(July 1934)

A reporter from our newspaper met with Chairman Mao of the Central Government yesterday and interviewed him on the topics of the current situation
and the Red Army's anti-Japanese advance party. What follows is based on the
interview:

Ever since the Japanese imperialists refused a settlement in Manchuria and Rehe,
established their control over Beiping and Tianjin, seized the rights to transportation and postal services [with Manchuria), issued the manifesto proclaiming their
exclusive right to dominate China, and requested that the Guomindang resolve
over a thousand "unsolved cases," they have intensified their new offensive
aiming at swallowing up China. The Japanese Government's recent proposal to
the United States that Japan and America should divide the Pacific evenly between them, its frenzied efforts to instigate an anti-Soviet war in northern Man-churia, and the holding of the Dalian Conference with Guomindang
representatives² have all clearly demonstrated that the Japanese imperialists are
striving with all their might to mitigate the struggles among the imperialists and
to bring about a temporary understanding among the imperialists with a view to
joining their forces to carve up China, attacking the Chinese revolution, and
opposing the Soviet Union. The running dog of the Japanese imperialists, the

This interview was originally published in Hongse Zhonghua, no. 221, August 1, 1934,
and we have translated it from that source. This version is reproduced in Mao Zedong ji,
Vol. 4, pp. 371-75, but a number of characters are missing or wrong there because they
were illegible in the copy used by the Japanese compilers.
1. In late May 1934, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials presented to the U.S. Government a proposed declaration which the two countries would issue jointly. Among other
provisions, it would have announced that both countries recognized the paramountcy of
the United States in the eastern Pacific and of Japan in the western Pacific. The U.S. State
Department rejected the idea of such a declaration. See Dorothy Borg, The United States
and the Far Eastern Crisis of 1933-1938 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1964), pp. 96-97.
2. The "Dalian Conference" referred to here was in fact an ongoing series of negotiations in June-July 1934 over the opening of rail and postal service between China and
Manchukuo. See Coble, Facing Japan, pp. 170-71.

Guomindang government in Nanjing, is now spreading the smoke screen of
"annulling the Tanggu Truce" and "retrieving the war zones" to conceal the
Dalian Conference, which is selling out China in a hurry. In the meantime, the
northern warlords, the old pro-Japanese hands of the Anfu Clique, are cooperating completely with the Guomindang. Its key members, such as Wang Keming,
have been going southward one after the other to hold secret talks with Huang
Fu, Tang Youren, and their ilk in Shanghai and Moganshan. The leader of the
Anfu Clique, Duan Qirui, went to Lushan and held a secret meeting with Chiang
Kaishek. This great cooperation between the new and old traitors has made it
absolutely plain that the Japanese imperialists' new onslaught has become extremely intense, that the Chinese nation has arrived at an extremely critical
moment, and that a destiny of death and slavery is threatening the toiling masses
in the whole country!
The Japanese imperialists' new invasion is completely coordinated with the
Guomindang's large-scale invasion of our basic soviet areas. The Guomindang's
hundreds of thousands of troops are just now advancing toward our central areas
from the gateways to the Soviet Area—Guangchang, Liancheng, Longgang, and
Taihe, in order to carry out the final steps of its Fifth Encirclement and Suppres-sion, attempting to drown the Soviet Area in blood, to eliminate the Soviet Red
Army, and to be the most loyal running dog of the imperialists who are carving
up China. These are the characteristics of the current situation.
In order to defend their own territory and quell the traitorous Guomindang,
the Soviet Government and the Red Army are currently leading the broad masses
and the valiant Red Army on all fronts to launch a fierce and bloody war against
the superior enemy forces, and are expending every effort and using every possible method to crush this fiendish "Encirclement and Suppression." The soviets
and the Red Army long ago resolved to crush this fiendish Encirclement and
Suppression at all costs. At present, it is even more essential that we summon up
all our resolve, indomitability, and perseverance. There is no doubt that we will
ultimately succeed in smashing them if we do this.
In the Soviet Area, we have recently created a new Red Army with seventy
thousand troops, and mobilized several hundred thousand Dan of grain to solve
the problem of provisioning during the period before the new harvest. Right
now, we are engaged in the great autumn harvest mobilization. Our guerrilla
forces have been greatly expanded and are continuing to expand, and guerrilla
warfare is developing on a massive scale. As far as material provisions such as
salt and cloth are concerned, mass movements for salt manufacturing and cloth
weaving are just being developed. The military industries such as ammunition
manufacturing and so on have increased several dozen times. All these strengths
are, of course, beyond the Guomindang's wildest dreams. The Guomindang has
long said how "terrible" we were, and that they could nonetheless achieve great
victories over us. The facts have proved, however, and will eventually prove that
the only thing really "terrible" is the utterly corrupt Guomindang. Chiang

Kaishek has boasted of having built fortifications thousands of li in length, and
several dozen stories high around the Soviet Area, and of how his policy of
"draining the pond to catch the fish" will soon "succeed." It is true that Chiang
Kaishek has built a lot of fortifications and has occupied some of our territory.
He is even planning to advance and take Tingzhou, Shicheng, Ningdu, and
Xingguo. But the fact that many Guomindang troops have been defeated and
crushed under the iron fists of the Red Army is something he dares not mention
and regards as taboo. Moreover, stupid swine like Chiang Kaishek do not understand that it is not the Soviet Red Army, but rather Chiang Kaishek and the
whole of the Guomindang of the landlords and bourgeoisie that will ultimately
prove to be "terrible," and those imperialists who are issuing orders to Chiang
Kaishek's Guomindang do not understand this either. Let me point out two more
things: First of all, there is the influence exerted by the Soviet Red Army on the
masses of soldiers in their million-plus troops advancing to invade our soviet
areas (Jiangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Fujian, and Hubei-Henan-Anhui). We must say
that on the one hand, these numerous soldiers are forced to attack us, but on the
other they are receiving revolutionary education from us. It may be said that all
of these various soviet areas are so many universities where the White army
soldiers can learn about revolution. Consequently, it is not only the Red Army
which is digging a grave for Chiang Kaishek, but also his own soldiers. May we
ask, does this blockhead Chiang Kaishek understand this? The second point is
that the Guomindang, striving desperately to sell out its own country, daily
kneels down and worships the imperialists, the deadly enemies of the popular
masses of our whole country. It has given away half of China to the Japanese
imperialists, never firing a single shot at the invading hundreds of thousands of
Japanese bandit troops. Instead, it has gathered all the troops from the Three
Northeastern Provinces, Rehe, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and
Hankou, as well as from Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang; redeployed them
to fight against the Red Army; and offered up all these places to the imperialists
to be devastated and oppressed. Similarly, Chen Jitang did not go to defend
Hong Kong (the base for the British imperialists' invasion of China), but rather,
gave the Guangzhou-Kowloon Railway to Great Britain and sent eight-tenths of
his troops to Jiangxi and Fujian to fight the Red Army. May we ask, Will the
broad masses of these places let Chiang Kaishek and Chen Jitang continue to sell
out the country to the very end? Will they let the imperialists freely come into
China to kill and burn? May we ask, once again, will the masses of soldiers in
the armies that have been sent here let the imperialists burn and kill their own
home villages, and still feel at ease about being forced by the Guomindang to
fight against their own brothers—the workers, the peasants, and the Red Army?
No, absolutely not. Chiang Kaishek, Chen Jitang (as well as Zhang Xueliang, He
Jian, and the others) have thousands and thousands of bombs hidden under them.
Some bombs have already exploded or are exploding (the Anti-Japanese Volun-teer Army in the Three Northeastern Provinces, the People's Revolutionary

Army, the war in Shanghai, and the guerrilla warfare and mass uprisings in
various places). Some other places are still waiting for the opportune time to
explode in a big way. Let us ask the laboring masses of the entire country and the
White army soldiers: Who does not support the Chinese Communist Party's Five
Great Anti-Japanese Principles? Who does not support the order of the Soviet
Central Government declaring war against Japan? Who does not accept the call
of the Soviet Central Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission,
"Do not fight the Red Army, but instead join with the Red Army in fighting
Japanese imperialism"? There is no doubt that as soon as they see or hear our
guiding principles, orders, and appeals, they will jump up and be willing to act in
consequence. There is no doubt that an anti-Japanese and anti-imperialist storm
in the whole country will surge up under our bright red banner.
At the time when the Guomindang has sold out half of China and the popular
masses of the whole country are yearning for the Red Army to move north to
fight Japan like people yearning for rain in the midst of a drought, the Soviet
Central Government and the Revolutionary Military Commission are dispatching
their anti-Japanese advance party on August 1 of this year, when the toiling
popular masses of the whole world will be holding great demonstrations against
imperialist invasion and war. Within a day or two, it should have approached
Fuzhou, and then it will move northward via the eastern provinces to fight
against Japan. The purpose is to make the popular masses of the whole country
understand that the Red Army is the genuine anti-Japanese army of all China.
Although the main forces of the Red Army have been blocked from going north
by the Guomindang's Fifth Encirclement and Suppression and can only move
northward after they have thoroughly crushed the Guomindang's Encirclement
and Suppression, even at this juncture, they are sending out their own advance
party. This force, although it is only an advance party, possesses high combat
capacity and is equipped with sufficient firepower. All of its fighters and commanders are of high quality, and in the past have shown great bravery in combat
with the Guomindang forces. Although this force is not very large, we are
persuaded that it will definitely be able to get the support of the popular masses
along the way and that the resolutely anti-Japanese elements in the Guomindang
armies will continually join it, or will unite with us and advance hand in hand. In
this way, our anti-Japanese advance party will very soon be expanded into a
great anti-Japanese force. The only thing is that, when these troops are moving
northward, Chiang Kaishek and his Nanjing government these running dogs of
the Japanese imperialists because of their utter loyalty to Japan, will surely
send troops to block them. If so, then the advance party, in the course of its
advance, will have to fight against Chiang Kaishek's blocking troops. Hence, we
will need to make forceful propaganda to persuade the soldiers of the blocking
troops to sympathize with us and cause this blockading force to disintegrate so
that we can quickly move northward. The sooner we can fight against Japan the
better, because the new offensive of Japanese imperialism is imminent, the ac-

tions of all the imperialists aimed at carving up China are marked by increasingly
threatening gestures, and the sufferings of the popular masses of the whole
country are constantly increasing. Consequently, we call upon the whole country
to arise as one and support the soviets and the Red Army, so that we can quickly
smash the Fifth Encirclement and Suppression and concentrate our forces to
resist Japan and oppose imperialism. Help our anti-Japanese advance party and
oppose the Nanjing government's policy of blockade, so that the anti-Japanese
Red Army may quickly advance.
The anti-Japanese advance party of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red
Army has already set out! Our valiant Workers' and Peasants' Red Army has
already taken practical actions to fight against the Japanese imperialist invasion
and to save China from perishing. At the same time, the Soviet Government and
the Revolutionary Military Commission have already ordered the Red Army in
the whole country to be prepared at any time to move out, following the advance
party. But the Guomindang is blocking the Red Army with a big force of hundreds of thousands of troops, and has withdrawn the whole of its northern armies
and sent them southward into Jiangxi. Popular masses of the whole country,
can't you understand? The Guomindang are clearing the way for Japanese imperialism. Popular masses of the whole country and brothers of the White army,
oppose the Guomindang's policy of selling out the country and capitulation!
Demand that all naval, ground, and air forces be mobilized to resist Japan and
oppose the attacks on the Red Army! All of China's armies should point their
guns in the direction of Japanese imperialism and the Chinese traitors who are
selling out the country! Only by so doing can we defeat, and will we assuredly
defeat, Japanese imperialism.