Proposal to Appoint Mao Zedong as General
Political Commissar
Letter to the Central Bureau of the Soviet Areas
of the Chinese Communist Party
(July 25, 1932)
To the Central Bureau:
We are of the opinion that in order to facilitate battle command at the front, it
would be appropriate to eliminate the office of chairman of the government and
establish instead the position of general political commissar, and to have Mao
[Zedong] fill said position. Battle command would be in the hands of the commander-in-chief and the general political commissar, battle plans and decisions
would be made by the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, Central Bureau representatives would make decisions as regards guiding principles for action, and meetings would be limited to those of the Military Commission. We
await a speedy response as to how you view such an approach.
Zhou Mao Zhu Wang
Our source for this letter is Zhou Enlai shuxin xuanji (Selected Letters of Zhou Enlai)
(Beijing: Zhongyang Wenxian chubanshe, 1988). p. 79.
1. For information as to the context of this telegram, see the discussion of the circumstances leading up to the Ningdu Conference in the Introduction.