(June 1, 1933)

To all the people of China!

The Kuomintang Nanking government, with Chiang Kai-shek as the chief culprit, since giving away Manchuria and betraying the defensive war against Japan in Shanghai, has now sold out Peiping-Tientsin and Chahar to these running dogs of imperialism. The precondition for the "peace negotiations"—to withdraw all armed forces from Peiping-Tientsin and hand over Peiping-Tientsin to Japanese imperialism—has been fully realized by the Kuomintang Nanking government. The content of the so-called "peace negotiations" is: (1) Chinese troops are to withdraw south of Peiping-Tientsin, designating the area south of the Great Wall as a buffer zone (the so-called neutral zone); (2) The Chinese side is to recognize "Manchukuo"; (3) All activities of the volunteer armies and all anti-Japanese forces, as well as the development of anti-Manchukuo forces, are to be suppressed, and the volunteer armies and all anti-Japanese forces are to be disarmed; (4) The Chinese side is to guarantee the cessation of all anti-Japanese movements. The "North China Armistice Agreement" was finalized at the Lushan Conference of the Kuomintang traitors and was jointly signed on May 31 in Tanggu by representatives of Japanese imperialism and China's expert traitors, warlord-butchers. Amidst their celebratory banquets, they toast their victory. Outside the city of Peking, in Manchuria, Jehol, and the Chahar and Peiping-Tientsin areas, the Japanese imperialists are continuing to use their cannons and airplanes to bomb and slaughter the anti-Japanese volunteer armies, revolutionary soldiers, and tens of millions of peaceful residents, in order to create "peace and order" for the colonial slaves under the rule of Japanese imperialism!

To all the people of China! Peiping-Tientsin and North China have been finally sold out by the reactionary Kuomintang! This is the inside story of the Kuomintang's "prolonged resistance," this is the substance of the Kuomintang's "resisting on the one hand while negotiating on the other," and this is the "established policy" of the Kuomintang Central Committee! The utterly evil Kuomintang, with Chiang Kai-shek as the chief culprit, has so shamelessly and so brazenly handed over the entirety of Manchuria, Jehol, and Peiping-Tientsin—tens of millions of square li and tens of millions of people—to Japanese imperialism, and is now plotting to give vast regions such as Tibet, Sinkiang, the Szechwan borderlands, and Szechwan to British imperialism. To all the people of China! We are the masters of the Chinese nation. We absolutely will not permit Japanese imperialism and all other imperialisms to invade a single inch of our land, nor will we permit the Kuomintang, the running dogs of imperialism, to so shamelessly and brazenly sell out China! We must unite as one, take up arms, and develop the national revolutionary war. With the strength of our four hundred million people, we must overthrow imperialism and its running dogs, the Kuomintang warlords, starting with the Nanking government with Chiang Kai-shek as its chief culprit. Only through the bloody struggle of all the people of China can we recover our lost territories and achieve the independence, liberation, and territorial integrity of the Chinese nation. The Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Commission have repeatedly proposed to the armed forces attacking the Chinese Soviet areas that a combat agreement be concluded under the following three conditions to oppose the aggression of Japanese imperialism: (1) Immediately cease the attacks on the Soviet areas; (2) Immediately guarantee the democratic rights of the people; (3) Immediately arm the people and establish people's volunteer armies to defend China and strive for China's independence, unity, and territorial integrity. But the Kuomintang's response to this call from the Soviets has been: a new surrender and betrayal to Japanese imperialism, a full-force attack on our Soviet areas, and the dispatch of large numbers of airplanes to bomb the toiling masses and peaceful residents within the Soviet areas. At the same time, they shamelessly spread rumors that the Kuomintang cannot send troops to resist Japan because of the existence of the Soviet regime, and because the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army is "obstructing the war of resistance against Japan." They also say that "China lacks the strength to resist Japan," and therefore "has no choice but to reluctantly agree to a truce." Now every worker, every peasant, every soldier, every student, and every revolutionary can see with their own eyes: who is truly obstructing the war of resistance against Japan? Who are the traitors? Who are the running dogs of imperialism? Now everyone understands and believes: if the Kuomintang is not overthrown, China can only perish, and the Chinese people will forever be reduced to slaves of imperialism!

The Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic calls upon all the people of China, the soldiers resisting Japan in the Northeast, all revolutionary students, intellectuals, professionals, and all revolutionaries throughout China to unite as one, take up arms, and wage a revolutionary national war. Defy the arrests by the imperialists and all the oppression and massacres by the Kuomintang military and police, violate the Kuomintang's orders to cease fire and retreat, and struggle against the Japanese imperialist aggression in China, against the Kuomintang's betrayal of China, and for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation! The Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic, in the midst of the bloody battles to completely smash the fourth "encirclement and suppression" campaign by the imperialists and the Kuomintang against the Soviet areas, is establishing vast Chinese revolutionary base areas, creating a one-million-strong iron Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, and preparing to join forces along the Yangtze River to fight directly against Japanese imperialism and all other imperialisms. The Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and its Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, in the long struggle against imperialism and the Kuomintang, have already proven to all the people of China: only the Soviet regime is the people's own regime that opposes imperialism and the Kuomintang; only the Soviet government can lead all the people of China to overthrow Japanese imperialism and all other imperialisms, and to overthrow the Kuomintang's Nanking government of Chiang Kai-shek which sells out China, as well as all the traitorous Kuomintang warlords.

To all the people of China! Unite, take up arms, stand with the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic, expand the national war and recover the lost territories of the Northeast, and struggle to defend China and to strive for the independence and liberation of the Chinese nation.

Mao Tse-tung, Chairman of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic

Vice-Chairmen Hsiang Ying, Chang Kuo-tao

June 1, 1933