Demand That Chiang Kaishek Give Concrete Guarantees That War Will Not Break Out Again After the Peaceful Solution
# Date: 1937-01-21
# Source: en:MRP
Demand That Chiang Kaishek Give Concrete
Guarantees That War Will Not Break Out
Again After the Peaceful Solution
(January 21, 1937, between 9:00 and 11:00 P.M.)
Comrade [Pan] Hannian:
Your telegram has been received.


1. From the very beginning we have advocated peace, and we absolutely do
not want war.


2. But in Nanjing the atmosphere of suppressing the Communists has been on
the rise, and it was particularly obvious in Liu Zhi's speech, which inevitably
raises doubts as to whether there is truly the sincere intent to unite against the
outside.


3. We can guarantee that, on the one hand, as soon as the Red Army is provided
with proper stationing and fairly adequate provisions, it will not only refrain from
any attacks on the White areas but will also cease its struggle against local bullies; at
present, the Red Army has already carried out these two points. On the other hand,
we can advise the Xi'an authorities to obey Mr. Chiang and Nanjing. Yang
[Hucheng], Yu [Xuezhong], and Sun [Weiru] have already sent circular telegrams
about taking office and dissolving the temporary organizations; what remain are
merely the problems of appropriate designation of defense areas and Zhang
Hanqing's return to Shaanxi. This requires Mr. Chiang to keep the general goal in
sight and take proper measures to calm the minds of the Northeastern Army and the
Seventeenth Route Army. If Chiang is able to act in this way, we must make every
possible effort to assist Mr. Chiang, not only in the Northwest but also on the scale
of the whole country, and unite all sides against the foreign [invaders]. But Mr.
Chiang must give us concrete guarantees.


4. We demand a guarantee from Mr. Chiang that war will not break out again
after the peaceful solution, and we hope to discuss the question of these guarantees with Mr. Chiang.


Mao Zedong
Zhou Enlai


Our source for this text is Wenxian he yanjiu, no. 4 (1985) (pp. 204-5 of the annual
volume).


1. In order to avoid civil war and present a unified front to the outside, in
principle we do not oppose Chiang's orientation, and Xi'an should be persuaded
to follow Nanjing's unified orientation, and that it is best for Chiang to be lenient
with Zhang [Xueliang] and Yang [Hucheng], to reassure them.


2. But we should demand resolutely of Chiang that he agree to all of the
following points:


a. To guarantee that after a peaceful solution is reached, there will be no
more war.


b. Not to carry out the policy of suppressing the Communists, and to guarantee minimal provisions for the Red Army.


c. To permit some part of the Red Army to station troops for the time being
in southern Shaanxi, but not necessarily in Shang[zhou] and Luo[nan],
because food is extremely scarce in places such as Heshui, Qingyang,
Zhengning, Chunhua, Fuxian, Fushi, and so on, and later troops may be
transferred to station in other locations.


d. Please order Ma Bufang to halt attacks on the Red Army west of the
[Yellow] River.


e. So that Red Army cadres may firmly believe that Chiang is halting his
suppression of the Communists, designating defense sectors, and issuing
provisions, in order to make proper preparations to resist Japan, it is requested that Chiang reply in his own hand to Enlai's letter. We can guarantee absolute secrecy, because there are still many who have suspicions
amongst the Red Army cadres.


f. There have been no changes in Xi'an for now, and the Red Army has not
643-44, confirms that this is the case.


We have translated this telegram from Documents on the United Front, Vol. 2, pp. 370-71. The month is missing in the date as given in the source used by the compilers of this
volume, but the editors indicate in a note that it is probably January. Nianpu, Vol. 1, pp.

--- Notes



1. Liu Zhi had assumed command of the Eastern Route Group Army of the
expeditionary force sent against Xi'an by He Yingqin. We have found no information
about the speech referred to here.


Telegram to Pan Hannian from Mao Zedong
and Zhou Enlai on the Question of Conditions
That Chiang Kaishek Is Requested to Carry
Out Following the Xi'an Incident
(January 21, 1937)
Comrade Hannian:



1. The character for this xian, located in central Shaanxi, was changed in 1964 to a
less obscure one than that used here by Mao.