To the Honorable Gentlemen of the Nanjing Kuomintang National Government:

The Xi'an Incident, with the shocking news of Mr. Jiang's confinement, was an unexpected event. However, this is truly the result of Mr. Jiang's three major erroneous policies: concession externally, military force internally, and oppression of the people. Zhang and Yang are both members of the Party Central Committee and leaders of the "bandit suppression" army, yet they firmly requested the cessation of "bandit suppression" and unified resistance against Japan. Observing their announced eight-point proposal, it is truly what the people of the entire nation have spoken; if rigorously implemented, what fault can be found? Today's Xi'an Incident is merely the third, following the Fujian Incident and the Liangguang Incident. All three are patriotic heroes of your party who, dissatisfied with Mr. Jiang's actions of surrendering to Japan and selling out the country, have resolutely raised the banner of righteousness. If you do not carefully examine this and stubbornly persist in your own way, similar incidents will spread throughout the country, and the multiplying disasters will be impossible to manage. Are the patriotic heroes within the Chinese Kuomintang still controlled by Mr. Jiang, and further controlled by the pro-Japanese faction that flatters foreigners and harms the people? With righteousness suppressed, the party's principles are destroyed, the country shrinks by a hundred li each day, the rivers and mountains are broken, and the people will perish with you, harboring boundless resentment and pain. I believe that the Nanjing authorities should take the Xi'an Incident as an opportunity for reflection, and absolutely must not act rashly and impulsively, instead launching an unprecedented civil war, as recent telegrams have reported. As the saying goes, "When the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman stands ready to seize them." That Japan, upon hearing that Nanjing had decided to suppress Zhang and Yang, was overjoyed, with strong armor and sharp weapons, ready to strike. If the gentlemen in Nanjing were to gather the troops guarding the coast and the Yangtze River, and launch a large-scale suppression in the northwest corner, regardless of the harsh and cold northwest region, the brave and righteous troops of Zhang and Yang, and the flames of war in Jin and Sui, the outcome of the nationwide turmoil is truly unknowable. Even if you were to win the battle and seize territory, indulging your desires, Japan would seize the opportunity to invade, taking advantage of the weakness to attack Shanghai and Nanjing, seize Qingdao and Jinan, make North China independent, and endanger the Northwest, leading to the demise of the entire nation, truly a catastrophe from which there would be no recovery. The analogy of the mantis and the oriole, the criticism of pleasing the enemy and hurting one's own, would be eternally difficult to wash away for thousands of generations. We feel a sense of crisis and dare not remain silent. China is the China of the Chinese people. If the country ceases to exist, where will the people be? If the people are destroyed, where will the party find support? Therefore, for more than a year, we have repeatedly and tirelessly advocated for cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, turning enemies into friends, and jointly facing the national enemy, even to the point of exhaustion. If you truly wish to distinguish yourselves from Mr. Jiang, and further wish to distinguish yourselves from the pro-Japanese faction, you should make a firm decision, accept the proposals of Zhang and Yang, cease the civil war that is currently being launched, dismiss Mr. Jiang and hand him over to the people for trial, unite all parties, factions, circles, and armies, organize a united front government, abandon Mr. Jiang's beloved bureaucratic airs of centralized power, unified discipline, etc., and honestly start anew with the people, open up freedom of speech, unseal patriotic publications, release patriotic prisoners, and immediately send the entire army engaged in the civil war to Jin and Sui to resist the Japanese invaders, transforming darkness into light, and turning misfortune into great fortune. If so, then we, though not talented, are willing to lead the People's Red Army, one hundred thousand strong, to join forces with your party's army, and jointly go to the battlefield of national revolution, and fight to the death for a free and liberated motherland. Otherwise, if the country is destroyed and the race exterminated, not only will the people of the entire nation and the patriotic individuals in your party not be able to sit idly by, but we will also definitely not be able to stand by and watch. We send this telegram with trepidation, awaiting your clear instructions.

Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Zhang Guotao, Lin Zuhan, Xu Teli, Wang Jiaxiang, Peng Dehuai, He Long, Ye Jianying, Ren Bishi, Lin Biao, Xu Xiangqian, Chen Changhao, Xu Haidong