Central Committee Directive to Liu Shaoqi on the Propaganda Policy Regarding the Xi’an Incident*
(January 7, 1937)

Hu Fu:

The propaganda policy regarding the Xi’an Incident is as follows:

1. The Xi’an Incident is an internal matter of the Guomindang Nanjing Government, in which our Party absolutely did not participate. However, after the Incident occurred, our Party immediately issued circular telegrams advocating a peaceful resolution.

2. Our Party opposes all actions that may lead to civil war. Therefore, on the one hand, we oppose the Nanjing Government’s policy of civil war for suppressing the Communists, and on the other hand, we have never endorsed Zhang and Yang either, because Zhang and Yang might perhaps have found better means to realize their proposition of resisting Japan.

3. The release of Jiang, Zhang’s departure for the capital, and the Nanjing Government’s handling of this case are also regarded by our Party as internal matters of Nanjing. Standing on a fair and just position, our Party approves of all measures that lead the Incident toward a peaceful resolution and opposes those that lead the Incident toward complications, thereby facilitating Japanese imperialism.

4. In order that China may henceforth achieve peaceful unification and unite to resist foreign aggression, our Party advocates that the Nanjing Government, after granting a special amnesty to Mr. Zhang, should immediately order Zhang to return to Shaanxi and lead the Northeastern Army and all the troops of the Northwest to the anti-Japanese front, thereby realizing the joint national salvation concept of Mr. Jiang and Mr. Zhang.

5. However, if the Nanjing Government, disregarding the overall interests of the nation and the people, still keeps Mr. Zhang confined in Nanjing after the special amnesty decree and redeploys the already withdrawn troops in an attempt to resolve the issue of the Northeastern Army and the Northwestern Army by force, then the calamity of civil war will inevitably ensue. Such a civil war shall be the full responsibility of the Nanjing Government.

6. Our Party will continue to struggle for the basic policy of stopping the civil war and uniting to resist Japan, and oppose the schemes of the Japanese bandits and the pro-Japanese clique to instigate civil war and split China. Although this proposition of our Party is supported by the people of the whole nation, it is always opposed by the Japanese bandits and the pro-Japanese clique. Consequently, we have become the target of attacks by the Japanese bandits and the pro-Japanese clique, who use this as capital to create an “anti-Communist” agreement aimed at bringing about the subjugation of China.

Central Committee