a political program together. Right now one part of this program has been worked
out. The first item, resistance to Japan, is there. The second item, cooperation
between the Guomindang and the Communist Party, is there. The third item, cooperation with the Soviet Union, has also been put into practice. The fourth item,
freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, is there to some extent, but
not completely. This common program is meant to consolidate the cooperation
between the Guomindang and the Communist Party, and both parties must respect
it. If the stipulations of the common program are inadequately carried out, that
would not do and should be criticized. But if it is overdone, and the stipulations of
the common program are exceeded, this would also be a violation of the common
program. For instance, it would be wrong if we were now to confiscate the land of
the landlords and distribute it. In carrying it out, we should do neither too little nor
too much; it should be precisely in accordance with the common program. We are
very welcoming to friendly parties and hope that everyone will consolidate the
united front.

4. Mutual Respect

As I said just now, once there is a common political program there must also be
mutual respect. What is mutual respect? There must be mutual respect between
people, otherwise the other person will not be happy. People are not like objects.
For example, if you put your bundle on the ground and sit on it with your backside,
it will not object; it will not make a peep. When I came here today, I am very sorry
to say that I rode on that horse for a while, but it did not raise any protest at all. But
if you sit on a person's body or ride on a child's body, he will raise a protest and
oppose you. So people need respect. In school, instructors and students should
respect each other. In the army, officers and soldiers should also respect each other,
and if they do not respect each other and the officers begin to beat the soldiers, there
will be estrangement between top and bottom. The army should treat the people the
same way: they should be fierce toward the enemy but polite toward the people.
The Eighth Route Army has the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight
Points for Attention, two of which are "be polite in speaking" and "be fair in buying
and selling," which has exactly this meaning. I hope that you comrades will have
two faces when you go to the front lines, one face for the enemy, and another face
for friendly armies, for the soldiers, and for the people. There is no need for two
faces between friends; friends will be close and united only when there is politeness, and only then will they have the strength to overthrow Japanese imperialism.
Now, to discuss the problem itself, this means that the Guomindang and the
Communist Party should respect each other. I read in the newspaper that someone
wants the Guomindang and the Communist Party to merge into one party; he wants
to eliminate the Communist Party. But the existence of the Communist Party has
its class basis. China has landlords, capitalists, workers, and peasants, and as a
result the Guomindang and the Communist Party exist. This is beyond doubt and

is inevitable. At the moment neither can swallow up the other. Moreover, things
would be difficult to manage if there were no Communist Party. It would have
been very difficult to clean up the Xi'an Incident if there had been no Communist
Party. Nor is it possible to eliminate the Communist Party; it is in the midst of
struggle that we expand. The problem is not that if you feel like eliminating it you
can eliminate it. Rather, as long as imperialism has not been overthrown and the
feudal forces are still in existence, it is impossible for the Communist Party not to
come into being and to exist. For that reason, though the Guomindang wanted to
eliminate us in the past, and fought us, the more it fought us the more numerous
we became. When we say that we should respect each other, does that mean that
we should just have a little politeness and that's all? No; above all, we should have
a spirit of self-criticism. Whether it is the Communist Party, the Eighth Route
Army, or the Guomindang, all should criticize themselves. At the same time, because we have mutual respect, there should be well-intentioned, mutual criticism.
If the Guomindang can point out the shortcomings of the Communist Party, so
long as the criticism is well intentioned and correct, we will, of course, be glad to
accept it, and if there are inaccuracies in the criticism we will explain this. The
Communist Party should also criticize the Guomindang, and this can be published
in Jiefang, but it should be appropriate, not overdone. Self-criticism and mutual
criticism should be carried out under the condition of mutual respect.
Some people say, "You want unity in the united front, but as long as the two
party organizations have an independent existence, there will be no unity." We are
greatly in favor of unity, but each of the two parties has its own characteristics; it
would be unimaginable for communism to receive approval within the
Guomindang, and it would be unimaginable for the Communist Party to abandon
the ideals of socialism and communism. A socialist society cannot be realized
immediately simply by saying, "I want it." The democratic republic of the future
will not be enough; we must continue marching forward to socialism. Only when
many people support it can socialism be realized. The Guomindang government
magistrate in Yanchang xian said to me: "When a socialist society is reached, I
will have nothing to do; what will I do when my monthly 200 yuan of salary is
gone?" I told him that the salary will be much bigger in the future. A socialist
society is a good thing, and, moreover, China will, in the future, be able to make
the transition without going through war. Last May in the concluding remarks I
made at the meeting of soviet-area Party representatives, I said that there may be
two roads to transformation from a democratic revolution to a socialist revolution:
one is to pass through bloody struggle as in the October Revolution; the other is a
transformation without bloodshed, which is what we hope for. Right now it is
impracticable to carry out a socialist revolution, as conditions are not ready. China
is a semicolonial and semifeudal society, and a small-scale peasant economy prevails, so a socialist revolution still cannot be carried out at the moment.
For the Guomindang to want to abolish the Communist Party will not do. For
the two different political parties to unite, there must be a bridge, a committee

What Should You Learn at the Anti-Japanese
Military and Political University?

(April 9, 1938)

Undeterred by hardship, you students have come here from faraway places to
study, trekking through wind and dust-this kind of spirit, this kind of determination, is very good. We do not know one another, yet you could say that we do know
one another already because we stand on the same battle line politically. In terms
of politics, in terms of spirit, we have thorough knowledge of each other; we are
mutually acquainted. The time you will spend studying here is very short, only a
few months; you will not be able to learn many things, unlike at other universities
where you can study for a few years or more. Nonetheless, you will learn one
thing, one very important thing, that is, you will learn a purpose, and this purpose
is the purpose of the whole country and the entire Chinese nation: resist Japan and
save the country. This is the overall orientation of our school, and it is also the
demand of the people of the whole country. Specifically, you should learn the
following few things here:

First, to begin with, you must learn a political orientation. There may be many
different political orientations; you must learn a correct political orientation, that
is, a correct political orientation which includes wanting to fight Japan, how to
fight Japan, and why Japanese imperialism can certainly be defeated. Second, you
must learn a work-style by which this political orientation can be reached and
accomplished-the work-style of arduous hard struggle. You must possess this
style in order to reach and accomplish the political orientation just mentioned.
Moreover, you must learn a bit of strategy and tactics. The Anti-Japanese Military
and Political University is a military school; you must learn to be a military man
and learn some military skills. Military men are made from common people. If
nobody was willing to be a military man, we would not be able to defeat Japanese
imperialism; we want all the broad common people to be willing to become military men, for only then will we be able to defeat Japanese imperialism. Therefore,

This is the text of Mao's talk at the opening day ceremony for the Third Contingent of the
Fourth Session of the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University. Our source is Mao
Zedong wenji, Vol. 2, pp. 116-20, which reproduces the draft record of Mao's talk preserved
in the Central Archives.