CO-OPERATION

September 29, 1937


As far back as 1933, the Chinese Communist Party issued a declaration stating
that it was ready to conclude an agreement for resisting Japan with any section
of the Kuomintang army on three conditions, namely, that attacks on the Red
Army be stopped, that democratic freedoms be granted to the people and that
the people be armed. This declaration was made because after the September
18th Incident in 1931, resistance to the Japanese imperialist invasion became
the primary task of the Chinese people. But we did not succeed in our objective.

In August 1935, the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese Red Army called
upon all political parties and groups and the people throughout the country
to organize an anti-Japanese united army and a government of national defence
for a common fight against Japanese
imperialism.[1] In December of that year, the Chinese
Communist Party adopted a resolution [2] on the
formation of an anti-Japanese national united front with the national
bourgeoisie. In May 1936, the Red Army published an open telegram
[3] demanding that the Nanking government stop
the civil war and make common cause against Japan. In August of that year,
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party sent a letter
[4] to the Central Executive Committee of the
Kuomintang demanding that the Kuomintang stop the civil war and form a united
front of the two parties to fight jointly against Japanese imperialism. In
September of the same year, the Communist Party passed a resolution
[5] on the establishment of a unified democratic
republic in China. Besides the declaration, the open telegram, the letter
and the resolutions, we sent representatives to hold discussions with people
from the Kuomintang side on many occasions, and yet all in vain. It was only
towards the end of 1936 after the Sian Incident that the plenipotentiary
of the Chinese Communist Party and the responsible chief of the Kuomintang
reached an agreement on a contemporary issue of vital political importance,
namely, cessation of the civil war between the two parties, and brought about
the peaceful settlement of the Sian Incident. This was a great event in Chinese
history and provided a prerequisite for the renewal of cooperation between
the two parties.

On February 10 this year, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist
Party sent a telegram [6] to the Third Plenary
Session of the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee on the eve of its meeting,
making comprehensive proposals for concrete co-operation between the two
parties. In that telegram we demanded that the Kuomintang give the Communist
Party guarantees on the following five points: the ending of the civil war,
the realization of democratic freedoms, the convening of a national assembly,
speedy preparations for resisting Japan, and improvement of the people's
livelihood. At the same time the Communist Party offered guarantees to the
Kuomintang on the following four points: the elimination of the state of
antagonism between the two regimes, the redesignation of the Red Army, the
application of the new-democratic system in the revolutionary base areas,
and the discontinuance of the confiscation of the land of the landlords.
This was likewise an important political step, for without it the establishment
of co-operation between the two parties would have been retarded, which would
have been wholly detrimental to speedy preparations for resisting Japan.

Since then the two parties have moved a step closer to each other in their
negotiations. The Communist Party has made more specific proposals on the
question of a common political programme for the two parties, on the question
of lifting the ban on the mass movements and releasing political prisoners,
and on the question of redesignating the Red Army. So far the common programme
has not yet been promulgated, nor has the ban on the mass movements been
lifted, nor has the new system in the revolutionary base areas been recognized;
however, about a month after the fall of Peiping and Tientsin an order was
issued to the effect that the Red Army was to be redesignated as the Eighth
Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army (also called the Eighteenth
Group Army in the anti-Japanese battle order). The declaration of the Central
Committee of our Party on the establishment of bi-partisan co-operation,
which had been conveyed to the Kuomintang as early as July 15, and Chiang
Kai-shek's statement recognizing the legal status of the Communist Party
of China, which should have been published as agreed simultaneously with
the declaration, were finally released to the public (alas after a long delay)
by the Kuomintang Central News Agency on September 22 and 23 respectively,
when the situation at the front had become critical. The Communist Party's
declaration and Chiang Kai-shek's statement announced the establishment of
co-operation between the two parties and laid the necessary foundation for
the great cause of alliance between the two parties to save the nation. The
declaration of the Communist Party not only embodies the principle of unity
between the two parties but also embodies the basic principle of the great
unity of the people throughout the country. It is good that Chiang Kai-shek,
in his statement, recognized the legal status of the Communist Party throughout
China and spoke of the necessity of unity to save the nation; however, he
has not abandoned his Kuomintang arrogance or made any necessary self-criticism,
and we can hardly be satisfied with that. Nevertheless, the united front
between the two parties has been proclaimed as established. This has ushered
in a new epoch in the history of the Chinese revolution. It will exert a
widespread and profound influence on the Chinese revolution and play a decisive
role in defeating Japanese imperialism.

Ever since 1924, the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Chinese
Communist Party has played a decisive role in the Chinese revolution. The
revolution of 1924-27 took place as a result of the co-operation of the two
parties on the basis of a definite programme. In a mere two or three years,
tremendous successes were achieved in the national revolution to which Dr.
Sun Yat-sen had devoted forty years and which he had left unaccomplished;
these successes were the establishment of the revolutionary base in Kwangtung
and the victory of the Northern Expedition. They were the products of the
formation of the united front of the two parties. But at the very moment
when the revolution was nearing its triumph, some people who failed to uphold
the revolutionary cause disrupted the two-party united front and so brought
about the failure of the revolution, and the door was left open for foreign
aggression. These were the products of the disruption of the united front
of the two parties. Now the newly formed united front between the two parties
has ushered in a new period in the Chinese revolution. There are still people
who do not understand the historical role of the united front and its great
future and regard it as a mere temporary makeshift devised under the pressure
of circumstances; nevertheless, through this united front, the wheel of history
will propel the Chinese revolution forward to a completely new stage. Whether
China can extricate herself from the national and social crisis which is
now so grave depends on how this united front will develop. There is already
fresh evidence that the prospects are favourable. First, as soon as the policy
of the united front was put forward by the Chinese Communist Party, it won
the approval of the people everywhere. This is a clear expression of the
will of the people. Second, immediately after the Sian Incident was settled
peacefully and the two parties ended the civil war, all political parties
and groups, people in all walks of life and all armed forces in the country
achieved unprecedented unity. This unity, however, still falls far short
of meeting the needs of resisting Japan, especially as the problem of unity
between the government and the people remains basically unsolved. Third,
and most striking of all, is the fact that the nation-wide War of Resistance
has started. We are not satisfied with the War of Resistance in its present
state because, though national in character, it is still confined to the
government and the armed forces. As we pointed out earlier, Japanese imperialism
cannot be defeated through a war of resistance of this kind. Nevertheless,
for the first time in a hundred years, China is definitely putting up nation-wide
resistance to a foreign invader, and this could never have come about without
internal peace and without co-operation between the two parties. If the Japanese
aggressors were able to take the four northeastern provinces without firing
a single shot during the time when the two-party united front was broken
up, then today, when the united front has been re-established, they will
not be able to occupy more Chinese territory without paying a price in bloody
battles. Fourth, there is the effect abroad. The proposal for the anti-Japanese
united front put forward by the Chinese Communist Party has won the support
of the workers and peasants and the Communist Parties all over the world.
With the establishment of co-operation between the Kuomintang and the Communist
Party, the people of various countries, and particularly of the Soviet Union,
will help China more actively. China and the Soviet Union have concluded
a treaty of non-aggression [7] and the relations
between the two countries can be expected to improve still further. From
all this evidence we can state with certainty that the growth of the united
front will carry China towards a bright and great future, namely, the defeat
of Japanese imperialism and the establishment of a unified democratic republic.

However, the united front cannot accomplish this great task if it remains
in its present state. The united front of the two parties must be developed
further. For in its present state it is not yet broadly based or consolidated.

Should the Anti-Japanese National United Front be confined to the Kuomintang
and the Communist Party? No, it should be a united front of the whole nation,
with the two parties forming only a part of it. It should be a united front
of all parties and groups, people in all walks of life and all armed forces,
a united front of all patriots-- the workers, peasants, soldiers, intellectuals
and businessmen. So far, the united front has in fact been confined to the
two parties, while the masses of the workers, peasants, soldiers and urban
petty bourgeoisie and a large number of other patriots have not yet been
aroused, called into action, organized or armed. This is the most serious
problem at present. It is serious because it makes victories at the front
impossible. It is no longer possible to conceal the critical situation at
the front both in northern China and in Kiangsu and Chekiang Provinces, nor
is there any need to do so; the question is how to save the situation. And
the only way to save it is to put Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Testament into practice,
to "arouse the masses of the people". In his deathbed Testament, Dr. Sun
declared he was deeply convinced, from the experience accumulated over forty
years, that only thus could the goal of revolution be achieved. What reason
is there for obstinately refusing to put this testament into practice? What
reason is there for failing to do so at a moment when the fate of the nation
is at stake? Everybody knows that autocracy and suppression run counter to
the principle of "arousing the masses of the people". Resistance by the
government and the army alone can never defeat Japanese imperialism. Early
in May this year we warned the ruling Kuomintang in all seriousness that
unless the masses of the people were aroused to resist, China would follow
the same path to disaster as Abyssinia. This point has been made not only
by the Chinese Communists but by progressives throughout the country and
by many intelligent members of the Kuomintang itself. Yet the policy of
autocratic rule remains unchanged. As a result the government has estranged
itself from the people, the army from the masses, and the military command
from the rank and file. Unless the united front is reinforced by the
participation of the masses, the crisis on the war fronts will inevitably
be aggravated, not mitigated.

The present anti-Japanese united front still lacks a political programme
to replace the Kuomintang's policy of autocratic rule, a programme accepted
by both parties and formally promulgated. In relation to the masses the
Kuomintang is continuing the same practices it has followed for the last
ten years; there has been no change and on the whole everything has remained
the same for the last ten years, from the government apparatus, the army
system and the policy towards civilians to financial, economic and educational
policies. Changes there are and very great ones too--cessation of civil war
and unity against Japan. The two parties have ended the civil war and the
nation-wide War of Resistance Against Japan has started, which mean a tremendous
change in the Chinese political scene since the Sian Incident. But so far
there has been no change in the practices enumerated above, and there is
thus a disharmony between the things that have not changed and those that
have. The old practices are suited only to compromise abroad and suppression
of the revolution at home, and they prove ill-suited in every respect and
reveal all their inadequacies when it comes to coping with the Japanese
imperialist invasion. It would be another story if we did not want to resist
Japan, but since we do and resistance has actually begun, and since a serious
crisis has already revealed itself, refusal to change over to new ways will
lead to the gravest dangers imaginable. Resistance to Japan requires a broadly
based united front, and hence all the people should be mobilized to join
it. Resistance to Japan requires a consolidated united front, and this calls
for a common programme. The common programme will be the united front's guide
to action and will serve also as the tie which, like a cord, closely binds
together all the organizations and individuals in the united front, all political
parties and groups, people in all walks of life and all armed forces. Only
in this way will we be able to speak of firm unity. We are opposed to the
old binding rules, because they are unsuited to the national revolutionary
war. We look forward to the introduction of new binding rules to replace
the old, that is, to the promulgation of a common programme and the establishment
of revolutionary order. Nothing else will suit the War of Resistance.

What should the common programme be? It should be the Three People's Principles
of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and the Ten-Point Programme for Resisting Japan and Saving
the Nation [8] proposed by the Communist Party
on August 25 this year.

In its declaration announcing Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, the Chinese
Communist Party stated that "the Three People's Principles of Dr. Sun Yat-sen
being what China needs today, our Party is ready to fight for their complete
realization". Some people find it strange that the Communist Party should
be ready to put the Three People's Principles of the Kuomintang into practice;
Chu Ching-lai [9] of Shanghai, for instance, has
expressed doubts in a local periodical. These people think that communism
and the Three People's Principles are incompatible. This is a purely formal
approach. Communism will be put into practice at a future stage of the
development of the revolution; at the present stage the communists harbour
no illusions about being able to realize it but will carry out the national
and democratic revolution as required by history. This is the basic reason
why the Communist Party has proposed an anti-Japanese national united front
and a unified democratic republic. As for the Three People's Principles,
at the Kuomintang's First National Congress the Communist Party and the
Kuomintang jointly decided to put them into practice during the first two-party
united front over ten years ago, and they were put into practice from 1924
to 1927 in large areas of the country through the efforts of all loyal Communists
and all loyal members of the Kuomintang. Unfortunately that united front
broke up in 1927, and in the subsequent ten years the Kuomintang opposed
the application of the Three People's Principles. But as far as the Communist
Party is concerned, all its policies in these ten years have been fundamentally
in line with the revolutionary spirit of Dr. Sun's Three People's Principles
and Three Great Policies. Not a day has passed without the Communist Party's
conducting a struggle against imperialism, which means the thoroughgoing
application of the Principle of Nationalism; the worker-peasant democratic
dictatorship is nothing but the thoroughgoing application of the Principle
of Democracy; the Agrarian Revolution is the thoroughgoing application of
the Principle of People's Livelihood. Why, then, has the Communist Party
announced the abolition of the worker-peasant democratic dictatorship and
the discontinuance of confiscating the land of landlords? The reason, as
we explained some time ago, is not that there is anything at all wrong with
these things, but that the Japanese imperialist armed aggression has led
to a change in class relations in the country, and has thereby not only made
it necessary to unite all classes of the nation against Japanese imperialism,
but also created the possibility of doing so. An anti-fascist united front
for the sake of the common struggle against fascism is both necessary and
possible not only in China but throughout the world. Therefore we stand for
the establishment of a national and democratic united front in China. It
is on these grounds that we have proposed a democratic republic based on
the alliance of all classes in place of a worker-peasant democratic dictatorship.
The Agrarian Revolution put into effect the principle of "land to the tiller",
which is precisely what Dr. Sun Yat-sen proposed. We have now discontinued
it for the sake of uniting greater numbers of people against Japanese
imperialism, but that does not mean China does not need to solve her land
problem. We have unequivocally explained our position on the causes of these
changes in policy and their timing. It is precisely because the Chinese Communist
Party, basing itself on Marxist principles, has constantly adhered to and
developed the revolutionary Three People's Principles--the common programme
of the first Kuomintang-Communist united front--that, in this hour of national
crisis when our country is invaded by a powerful aggressor, the Party has
been able to put forward the timely proposal for a national and democratic
united front, which is the only policy capable of saving the nation, and
to apply this policy with unremitting effort. The question now is not whether
it is the Communist Party which believes in or carries out the revolutionary
Three People's Principles, but whether it is the Kuomintang which does so.
The present task is to restore the revolutionary spirit of Dr. Sun's Three
People's Principles throughout the country, and on this basis to work out
a definite programme and policy and put them into practice sincerely and
not half-heartedly, conscientiously and not perfunctorily, promptly and not
tardily; the Chinese Communist Party has been earnestly praying day and night
for this to happen. For this very reason, it put forward the Ten-Point Programme
for Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation after the Lukouchiao Incident.
The Ten-Point Programme is in line both with Marxism and with the genuine
revolutionary Three People's Principles. It is an initial programme, the
programme for the Chinese revolution at the present stage, which is the stage
of the anti-Japanese national revolutionary war; China can be saved only
if this programme is put into effect. History will punish those who persist
in any course conflicting with this programme.

It is impossible to put this programme into practice throughout the country
without the consent of the Kuomintang, because the Kuomintang today is still
the biggest party in China and the party in power. We believe that the day
will come when intelligent members of the Kuomintang will agree to this
programme. For if they do not, the Three People's Principles will for ever
remain an empty phrase, and it will be impossible to restore the revolutionary
spirit of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, impossible to defeat Japanese imperialism and
impossible for the Chinese people to escape becoming the slaves of a foreign
power. No really intelligent member of the Kuomintang can possibly want this
to happen, and our people will never allow themselves to be turned into slaves.
Moreover, in his statement of September 23 Mr. Chiang Kai-shek declared:

I hold that we who stand for the revolution should put aside personal grudges
and prejudices and devote ourselves to the realization of the Three People's
Principles. At this critical juncture of life and death, we should all the
more let bygones be bygones and together with the whole nation make a completely
fresh start, and work strenuously for unity in order to preserve the very
life and existence of our country.

This is most true. The urgent task at present is to strive for the realization
of the Three People's Principles, to discard personal and factional prejudices,
to change the old set of practices, to carry out a revolutionary programme
in line with the Three People's Principles immediately and to make a completely
fresh start together with the whole nation. Today this is the only course.
With further delay it will be too late to repent.

But there must be instruments for carrying out the Three People's Principles
and the Ten-Point Programme, and this raises the question of reforming the
government and the army. The present government is still a one-party dictatorship
of the Kuomintang and not a government of the national democratic united
front. In the absence of a government of the national democratic united front,
it is impossible to carry out the Three People's Principles and the Ten-Point
Programme. The present army system of the Kuomintang is still the old one,
and it is impossible to defeat Japanese imperialism with troops organized
under this system. The troops are now engaged in resistance and we have great
admiration and respect for them all, and especially for those fighting at
the front. But the lessons of the War of Resistance in the last three months
demonstrate that the Kuomintang army system must be changed, as it is unsuited
to the task of completely defeating the Japanese aggressors and to the successful
application of the Three People's Principles and the revolutionary programme.
The change should be based on the principles of unity between officers and
men and unity between the army and the people. The present army system of
the Kuomintang is fundamentally opposed to both these principles. It prevents
the mass of officers and men from giving their best despite their loyalty
and courage, and therefore an immediate start must be made to reform it.
This does not mean that the fighting has to stop until the system is reformed;
it can be reformed while the fighting is going on. Here the central task
is to bring about a change in the army's political spirit and its political
work. The National Revolutionary Army during the Northern Expedition provides
an admirable precedent, for in general it did establish unity between officers
and men and between the army and the people; a revival of the spirit of those
days is absolutely necessary. China should learn from the war in Spain where
the Republican army has been built up under extremely adverse circumstances.
China is in a better position than Spain, but she lacks a broadly based and
consolidated united front, she lacks a united front government capable of
carrying out the whole revolutionary programme and large numbers of troops
organized according to a new system. She must remedy these defects. With
regard to the war as a whole, the Red Army led by the Chinese Communist Party
can at present only play a vanguard role, it cannot yet play a decisive role
on a national scale. Nevertheless its political, military and organizational
merits are well worth acquiring by friendly armies throughout the country.
At its inception the Red Army was not what it is today; it, too, has undergone
many reforms, the main ones being the weeding out of feudal practices within
the army and the application of the principles of unity between officers
and men and unity between the army and the people. Friendly armies throughout
the country can draw on this experience.

Anti-Japanese comrades of the ruling Kuomintang party! Today we share with
you the responsibility for saving the nation from extinction and ensuring
its survival. You have already formed an anti-Japanese united front with
us. That is very good. You have started resisting Japan. That is also very
good. But we do not approve of your continuing your other policies in the
old way. We should all develop and broaden the united front and draw in the
masses of the people. It is necessary to consolidate the united front and
pursue a common programme. It is essential resolutely to reform the political
and army systems. It is absolutely necessary to have a new government, which
alone can carry out the revolutionary programme and start to reform the armies
on a national scale. This proposal of ours answers the needs of the times.
Many people in your party also feel that now is the time to put it into practice.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in his day, made up his mind and reformed the political
and army systems, thereby laying the foundation for the revolution of 1924-27.
The responsibility for effecting the same kind of reform now falls on your
shoulders. We believe that no loyal and patriotic member of the Kuomintang
will consider that our proposal is ill-suited to the needs of the situation.
We are firmly convinced that it meets the objective needs.

The fate of our nation is at stake--let the Kuomintang and the Communist
Party unite closely! Let all our fellow-countrymen who refuse to become slaves
unite closely on the basis of Kuomintang Communist unity! The urgent task
in the Chinese revolution today is to make all the reforms necessary to overcome
all difficulties. When this task is accomplished, we can surely defeat Japanese
imperialism. If we try hard, our future will be bright.


NOTES


1. See "The Tasks of the Chinese Communist Party in the
Period of Resistance to Japan", Note 2, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,
Eng. ed., FLP, Peking, 1965, Vol. I, pp. 276-77.

2. For the resolution see ibid., Note 3, pp. 277-78.

3. For the open telegram see ibid., Note 4, pp.
279-80.

4. For the contents of the letter see "A Statement on Chiang
Kai-shek's Statement", Note 7, ibid., pp. 259-61.

5. For the resolution see "The Tasks of the Chinese Communist
Party in the Period of Resistance to Japan", Note 6, ibid., pp.
280-81.

6. For the telegram see ibid., Note 7, pp. 281-82.

7. The Treaty of Non-Aggression Between the Republic of
China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was concluded on August
21, 1937.

8. For the Ten-Point Programme see "For the Mobilization
of All the Nation's Forces for Victory in the War of Resistance", pp. 25-28
of this volume.

9. Chu Ching-lai was a leader of the National Socialist
Party (a small clique organized by reactionary landlords, bureaucrats and
big bourgeoisie) who later became a member of the traitorous Wang Ching-wei
government.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.