Current Situation and the Question of Strategic Policy[1]

(August 9, 1936)

In view of the northward movement of the Second and Fourth Front Armies, the development of the Southwest Incident, and the Japanese offensive against Suiyuan and Inner Mongolia, we are of the opinion that your headquarters must immediately prepare to coordinate with the Red Army in selecting a favorable opportunity in September or October, resolve to initiate an anti-Japanese situation, and take the occupation of Lanzhou, opening a route to the Soviet Union, consolidating the interior, and dispatching troops to Suiyuan as the basic strategic policy.

Once Chiang Kai-shek settles the Southwest question, it is highly probable that he will attack the Northwest. Under no circumstances should you go to Nanjing again, and you must take thorough precautions against Chiang’s schemes of covert assassination. At present, this point bears on the overall situation; the composition of the guard unit should be examined and must be placed in the hands of politically reliable cadres.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram from Mao Zedong, Luo Fu (Zhang Wentian), Zhou Enlai, and Bo Gu (Qin Bangxian) to Zhang Xueliang on the current situation and the question of strategic policy.