Japanese imperialism, having seized China’s three northeastern provinces by force following the “September 18th Incident” last year, has continued to occupy Shanghai, Jiading, and other areas with its naval, land, and air forces, harassing ports along the coast and the Yangtze River. It has used aircraft and artillery to massacre the Chinese people, burning down their homes. In Northeast China and around Shanghai, the number of victims is countless, and this slaughter and devastation are still ongoing. The reactionary Nationalist government and its various warlord factions, in keeping with their habitual policy of capitulation to imperialism, have repeatedly surrendered the three northeastern provinces and the Shanghai–Suzhou region to Japanese imperialism, allowing it to carry out its indiscriminate killing of the Chinese people at will. Now, under the guise of peace negotiations, they are seeking to betray the entire country, thereby accelerating the imperialist powers’ rapid partition of China. Meanwhile, they are doing everything in their power to suppress the nationwide revolutionary movement against Japanese aggression and imperialism: dissolving anti-Japanese organizations, cracking down on anti-Japanese strikes, massacring anti-Japanese demonstrators, and forcing the volunteer armies composed of Shanghai–Suzhou soldiers and civilians who had spontaneously risen to resist Japan to withdraw. They even machine-gunned the brave troops of the 19th Route Army who resisted the withdrawal order, all in order to demonstrate their loyalty to imperialism.

The Nationalist government and its warlord cliques are not only incapable of but have long since lost any desire to wage a genuine national revolutionary war against Japanese imperialism. Their sole strategy is to play one imperialist power off against another, hoping to provoke a world war so that the imperialist bandits can settle the question of dividing China during the conflict. Meanwhile, the Chinese Soviet regions have already broken free from imperialist bondage, whereas the Nationalist warlords would rather hand over the three northeastern provinces, Shanghai, and the whole of China to imperialism. At the same time, they continually hurl their greatest military might against the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army in a bid to annihilate the Soviet regime and the Red Army—clear evidence that all the Nationalist government’s and its warlord factions’ deceptive rhetoric is merely intended to conceal their treasonous and dishonorable acts of selling out and humiliating China. In reality, they serve as direct instruments of imperialist oppression of the Chinese national revolutionary movement and stand as an insurmountable obstacle to the progress of the national revolutionary war.  The Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic hereby formally declares war on Japan, calling upon the entire Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and the broad masses of the oppressed to launch a national revolutionary war to drive Japanese imperialism out of China, thus securing the complete liberation and independence of the Chinese nation. The Soviet Central Government addresses the workers, peasants, soldiers, and all oppressed people throughout the country: To wage a genuine national revolutionary war and engage directly in combat with Japanese imperialism, it is first necessary to overthrow the reactionary Nationalist rule that aids imperialism in suppressing the national revolutionary movement and obstructing its development. Only then can we fight Japanese imperialism directly and without hindrance, enabling the national revolutionary war to flourish across the nation. The Soviet Central Government solemnly declares: Were it not for the Nationalist warlords’ relentless offensive against the Soviet areas and the Red Army, the working and peasant masses there, together with the Red Army, would long ago have joined forces with the valiant soldiers and volunteer armies resisting Japan to take up arms against the enemy. Therefore, without toppling Nationalist rule, a true national revolutionary war cannot be waged.



The Provisional Central Government of the Soviet Republic is leading the national Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and the vast ranks of working and peasant laborers in the Soviet areas in an active revolutionary campaign to seize the central cities and destroy the Nationalist regime. This is precisely the practical path to waging a national revolutionary war and constitutes the prerequisite for direct engagement with Japanese imperialism. We call upon workers, peasants, soldiers, students, and all toiling people in the White Areas to rise up on their own, organize anti-Japanese volunteer armies, seize the weapons of the Nationalist warlords to arm themselves, and enter into direct combat with Japan. Local revolutionary military committees should be established to command these operations. Soldiers in the White Army must revolt, overthrow the reactionary officers, and join the fight against Japan; they should also form the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army.

Let us recognize that only the Soviet government can truly lead the nation in a national revolutionary war and engage directly in combat against Japan, opposing imperialism’s partition of China; that only the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army represents the people’s armed forces capable of carrying out a genuine national revolutionary war; and that only the proletariat and oppressed peoples of the world, together with the Soviet Union, constitute the international force truly able to unite in opposition to imperialism.  The Provisional Central Government of the Soviet Republic calls upon workers, peasants, soldiers, and all toiling people across the country to rally under the red banner of the Soviets, actively participate in the revolutionary struggle, and arm themselves independently in the White Areas. Together, let us overthrow the reactionary Nationalist rule throughout China, establish a Soviet government of the Chinese people, found the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army, and unite with the proletariat and oppressed peoples of the world and the Soviet Union, so that through a national revolutionary war we may drive Japanese imperialism out of China, oppose imperialism’s partition of our country, and secure the true independence and liberation of the Chinese nation.  Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Provisional Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic