January 17, 1933 To all the people of China! Under the open support of British and French imperialism and the League of Nations, Japanese imperialism has already begun its invasion of North China. This is a further, comprehensive partitioning of China and a plan to enslave the entire country by imperialist bandits. Such aggression has resulted in the mass slaughter of peaceful civilians, the destruction of cities and villages, and the intensification of suffering and famine. The horrors witnessed in Shanghai and Manchuria are being cruelly repeated across most of Chinese territory. Because of the non-resistance and capitulation policies of the Kuomintang warlords Chiang Kai-shek, Zhang Xueliang, and others, and because of their suppression, disbandment, and massacre of anti-Japanese soldiers, countless Chinese soldiers have fallen before the guns and cannons of imperialism. The Kuomintang warlords are aiding Japan and other imperialists in their deeper aggression and slaughter, while at the same time employing every means to crush the anti-imperialist struggle, the boycott movement, and the organization of armed volunteer armies.

One of the excuses offered by the Kuomintang government and its politicians for their treasonous acts is that the existence of the Chinese Soviet Republic prevents them from mobilizing all forces for national defense. They claim that Chiang Kai-shek, rather than confronting the Japanese warlords, has deployed nearly one million troops to attack the Chinese workers’ and peasants’ government, which has already established its own Soviet regime. However, the Chinese people are determined to defend themselves. Many units and hundreds of thousands of Kuomintang soldiers refuse to massacre their own brothers and sisters and instead advocate armed resistance against Japanese imperialism. They are coming to understand that only a national revolutionary war waged by an armed people can successfully repel Japanese imperialist aggression.

The Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Commission denounce the Kuomintang’s explanation as a foolish lie—lies they seek to use to conceal their treasonous conduct before the eyes of the entire nation. The Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Commission once again remind the Chinese people that last April we called upon all the people of the country to join us in a common armed struggle against Japanese imperialism. In response, however, Chiang Kai-shek ordered all his forces to march against the Chinese workers’ and peasants’ government and the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, instead of opposing Japanese imperialism.

Before the Chinese people, the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army hereby declare: Under the following conditions, the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army is prepared to conclude combat agreements with any armed force to resist Japanese imperialist aggression: (1) an immediate cessation of attacks on Soviet areas; (2) the immediate guarantee of democratic rights for the people—freedom of assembly, association, speech, strike, and publication, among others; and (3) the immediate arming of the people to form armed volunteer armies for the defense of China and for the achievement of China’s independence, unity, and territorial integrity.

We call upon the Chinese people and the soldiers to heed this appeal, to unite in a single national revolutionary war to secure China’s independence, unity, and territorial integrity; to link the struggle against Japan and all imperialism with the struggle against the treachery and surrender of the Kuomintang warlords, who are lackeys of imperialism; and to launch an armed national revolutionary war against Japan and all imperialism.

Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic; Zhang Guotao, Vice-Chairmen; Zhu De, Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army January 17, 1933 Hongse Zhonghua, Issue 48 1933 .1. Three Persons Reference Materials on the History of the Chinese Revolution, Volume III, Renmin University of China, 1957 Soviet China Foreign Workers Publishing House (Moscow, 1933) Proclamation of the Provisional Central Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army One Five