Conversation with Fan Changjiang, Journalist of the *Ta Kung Pao* [1]

(February 9, 1937)

I

The failure of the fifth counter-campaign against “encirclement and suppression” lay in the fact that we should not have fought the major decisive battle at Guangchang, and should not have engaged in a head-on bitter struggle with the main forces commanded by Chen Cheng. We should have temporarily abandoned the Soviet area and divided the Red Army into four routes, fiercely striking out at the four points of Hangzhou, Suzhou, Nanjing, and Wuhu, carrying out feint attacks to lure and move the enemy forces in Jiangxi, then selecting a weak point for a battle, returning to Jiangxi after victory, and then breaking through the weaker sectors. In this way, the Soviet area could have been preserved.

II

It is hoped that China will embark on the path of constitutional democracy, seeking unity and peace through democracy. Only after peaceful unification can we speak of resisting Japan. Therefore, in order to realize democratic politics, the Communist Party may relinquish the agrarian revolution and the names Soviet and Red Army. Some people oppose the Communist Party speaking of patriotism; this shows they do not thoroughly understand Marxism-Leninism. Marxism-Leninism is anti-imperialist; to advocate patriotism in a semi-colonial country is, in essence, anti-imperialist.

[1] On the evening of February 9, 1937, Fan Changjiang, a journalist from the *Ta Kung Pao*, arrived in Yan’an, and Mao Zedong attended a welcoming banquet. At 10 p.m., he met with Fan Changjiang at his residence on Fenghuang Mountain, and they talked through the night. Part I of this text is a passage of Mao Zedong’s conversation on strategic issues; Part II is a passage of Mao Zedong’s conversation on the current demands of the Communist Party.