Circular Telegram opposing the Report of the
International Investigation Team
(October 6, 1932)
Workers, peasants, soldiers, and all the exploited masses of the whole country!
The Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic long ago
proclaimed to the popular masses of the whole country that the League of Nations is a league of robbers through which the various imperialisms are dismembering China. The principal task of the Lytton Commission of Enquiry, which
the League has sent to China, is to plan the partition of China and the suppression of all revolutionary movements under the banner of the Chinese soviets.
Now the report by the commission of enquiry of the league of imperialist
robbers--the Lytton Commission of Enquiry-has already been published. This
is an admirable document about the dismemberment of China shown to the
Chinese popular masses by the imperialists, and yet the Guomindang, which is
selling out and dishonoring the country, and also its government, are completely
in agreement and have accepted it!
The Lytton Report openly and most shamelessly announces a new plan for
partitioning China. It openly declares that the Japanese and all other imperialists
should not only occupy Manchuria, but also partition all of China. It explicitly
proclaims that it is justified for Japanese imperialism to occupy Manchuria and
perpetrate a bloodbath in Shanghai. It calls on all the various imperialists to join
forces to divide up China and destroy the revolutionary movement in China. First
of all, it wants to attack even more cruelly the national-revolutionary war and the
land revolution in China organized by the government of the Chinese Soviet
Republic, as well as the anti-Japanese war fought by Manchuria's volunteer
army, the anti-Japanese and anti-imperialist movement, and the boycott movement in the whole country. It shamelessly proposes that Manchuria be treated as
an "autonomous state," and that an international force of military police be
stationed there, to make of it a base for attack against the Soviet Union by
international imperialism, from which to launch active attacks against the
Soviet Union. At the same time, it uses terms such as "sovereignty belongs to
China" in an attempt to strip the Chinese popular masses of their anti-imperialist
Our source for this text is Mao Zedongji, Vol. 3, pp. 139-41, where it is reproduced from
materials published in China in 1932.

arms and benumb the masses of China, Finally, it repeatedly orders the
Guomindang to attack the Red Army even more actively, surrender to the imperialists even more loyally, sell out the national interest, make greater efforts to
suppress the anti-imperialist and boycott movements, and slaughter the Chinese
popular masses even more ruthlessly!
The Lytton Report is a contract of servitude by which imperialism reduces the
Chinese nation to slavery! The Soviet Government calls on the popular masses
of the whole country to arm themselves and, under the leadership of the Soviet
Government, to wage a national-revolutionary war to tear to shreds the Lytton
Report and to oppose all the new projects of the imperialists for dismembering
China, attacking the soviet areas, suppressing the Chinese revolution, and attacking the Soviet Union! Let us drive Japanese imperialism and all other imperialisms out of China, in order to obtain the complete liberation and
independence of the Chinese nation! Let us defend the Soviet Union with arms
in our hands and establish a social alliance between the toiling popular masses of
China and the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Government proclaims to the workers, peasants, and soldiers of
the whole country, and to all the oppressed popular masses, that ifwe really want
to wage a national-revolutionary war and oppose the partition of China by the
imperialists, we must first overthrow the reactionary rule of the Guomindang,
these scavengers who pick up the scraps of the imperialist dismemberment of
China and who are suppressing the national war! The Guomindang and its government accept, with total loyalty, the imperialists' report on the partition of
China and recognize it as the basis for negotiations. The different factions within
the Guomindang and its government have expressed verbally some dissatisfaction about certain points in the report in their discussions and studies of it. This is
no more than a smoke screen to cover up their selling out China, a cheap trick to
deceive the popular masses. The Guomindang prefers to give away the Three
Northeastern Provinces., Shanghai, and the whole of China to the imperialists; at
the same time, under the direction of and with the assistance of the imperialists,
it has mobilized a million troops to attack the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army,
which is truly leading the revolutionary popular masses of the whole country to
fight a national-revolutionary war. It is attempting to destroy the Soviet Government of the masses, which truly opposes imperialism, and to prevent the Red
Army from joining the heroic anti-imperialist soldiers and the members of the
volunteer army to fight imperialism directly. At the same time, it is helping the
imperialists to slaughter and betray the volunteer army of Manchuria, to suppress
the anti-imperialist movement in the whole country, to stop the boycott movement and strikes by workers, and to massacre workers, peasants, and the impoverished masses as its gesture of loyalty to imperialism. Only by overthrowing
the rule of the Guomindang, which is betraying the nation's interests, can we
successfully carry out the national-revolutionary war. The Soviet Government is leading the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of the whole country and

MAO'S ROAD TO POWER
the impoverished masses of the soviet areas to fight a cruel war against
imperialism and the Guomindang. It will victoriously smash the fourth attack
by the Guomindang and use the revolutionary war to destroy the reactionary
rule of the Guomindang! Popular masses of the whole country, arm yourselves! Oppose the Guomindang's fourth attack against the soviet areas, overthrow the rule of the Guomindang, which is a running dog of imperialism, and
support the Red Army and the Soviet regime! Only the Workers' and Peasants'
Red Army is the genuine armed force of the popular masses fighting the
national war!
Fighters of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army in the whole country!
Workers, peasants, and impoverished masses of the soviet areas! Vigorously
conduct the revolutionary war and resolutely attack imperialism and the
Guomindang to smash the Fourth "Encirclement and Suppression"! Workers,
peasants, soldiers, and all the impoverished masses in the White areas! Arm
yourselves through your own efforts, organize a volunteer army, go on strike,
carry out boycott movements, and actively fight imperialism and the Guomindang.
Let all the revolutionary popular masses arise as one, under the Red banner of
the soviets, to wage national-revolutionary war, oppose the imperialists' partition
of China, overthrow the rule of the Guomindang, drive Japanese imperialism and
all other imperialisms out of China, establish the soviet government of the popular masses of all China, and achieve the independence and liberation of the
Chinese people!
Chairman, Provisional
Central Government of the
Soviet Republic of China
Vice-Chairmen
Mao Zedong
Xiang Ying
Zhang Guotao
October 6, 1932, at Ruijin, Jiangxi