TALK WITH REPORTER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 1938
[Text] Reporter: Now there are many people who are pessimistic about
China's war against Japan. What is your opinion, Sir?

Answer: I am entirely optimistic about this because the course of
China's war of resistance is inevitably one of defeat first and then
victory, and one of initial weakness gradually turning strong. This has
become a definite direction. In the early stage of the Sino-Japanese
war, the general situation was that Japan was strong and China weak. But
in the future Japan's weakness will be gradually exposed, and China's
strength will be gradually built up. Japan is now borrowing money to
wage the war. Aside from the 2.2 billion yen spent in the last 6 months,
Japan is said to need 4 billion yen or more. This has greatly depleted
its national strength. Japan's international credit has deteriorated,
and the price of its bonds has dropped. Its "quick battle, quick ending"
plan has failed. Let us ask how can it have so much money to prolong the
war indefinitely? Militarily, Japan's battle front has been extended
several thousand miles from Hangchow to Paotow. It does not have enough
men to be deployed just for defense. Therefore, its military strength is
gradually weakening in proportion to the extent of deep penetration and
wide expansion. It occupies long stretches of railways, and troops have
to be sent to guard each railway station. Japan has mobilized one-third
of its armed forces to invade China. If it wants to occupy Hankow,
Canton and other cities, it has to mobilize hundreds of thousands of
additional troops. At that time, its situation will become worse.
Japan's enemy is not China alone. Additionally, because of its domestic,
international and other major contradictions, Japan will definitely be on
the road to total collapse.

Question: Did you say, Sir, that China's strength can be gradually
enhanced?

Answer: According to the war experience in the last 7 months, militarily
if we can employ mobile warfare, position warfare and guerrilla warfare

and coordinate these three types of warfare, we can definitely put the
enemy force in an extremely difficult position. In my opinion, at
present, aside from using 200,000 to 300,000 crack troops to form a few
strong field armies to launch annihilating attacks on the enemy's advanced
units in a mobile warfare, we should also have 80,000 to 90,000 troops,
organized into 20 or 30 hardcore guerrilla regiments with 3,000 to 4,000
men in each regiment, led by resolute and dynamic commanders and with
their political work strengthened, deployed in front of the enemy's battle
line from Hangchow to Paotow. These forces should fight their way to the
rear of the enemy line through 20-30 gaps along this long battle front.
If this strategy is properly applied, the guerrilla units can work
together with the local masses and proliferate into numerous small guerrilla units which will definitely be able to establish numerous anti-Japanese bases behind enemy lines, mobilize hundreds of thousands of the
masses, and forcefully coordinate with the mobile field armies and thus
throw the enemy into discomfiture. As to position warfare, we should not
regard it as our main strategy at present because we are technologically
inadequate. However, we must build a national defense industry, and manufacture heavy and advanced weapons ourselves. At the same time, we should
find ways to transport these weapons so that we can effectively conduct
both defensive and offensive positional warfare. This is very necessary.
Some people say that we only advocate guerrilla warfare. That is nonsense.
We have always advocated the coordination of mobile, position and guerrilla warfares. At present, we are using mobile warfare as the main tactic, and the other two as complementary tactics. In the future, we should
make position warfare effectively coordinated with mobile warfare. Guerrilla warfare, as a way of battle, is always complementary. However,
guerrilla warfare in semi-colonial national wars, especially in countries
with vast territories, occupies an important place in strategy. Politically, we already have domestic unity, and have the sympathy and support
of the democratic countries all over the world. However, our present
achievements are still not enough, and should be further strengthened.
The strengthening of the aforementioned military and political positions
is necessary. Only if we continue to exert our effort, can we strengthen
our military and political positions, and this forecasts brightness in the
future.

Question: Is the 8th Route Army being surrounded by the Japanese on all
sides and facing the danger of being routed or annihilated by the
Japanese?

Answer: The 8th Route Army is presently engaged in an enlarged guerrilla
warfare in four areas. The first area is a pocket bordered by the Peiping-Hankow, Peiping-Suiyuan, Chengting-Taiyuan, and Tatung-Puchow railways and
the adjacent areas to the east and the north of this pocket. This area
has 12 million people who are resolutely against the Japanese, and working closely with the armed forces. This is a large bulwark of the war of
resistance. The 8th Route Army has firmly established its foothold here.
Although the enemy is stepping up its attack on this area, it is impossible

for him to chase them out, not to mention annihilating them. Several big
branch units of the 8th Route Army advancing toward the east have now come
close to Tientsin-Pukow Railway. The second area is in northwestern
Shansi, south of the Peiping-Suiyuan Railway, west of the northern section of the Tatung-Puchow Railway, and east of the Yellow River. The
third area is in southeastern Shansi and southwestern Hopeh bordered by
the Peiping-Hankow, Chengting-Taiyuan and Tatung-Puchow railways. The
fourth area is in southwestern Shansi. The 8th Route Army is intimately
associated with the local people, ready to severely attack the enemy's
communication line at any time. They have scored many major and minor
victories, and greatly bogged down the enemy's advance forces. In view
of these areas, what China has lost are only several railways and a few
cities, and it has not lost anything else. This fact illustrates to the
entire nation that if we adopt this method everywhere in the country, the
enemy can never annihilate China. This is one of the solid foundations
for launching an offensive in the future for recovering the lost territory.

Question: Sir, do you think this Kuomintang-Communist Party cooperation
is of permanent nature?

Answer: I think so. The 1928 split was against the wishes of the Communist Party. The Communist Party has never wanted to split with the
Kuomintang. In the last 10 years, both the Kuomintang and the Communist
Party and the people all over the country had lived through hardship
experiences which should strengthen future unification. The purpose of
the present and future cooperation is to fight the Japanese together and
to rehabilitate the country together. Under this principle, as long as
our friendly party has the same sincerity as we have and as long as we
have the supervision of the people of the entire nation, this cooperation
will definitely be long lasting.

Question: True, the Communist Party in its declaration on the current
situation has said that the Kuomintang and the Communist Party will not
only fight Japan together, but also rebuild the country together after
winning the war against Japan. But, may I ask how can these two political parties which represent two different classes of people cooperate
with each other in building a new country?

Answer: China is in a semi-colonial status. Right now, it is in a
critical moment facing the danger of being wiped out as a nation. Even
its semi-colonial status is in danger. Although party is different from
class, they share this same status. This has predetermined that the two
parties can cooperate not only in resisting the Japanese aggression but
also in rebuilding the country. But this cooperation is cooperation
under a definite platform, and cooperation based on a principle. It must
be genuine cooperation, not just for experience or appearance. If this
cooperation is divorced from a common platform or principle, it will of
necessity degenerate into expediency or cooperation only in appearance.

This is not permissible by any political party which stands by principle.
Cooperation based upon principle and a common platform is comparable to
the righteous friendship between two persons. Only this kind of righteous
friendship can last long.

Question: What is this "democratic republic" advocated by the Communist
Party?

Answer: The democratic republic we advocate is a country which has a
system whereby its representative bodies are organized by representatives
selected by people who are unwilling to be slaves through unrestricted
universal election. This kind of country is a country based on the principle of people's rights. By and large this has been advocated by
Dr Sun Yat-sen a long time ago. The policy of rebuilding China should
be formulated in this direction.

Question: Is the Communist Party satisfied with the present central
government? Is it still necessary to convene an ad hoc national congress?

Answer: We support the present central government because of its adherence to the policy of waging a war of resistance against Japan, and its
action in providing leadership in this war. But we wish this government
to substantiate and broaden its basis and make necessary reforms in its
internal administration so as to be more beneficial to the war of
resistance. We have proposed to convene an ad hoc national congress.
This was also proposed by Dr Sun Yat-sen. In our opinion, it will be
beneficial for consolidating the country and strengthening the forces
for the war effort. As to what method we should use more beneficial to
the war effort, we have no predetermined opinion. As long as it is
really beneficial to the war of resistance, any method can be adopted.

Question: Does the Chinese Communist Party provide leadership to the
anti-Japanese activities of the Volunteer Army in Manchuria?

Answer: The Chinese Communist Party indeed has a close relationship with
the anti-Japanese Volunteer Army in Manchuria. For example, such famous
Volunteer Army leaders as Yang Ching-yu [2799 7231 1342], Chao Shang-chih
[6392 1424 1807], Li Hung-kuang [2621 4767 0342] and others are all Communist Party members. Their meritorious services in the hard struggle
against Japan is well known to everybody. A national united front exists
there also. Aside from Communist Party members, there are also other
parties, other different armed units and mass organizations of the
people. They have united under a common policy.

Question: Sir, what is your general thinking about the United States?

Answer: The American Democratic Party's support of international peace,
President Roosevelt's condemnation of fascism, the Scripps-Howard

newspapers' sympathy toward China's war against Japan, and especially the
support of the broad masses of American people for China's struggle
against Japan-all these are welcome and for which we are grateful. But
we hope that the United States will take a further step by uniting with
other countries to give the brutal Japanese some real censure. It is
time for China, the United States and other anti-aggression countries to
take a further step in their unification against the enemy.

[Associated Press correspondent Mr Wang Kung-ta [3769 0361 6671] visited
Yenan in February 1938, and had a talk with Comrade Mao Tse-tung. This
article is based on Mr Wang's minutes and previously checked by Comrade
Mao.--Editor of "Chieh-Fang"]