To the workers, peasants, soldiers, and all oppressed people throughout China: We hereby declare that the League of Nations is a gang of imperialist plunderers engaged in the partition of China. The primary mission of the Lytton Commission dispatched to China was to devise a plan for the dismemberment of China and the suppression of all revolutionary movements under the banner of the Chinese Soviet regime. Now, the report of this imperialist band of robbers—the Lytton Commission’s Partition Plan for China—has been made public. This is an ultimatum issued by imperialism to the Chinese people, laying out a scheme to carve up the country; yet the traitorous Nationalist Party and its government have wholeheartedly endorsed and accepted this new plan.

The report openly asserts that Japan and all other imperialist powers should not only occupy Manchuria but also divide up the entire territory of China. It explicitly declares that Japan’s seizure of Manchuria and its bloody assault on Shanghai are justified. It calls upon the imperialist powers to unite in carving up China and annihilating the revolutionary movement within its borders—beginning with a more ferocious offensive against the nationwide national-revolutionary war and the land-reform movement led by the Chinese Soviet government, as well as against the anti-Japanese guerrilla forces in Manchuria, the countrywide anti-Japanese and anti-imperialist campaigns, and the boycott of foreign goods.

In a shameless bid to disarm the Chinese people of their anti-imperialist resolve and lull them into passivity, the report proposes designating Manchuria as an “autonomous state,” establishing an international gendarmerie there, and turning it into a base from which the imperialists can launch a full-scale attack on the Soviet Union. At the same time, it employs such phrases as “sovereignty over Manchuria remains with China” in a deliberate attempt to neutralize popular resistance. Finally, it repeatedly instructs the Nationalist authorities to intensify their attacks on the Red Army, to surrender ever more faithfully to imperialism, to betray the nation’s interests, and to suppress with ruthless brutality the anti-imperialist movement, the boycott campaign, and the working-class struggle, even resorting to mass slaughter of the Chinese people.

The Soviet government calls upon the people of the entire country to take up arms and, under its leadership, to tear to shreds the Lytton Report through a revolutionary national war—resisting all imperialist schemes to partition China, to invade the Soviet areas, to oppress the Chinese revolution, and to launch fresh assaults on the Soviet Union! Let us drive Japan and all other imperialist aggressors out of China, thereby securing the complete liberation and independence of the Chinese nation! Let us arm ourselves to defend the Soviet Union and establish a social alliance between the laboring masses of China and the Soviet Union.

The Soviet government proclaims to the workers, peasants, soldiers, and all oppressed people across the country: To wage a genuine national-revolutionary war against imperialist partition of China, we must first overthrow the Nationalist reactionary regime, which serves as the enforcer of imperialist dismemberment and the suppressor of the national struggle. The Nationalist Party and its government have fully embraced the imperialist partition plan, treating it as the basis for negotiations. All the various factions within the Nationalist camp have engaged in endless deliberations and studies, while their verbal expressions of dissatisfaction with certain provisions of the report are nothing more than a smokescreen to conceal their treachery and deceive the populace. Rather than defending the nation, the Nationalists would gladly hand over Northeast China, Shanghai, and the whole of China to the imperialists; meanwhile, they mobilize millions of troops—under the direction and with the assistance of imperialism—to mount a massive offensive against the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, the true vanguard of the national revolutionary movement, in a desperate effort to destroy the genuinely anti-imperialist Soviet government and prevent the Red Army from joining forces with the brave anti-imperialist fighters and volunteer armies to confront the imperialists directly. They also aid the imperialists in massacring those volunteer units that have sold out Manchuria, suppress the nationwide anti-imperialist movement, block the boycott campaign and workers’ strikes, and carry out wholesale slaughter of the working and farming masses—all in order to curry favor with the imperialists. Only by overthrowing this Nationalist regime that betrays the nation’s interests can we successfully conduct the national-revolutionary war.

The Soviet government is leading the nationwide Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and the vast ranks of toiling masses in the Soviet areas in a relentless struggle against the imperialist-backed Nationalist forces. We have already triumphantly repelled four successive offensives launched by the Nationalists, using revolutionary warfare to shatter their reactionary rule!

People throughout the country, rise up in arms! Resist the Nationalists’ fourth assault on the Soviet areas, overthrow the Nationalist regime as a lackey of imperialism, and rally behind the Red Army and the Soviet government! Only the Soviet government is truly capable of leading the nation in a revolutionary national war, confronting Japan directly and opposing imperialist partition of China. Only the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army represents the armed vanguard of the people engaged in this national struggle—the valiant warriors of the Red Army and the broad masses of working peasants and laborers in the Soviet regions! Let us vigorously pursue revolutionary warfare, mounting a determined offensive against the imperialist-backed Nationalist forces to crush this fourth “encirclement and suppression” campaign!

Workers, peasants, soldiers, and all toiling masses in both the Soviet and non-Soviet zones: Arm yourselves spontaneously, organize volunteer militias, stage strikes, launch boycott campaigns, and wage active struggle against the imperialist-backed Nationalist regime. Under the red banner of the Soviet government, let all revolutionary elements unite in waging a national-revolutionary war—to oppose imperialist partition of China, to overthrow the Nationalist dictatorship, to drive Japanese imperialism and all other foreign aggressors out of China, to establish a Soviet government representing the entire Chinese people, and thus to achieve the complete independence and liberation of the Chinese nation!

Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic; Xiang Ying and Zhang Guotao, Vice Chairmen October 6, 1931, Ruijin, Jiangxi Province