Proclamation of the Provisional Central
Government and the Revolutionary Military
Commission of the Workers' and Peasants'
Red Army
(January 17, 1933)
To the popular masses of all China! Japanese imperialism, openly aided by
British and French imperialism and the League of Nations, has begun its invasion of northern China. This is a further step of invasion and plunder on the part
of the imperialist bandits in completely carving up China and enslaving the
whole of China. Such invasions and plunder have led to wholesale slaughter of
peaceful citizens. destruction of cities and villages, and the increase of misery
and famine. The tragic conditions of Shanghai and Manchuria are being cruelly
replicated on most of China's soil.
Because of nonresistance and capitulation on the part of Guomindang warlords such as Chiang Kaishek, Zhang Xueliang, and others, and because of their
oppression, dismissal, and slaughter of anti-Japanese soldiers, large numbers of
Chinese soldiers have been killed by the guns and cannons of the imperialists.
The Guomindang warlords have helped Japan and the other imperialists further
their invasion and slaughter, and at the same time they have used all their forces
to suppress the anti-imperialist struggle, the movement to boycott imported merchandise, and the organization of a volunteer army.
As one of the reasons to explain their criminal behavior and traitorous
schemes, the Guomindang government and its politicians cited the existence of
the Chinese Soviet as having caused their inability to mobilize all their strength
to carry out national defense, and as having caused Chiang Kaishek's unwillingness to do battle against the Japanese warlords and instead his deployment of a
vast army of nearly one million soldiers to attack the Chinese workers and
peasants, who have already established their own Chinese Soviet Government.
But the Chinese popular masses want to defend themselves. Many troops and
hundreds of thousands of Guomindang soldiers oppose the slaughter of their own
brothers and sisters, and advocate armed resistance against Japanese imperialism.
They have begun to understand that only through a national revolutionary war of
T~
first published in Hongse Zhonghua, no. 48, January 28, 1933. We
have translated it from Mao Zedongji, Vol. 3, pp. 183-85.

J56
the armed masses can the Japanese imperialist invasion be victoriously resisted.
The Chinese Soviet Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission
denounce the Guomindang's explanations as ridiculous lies. They are attempting
to use these ridiculous lies to cover up their own traitorous acts in front of the
popular masses of the whole country.
The Chinese Soviet Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission
once more remind the Chinese popular masses that last April we had already
called upon the popular masses of the entire nation to join us in the armed
struggle against the Japanese imperialists. But Chiang Kaishek's response to this
appeal was to mobilize all his armies to attack the Chinese Workers' and
Peasants' Government and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and not to
resist Japanese imperialism.
The Chinese Soviet Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission
of the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army proclaim before the Chinese masses:
Under the following conditions, the Chinese Workers' and Peasant's Red
Army is prepared to sign agreements with any armed forces to fight against
the Japanese imperialist invasion: (1) Immediately stop attacking the soviet
areas; (2) Immediately guarantee the masses' democratic rights (freedom of
assembly, of association, of speech, to strike, to publish, etc.); (3) Arm the
popular masses immediately to create an armed volunteer army to defend China
and to strive for China's independence, unity, and territorial integrity.
We appeal to the Chinese popular masses and soldiers to support this call to
carry out a unified national revolutionary war; to win independence, unity, and
territorial integrity for China; to combine the struggle against Japanese imperialism and all other imperialisms with the struggle against the treason and surrender
of the running dogs of imperialism, the Guomindang warlords; and to launch an
armed national revolutionary war against Japanese imperialism and all imperialisms.
Chairman, Provisional Central
Government of the Chinese
Soviets
Vice-Chairmen
Chairman, Revolutionary Military
Commission of the Chinese
Mao Zedong
Xiang Ying
Zhang Guotao
Workers' and Peasants' Red Army Zhu De