On the Issue of the Two Parties [the Kuomintang and the Communist Party] Issuing a Manifesto: A Telegram in Reply to Zhou Enlai[1]

(May 5, 1937)

It is advantageous to insist that the two parties issue a joint manifesto. This manifesto is to be issued after the common programme is finalized, and its general purport will be none other than what is stated in the draft common programme. Tell Zhang and Gu that if they want our Party to issue one alone, then: first, their Party must issue a manifesto at the same time; second, in our Party’s manifesto we will be compelled to refute many things in the manifesto of the Third Plenary Session and the document on eradicating the Red peril that our Party and the people cannot endure.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram in reply to Zhou Enlai from Mao Zedong, Luo Fu (Zhang Wentian), and Bo Gu (Qin Bangxian) on the issue of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party issuing a manifesto.