Letter from the Central Government of the
Fujian and Guangdong
(May 28, 1933)
To the White troops of Guangdong and Fujian:
The Guomindang Nanjing Government, the arch-criminal that has sold out the
country, has already signed a secret treaty with Japan that not only gives up Rehe
and Chahar in Manchuria, but also makes the withdrawal of all armed forces
from Beiping and Tianjin a condition for the beginning of peace negotiations.1
The whole of North China is now under the iron boot of Japanese imperialism.
The anger of all the people of China against the Guomindang Nanjing Government has already reached an extreme. The Central Government of the Chinese
Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Affairs Commission have time
and again proposed to the armed forces that are attacking the soviet areas
throughout China the following three conditions for concluding a combat agreement in order to oppose the invasion by Japanese imperialism: (1) Immediately stop attacking the soviet territories; (2) Immediately guarantee the
democratic rights of the people (freedom of assembly, association, speech,
publication, and to strike); and (3) Immediately arm a volunteer army of the
popular masses to defend China and to fight for the independence, unity, and
territorial integrity of China. Even though this appeal of the Central Government
of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Affairs Commission has received the support of the popular masses throughout all China, the
This letter was first published in Douzheng, no. 43, May 31, 1933. We have translated it
from MDO Zetkmgji. Bujuan, Vol. 4, pp. 113-14, where it is reproduced from that source.
Quomindang warlords not only will not give up their plans to attack the soviet
areas and join with us to oppose Japanese imperialism, they have even taken yet
another step in surrendering to Japanese imperialism, selling out all of North
China in order to intensify their attacks on the soviet areas. Against these attacks,
our ever-victorious and glorious Red Army and the worker and peasant masses
have inflicted powerful [X](X]2 against the main forces of the traitorous archcriminal Chiang Kaishek, completely wiping out Chiang Kaishek's First Column. and shattering all of Chiang Kaishek's main armed units. In order that the
glorious Workers' and Peasants' Red Army may go north to resist Japan and
wipe out all the armies of the Japanese imperialists that are occupying North
China, the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Affairs Commission believe that it is necessary to eliminate the
main power of Chiang Kaishek, the Guomindang arch-criminal who signed the
secret treaty with Japan and sold out the whole of North China, in order to clear
the road for going north to resist the Japanese. In this desperate crisis in which
the survival or extinction of the Chinese nation is at stake, the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Affairs
Commission once again suggest to all the armed forces of Guangdong and Fujian
that they accept the three conditions listed above and sign a combat agreement,
and oppose Japanese imperialism and the Nanjing government headed by the
arch-criminal of the Guomindang, Chiang Kaishek, who has sold out North
China. The Soviet Government of China and the Workers' and Peasants' Red
Army are the anti-imperialist government and the anti-imperialist armed forces
of all the Chinese people. Within our soviet districts we have already completely
eliminated the power of the imperialists. All anti-imperialist forces are our allies.
Any Fujian or Guangdong warlord who thinks he can use the fraudulent propaganda of resisting Japan and suppressing the Communists to attack the bases of
the Chinese revolution, who is a scavenger splitting China apart for the imperialists, we shall meet head-on with armed force until he has been totally
eliminated so that soviet political authority may rule throughout China. Brothers
of the Guangdong and Fujian White armies, rise up and join with the Chinese
Workers' and Peasants' Red Army to do battle with the Japanese imperialists,
and to overthrow all the Guomindang warlords who have sold out China!
Chairman of the Provisional Central
Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic
Mao Zedong
Chairman of the Revolutionary Military
Commission and Commander-in-Chief
of the All-China Workers' and
Peasants' Red Army
Zhu De

--- Notes

1. Reference here is to the negotiations leading to what became known as the Tanggu
Truce. In April-May 1933, as fighting between Chinese and Japanese troops following the
latter's invasion of Rehe continued, and threatened to engulf Beiping and Tianjin, Chiang
Kaishek embarked on diplomatic efforts to achieve a ceasefire. A basic agreement was
reached on May 23, though the final formal signing of the Tanggu Truce occurred only on
May 31, several days after the current document was issued. The agreement provided for a
large "demilitarized zone" covering the territory from the Great Wall south to a line just
north of Beiping. Chinese troops were withdrawn from this zone; it and areas to the north,
including Rehe and Chahar, remained under effective Japanese control.


2. The two characters missing from the available Chinese text obviously correspond to
"blows" or some such term.