Mao Zedong
To Li Jishen, Li Zongren, and Bai Chongxi¹
(September 22, 1936)

To Mr. Renchao, with the request for transmission to Messrs. Delin and
Jiansheng, for your honorable inspection:

Mr. Qian Shoukang came and told me everything about your situation and the
draft agreement that you sent to me. There is no excuse for delay in working for
a magnificent future for our country. At present, the great plan for resisting
Japan and saving the country must enter the stage in which it becomes concrete
reality. We have already put forward such a concrete plan in the letter we sent
to the Guomindang on August 25. Now, we ask Mr. Qian to present it to you
for your honorable inspection. It is my belief that, as men of broad vision and
great foresight, you gentlemen will agree with our plan. The most urgent task
for us at this point is to call off the civil war throughout the country and to unite
against Japan. Although your honorable side seems fortunately to have avoided
the disaster of a war for the time being, the battle on the northwestern front is
still going on. All parties, factions, circles, and armed forces in the country are
appealing to the Nanjing government for it to shift its vengeful hostility from its
compatriots to the foreign invaders and for Mr. Chiang Kaishek and the Chinese Guomindang to join the united front against Japan. This is truly a vital step
in the overall tactics for saving the country. If the whole country is in a state of
turmoil, and resistance against Japan is hampered, the reason is simply that the

We have translated this letter from Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 70-72, where it is
reproduced from a copy in the Central Archives.
deputy commander of the Nationalist forces in Guangxi, under Li Zongren as commander.

--- Notes

1. Li Jishen (1885-1959), zi Renchao, was born in Guangxi. He had been twice
expelled from the Guomindang because of conflicts with Chiang Kaishek, the second time
in 1934 following the collapse of the Fujian rebellion, of which he was the titular head.
(See the telegram addressed to him by Mao on January 13, 1934, in Volume IV of our
edition, pp. 649-50.) He had been a leader in planning the Guangdong-Guangxi revolt of
June 1936, and when it was suppressed he fled again to Hong Kong. Li Zongren
(1891-1969), zi Delin, was a native of Guangxi and graduated from a military academy
there. By 1926, he had established himself as the dominant military figure in Guangxi and
continued to play a major role in the affairs of that province. He participated in the
anti-Chiang action of June-July 1936 but, unlike Li Jishen, retained his post there after
that affair was settled. Bai Chongxi (1893–1966), zi Jiansheng, was born into a Muslim
family in Guangxi. A graduate of the Baoding Military Academy, Bai had become by the
end of 1925 one of the three leaders of what was subsequently called the Guangxi clique.
Thereafter he served repeatedly under Li Zongren, with whom he organized a Guangxi
military government in July 1936. After the collapse of the rebellion, he was reappointed