(August 1, 1937)

Comrades, the Japanese imperialists are extending the war to North China! Beiping
and Tianjin have fallen! If we fail to mobilize for the War of Resistance, the Japanese imperialists will soon be attacking us right here! Do not imagine that Beiping
and Tianjin are far, far away from here. Out there lies Shanxi, bordering on our
area, and beyond Shanxi are Beiping and Tianjin, which are being bombarded at
this moment by Japanese airplanes and big guns. Therefore, the people of the
whole country, wherever they are, must be mobilized urgently. The soviet areas
are the model areas for the whole nation in fighting Japan, so it is of the highest
significance that we are holding this rally of the campaign to mobilize for the War
of Resistance here, at this critical moment, when North China is threatened, and
the Chinese nation has arrived at a decisive pass. We want to set ourselves up as an
example and hereby express our determination to prosecute the War of Resistance.
A long while ago, we talked to them¹ over and over again, expressing our hope
that they would commit themselves to resolute participation in the War of Resistance, but they did not listen to us. From beginning to end they wavered and never
made up their minds to fight the War of Resistance resolutely. The fall of Beiping
and Tianjin this time was actually caused by their vacillation and lack of determination in fighting the War of Resistance. The authorities of North China from the
very start resorted to the tortuous pursuit of compromise, without making sufficient preparations militarily. Unnecessarily wary of the popular masses, they made
no effort to arouse the popular masses or to expand the patriotic movements of the
popular masses. On the contrary, they put up public notices enforcing martial law
and told the popular masses to remain "calm," thus making it impossible for the
popular masses, who were patriotic and seething with enthusiasm, to take any
action. The result of this behavior was that they lost Beiping and Tianjin! I hope

This speech was first published on August 2, 1937, in a special supplementary issue of Xin
Zhonghua bao. We have translated it from Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 5, pp. 93-94, which
reproduces this text.
1. The deliberately vague term "they"/"them," with no antecedent, clearly refers to Chiang
Kaishek, the Guomindang in general, and other powerful military commanders, whom Mao
chose not to denounce by name at this time.