Telegram to Zhou Enlai and Others[1]

(October 22, 1937)

Enlai’s lengthy telegram[2] analyzing the overall situation and our Party’s policies is entirely correct, and we fully agree. Please have Enlai draft a proposal and go to Nanjing to formally and solemnly present it to the Kuomintang on behalf of our Party, and to mobilize all sectors to promote a shift in the current situation. The Party’s manifesto shall be decided after Enlai’s negotiations in Nanjing; for the time being, use the Liberation Daily editorial as a call to action.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram from Mao Zedong and Luo Fu (Zhang Wentian) to Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and others.

[2] In a telegram sent on October 19 to Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, and others, Zhou Enlai stated that, in view of the Japanese forces concentrating their full strength to fiercely attack Shanxi and attempting to seize Shanghai, the Kuomintang government was wavering on protracted resistance, the domestic atmosphere of compromise and peace was rising, and China’s War of Resistance was facing a new crisis. He put forward the following proposals: (1) The CCP should publicly issue a manifesto opposing peace and compromise and insisting on resisting to the end; (2) Present an emergency plan for the War of Resistance to the Kuomintang government; (3) Propose further plans for North China to Yan Xishan, Huang Shaohong, and Wei Lihuang; (4) Demand that the Kuomintang government send additional troops to North China to support the War of Resistance; (5) The Eighth Route Army should take active actions in North China, directly coordinate with friendly forces in combat, and expand and develop guerrilla warfare, and so on.