To the Compatriots and Anti-Japanese Soldiers of the Whole Nation:
A Call to Oppose Chiang Kai-shek’s Obstruction of United Resistance Against Japan
(March 29, 1936)

Workers and peasants of the whole nation, students, fighters of the Northeast People’s Revolutionary Army, warriors of the Anti-Japanese Volunteer Forces, revolutionary armed officers and soldiers, and all patriotic citizens:

Since the establishment of the East Hebei Autonomous Council, the independence of Zhangbei, and the formation of the Hebei-Chahar Political Council, North China has existed in name only and is already lost in reality. Traitors such as Song (Zheyuan), Yan (Xishan), and Yin (Rugeng), groveling servilely and bowing submissively, have made national betrayal their nature, brutally murdering patriotic compatriots and fawning upon Japanese imperialism. The subjugation of the entire nation is imminent.

The Central Government of the Chinese Soviets and the Military Commission of the Chinese People’s Anti-Japanese Red Army, in order to halt all civil wars, unite both the Red Army and the White Army without distinction in joint resistance against Japan, convene a national anti-Japanese national salvation representative conference, and organize a national defense government and an anti-Japanese allied force, are willing to serve as the vanguard. They demand that the entire Red Army first concentrate in Hebei to block the Japanese army’s advance. However, the arch-traitor Chiang Kai-shek, utterly deranged and heedless of the nation’s survival or extinction, willingly acts as a slave to Japanese imperialism. Refusing to permit the Red Army’s demand to resist Japan, he has even deployed six to seven divisions of troops into Shanxi to obstruct the advance of the anti-Japanese Red Army. For national independence, freedom, and territorial integrity, we pledge to struggle together with all patriotic compatriots across the nation against the traitor who blocks the path of the anti-Japanese Red Army. Rise up! Chinese people, rise up and save China!

Mao Zedong
Chairman of the Northwest Military Commission of the Anti-Japanese Red Army

Zhou Enlai
Vice Chairman

Peng Dehuai
Vice Chairman

March 29