(November 11, 1933)

Popular Masses of the Whole Country!

Since it signed the North China Truce Agreement with the Japanese imperialists,
an agreement that has sold out Manchuria and Mongolia, and especially since the
"get-together party" between the three countries of China, Japan, and "Manchu-kuo," at the meeting held in Dalian,¹ the Guomindang government in Nanjing
has not only sold out Manchuria, Mongolia, and the so-called "neutral zone" east
of the Luan [River],² but also directly mustered its armed forces and collaborated
with the troops of the Japanese imperialists and "Manchukuo," driving the soldiers who were resisting Japan in Northeast China out of Inner Mongolia, and,
under the cloak of "bandit suppression," slaughtering thousands upon thousands
of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army and the revolutionary soldiers and masses
in Northeast China.³ Chiang Kaishek, the arch-criminal of the Guomindang,
openly issued to all of China the most shameless statements, such as, "Whoever
prates about resisting the Japanese will be beheaded immediately," and "In order

This proclamation was first published in *Hongse Zhonghua*, no. 126, November 17,
1933, and we have followed that source. The version in *Mao Zedong ji*, Vol. 4, pp.
117-20, is generally accurate, but in it one important character is wrongly transcribed.
1. The reference is to the Tanggu Agreement of May 31, 1933, discussed in the
proclamation of June 1, 1933, and to the Dalian conference of July 1933, denounced in a
circular telegram of the same month. Both these documents are translated above.
2. Regarding the location and significance of the Luan River, see above, the note to the
telegram of August 30, 1933.
3. Japanese and puppet troops had mounted widespread efforts to destroy the diverse
anti-Japanese guerrilla resistance forces (generally referred to in Party documents as the
"Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army" [*Kang-Ri yiyong jun*]) in Northeast China. In addition to
the anti-Japanese guerrillas (among many units of which the Communist Party had significant influence), the northern warlord Feng Yuxiang and several of his former subordinates
had joined forces in Chahar in late May 1933 to form a military force known as the
People's Anti-Japanese Allied Army [*Minzhong kang-Ri tongmeng jun*]. Military action
by this army threatened Japanese interests in the region, while Feng's strong anti-Japanese
pronouncements also undermined Chiang Kaishek's domestic political situation and his
delicate negotiations with the Japanese. In July 1933, therefore, Chiang's forces blockaded


to suppress the Communists, resistance against the Japanese must end." Under
his most cruel policy of White terror, he has repressed all anti-Japanese revolutionary movements, and withdrawn all his troops stationed in North China in a
planned way. On the other hand, he has dispatched all his armed forces to launch
the Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression" against the Chinese Soviet Government and the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, the principal force in
the resistance against the Japanese and other imperialists, in an attempt to
demonstrate his loyalty to the imperialists and fulfill his predetermined plan for
"direct negotiation between China and Japan."

Direct negotiations between China and Japan have been under way at heightened speed ever since the key leaders of the Guomindang held their third meeting on Lushan in September. It is obvious that the content of these negotiations
is not confined to the Guomindang's recognition of Manchuria and Mongolia as
colonies of the Japanese imperialists. It necessarily represents another step by the
Guomindang government in Nanjing toward surrendering and selling out the
country, by recognizing North China as part of the Japanese sphere of influence,
while Japan will help the Nanjing government with money and weapons, sustain
its reactionary power, and promote its Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression" as
direct conditions of the reciprocal arrangement. Of course, there is no doubt that
the saying that Japan is "willing to give up its diplomatic legal rights in China" is
nothing but a cheap trick to deceive the popular masses.

Popular masses of the whole country! The Guomindang government in Nan-

Feng's army and moved into positions which threatened an attack upon it from the south.
In August, Japanese troops attacked Feng's army from the east. Feng's army was forced
from the area, which came under Japanese control. The appearance of collusion in this
affair between Chiang's forces and those of the Japanese was noted and widely criticized
in China at the time. Coble, Facing Japan, pp. 122-31; Chong-sik Lee, Revolutionary
Struggle in Manchuria: Chinese Communism and Soviet Interest, 1922-1945 (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983), Ch. 6-7.

4. In 1933 Chiang Kaishek spent much of his time at the Nanchang military headquarters or at the military training institute in the nearby mountain resort of Lushan. As
dissension both within the Nanjing régime and between it and national rivals in Fujian and
Guangdong-Guangxi mounted in the wake of the Tanggu Truce, high Nanjing government
officials several times gathered at Lushan for discussions. The third of these conferences
occurred between September 5-9, 1933, and was attended by Chiang, Song Ziwen, Wang
Jingwei and a number of other "party elders." Following up on an earlier Lushan conference in July which had endorsed Chiang's policy of concentrating on Communist-suppression while placating Japan, the September conference approved a resumption of
negotiations between Huang Fu and Japanese representatives in North China. In the course
of approving the negotiations, Song Ziwen's approach of using the United States and
European powers as counterweights to Japan was rejected. On October 25, Song was
ousted from his position as minister of finance; on November 7, Huang Fu publicly
resumed negotiations with the Japanese. The close conjunction of these events led to
rampant press speculation that major Chinese concessions were in the offing. Coble,
Facing Japan, pp. 136-48.

jing has sold out the Three Northeastern Provinces and inner Mongolia as well.
Now it is going to sell out all of North China! At the same time, moreover, the
Guomindang government in Nanjing and the governments run by the other
cliques in the Guomindang have also sold out Tibet, Xikang, and most of
Xinjiang and Sichuan to the British imperialists. They have sold out nine islands
in the South Seas, Yunnan, Guizhou, and other provinces to the French imperialists. They have sold very many political and economic privileges to the
British imperialists. The loan of several hundred million yuan and the deadly
weapons that the Guomindang has acquired recently from the countries of Eu-
rope and America all represent the price for its sellout of China.
Selling out all of China, capitulating to the imperialists, and serving as a
scavenger in the imperialist competition to carve up the territory of China are
indeed the consistent diplomatic policies of the Guomindang government. It is
precisely for this reason that the Guomindang government is opposed to all
revolutionary anti-Japanese anti-imperialist movements, and is launching its fifth
insane and hopeless "Encirclement and Suppression" against China's only mass
anti-Japanese and anti-imperialist revolutionary movement, the Soviet Government and the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. It is precisely for this reason
that the Guomindang government helps the imperialists to intensify the exploitation of the Chinese popular masses, bringing about the complete collapse of
China's national economy, letting disastrous floods and drought take their toll all
over China, making workers lose their jobs, peasants lose their land, and students
lose their opportunities for education. Thus the great majority of the Chinese
popular masses are living in a bitter inferno, freezing and starving to death!
Popular masses of the whole country! What the Guomindang wants us to
follow is a road that will lead to turning China into a colony, and to the complete
subjugation of the Chinese nation!
Let us all unite, arm ourselves, and launch a national revolutionary war
against aggression by Japanese imperialism and all other imperialisms. Down
with all the Guomindang warlords who have betrayed and disgraced our country,
especially the major tool of the imperialists, the Guomindang government in
Nanjing headed by Chiang Kaishek. Fight a bloody war for the final liberation of
the Chinese nation and the Chinese popular masses. This is the only way out for
the revolutionary popular masses of the whole country at present!
The Provisional Central Government of the Soviet Republic of China once
more declares to the popular masses of the whole country: we are ready to shed
the last drop of our blood at any time in order to defeat the Japanese and all the
other imperialists, to overthrow all the traitorous Guomindang warlords, and to
safeguard the independence, unity, and territorial integrity of China. For the sake
of the independence, unity, and territorial integrity of China the Central Soviet
Government is just now gathering all its forces and is willing to make any
necessary sacrifices in order to crush the Fifth "Encirclement and Suppression"
of the imperialists and the Guomindang. The struggle to smash this "Encircle-

ment and Suppression" is simply a struggle to prevent China from going down
the colonial road, and a struggle to achieve an independent, free, new Soviet
China!
To concentrate all the forces of the popular masses in the whole country for a
decisive struggle against China's most vicious enemy, the Provisional Central
Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Chinese Soviet
Republic propose once again to armed forces all over the country that are currently engaged in the attack on the soviet areas to sign an operational agreement
on fighting the Japanese and fighting Chiang based on the following three conditions: (1) stop the attack on the soviet areas immediately; (2) immediately guarantee the democratic rights of the masses (their freedom of assembly,
organization, speech, press, and strike); and (3) immediately arm the popular
masses and found the armed Volunteer Army without delay to protect China and
strive for China's independence, unity, and territorial integrity.
It is the firm belief of the Provisional Central Government of the Soviet
Republic of China that our proposal will certainly win full sympathy and warm
support from the toiling popular masses of all China, and from all those who still
have the slightest patriotic feelings all over the country. Such sympathy and
support will not only ensure that the soviet road will achieve complete victory in
its final struggle against the colonial road, but also liberate the Chinese nation
and China's popular masses from under the iron heel of the imperialists once and
for all!
Down with the Japanese and all the other imperialists!
Down with the Guomindang, the Nanjing government, and all other
Guomindang governments, which are selling out China!
Fight for an independent, free, new Soviet China!

Chairman of the Provisional
Central Government of the
Chinese Soviet Republic
Mao Zedong

Chairman of the Revolutionary
Military Commission
Zhu De