is becoming more despicable day by day, and the sufferings of the working masses have become more and more unbearable! Rise up, the working masses of the entire nation, unite, organize, and arm to fight a decisive battle with imperialism and with the Kuomintang! Rally around the banner of the soviets and drive out the counterrevolutionary rule of the Kuomintang with the worker-peasant revolution, overthrow the semi-colonial type of rule of imperialism in China, and achieve the freedom and liberation of the Chinese nation and the Chinese people! Oppose imperialism and oppose the oppression and the subterfuge of the anti-imperialist movement by the Kuomintang with strikes, school boycotts, and work stoppages!

Arm the masses and drive out Japanese imperialism!

Abrogate all negotiations and secret treaties between the Kuomintang and imperialism!

Overthrow the counterrevolutionary rule of the Kuomintang!

Down with imperialism!

Support the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic--the Chinese people's own government!

Support the Red Army--the Chinese people's own, and the only armed force that opposes imperialism to the end!

Long live the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation!

Long live Soviet China!

Mao Tse-tung, Chairman

Hsiang Ying, Chang Kuo-tao
Vice Chairmen