(July 5, 1938)

The meeting of the People's Political Council is going to be held in a few days.
We, seven members of the Chinese Communist Party, have been selected as councilors. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has already officially decided that the seven of us would accept the government's invitation to
join the People's Political Council. As a result, a lot of news reporters, our colleagues on the council, our comrades in the Communist Party, and our friends in
various places have kindly asked us about our views on the People's Political
Council. In response, we would like to issue the following joint statement.
The fact that the meeting of the People's Political Council takes place in the
current acute situation of the anti-Japanese war clearly indicates a further step in
the political life of our country toward a democratic system, as well as progress in
the unity and integration of all the parties, nationalities, social strata, and regions.
Even though the People's Political Council is by no means a perfect plenipotentiary representative organ of the people in terms of the way it has been established
or in terms of its functions and powers, these two defects will not deprive it of its
utility and significance at present-its role in further uniting all kinds of forces in
the country for the struggle to resist the Japanese and save the country, and its
impact on our attempt to push the political life in our country toward the preliminary stage of an authentic democratization. For this reason, despite our continuous
efforts to promote the establishment of a representative organ of the people elected
by universal suffrage and endowed with full powers in the future, we Communists
will participate in the People's Political Council with the most active, most enthusiastic, and most sincere attitude. At the same time, we also consider that to work
actively for the People's Political Council is an important part of our job to reinforce the defense of Wuhan and consolidate our forces for the third stage of the
anti-Japanese war and also contributes to laying down part of the foundations for
the establishment of a representative organ of the people in the future. As representatives of the Chinese Communist Party, we join the People's Political Council
with a sincere desire to stand side by side and strive together with the councilors
and comrades who join the council as representatives of the Guomindang and all
the other parties, or as independents, in the hope that we may discuss and work

This document was first published in Jiefang, no. 47, August 1, 1938. Our source is Mao
Zedong ji, Vol. 6, pp. 157-60, which reproduces this text.

out, in a friendly and harmonious way, all the concrete methods and measures that
will help to guarantee the final victory of our anti-Japanese war and the successful
construction of our country, and we may more effectively strike at and defeat the
Japanese bandits and lay down a basis for transforming the Republic of China into
a new country, advancing toward independence, liberty, and happiness.
In order to defeat the Japanese bandits and establish a new country that is independent, free, and happy, we must start our work on the military side, striving to
strengthen the fighting capacity of the units on the front line, wage a large-scale
guerrilla war of the people in the territory occupied by the enemy, and create a
strong army equipped with modern weaponry. On the political side, we must improve our political organs, promote the establishment of popular organizations in
districts, xian, and provinces, and widely mobilize and organize the broad popular
masses to take an active part in the battle. On the economic side, we must create a
national defense industry as quickly as possible, regulate the financial and banking management during wartime, increase industrial and agricultural production,
and, at the same time, adopt various kinds of effective measures to guarantee and
improve the people's livelihood. Moreover, all these military, political, and economic improvements depend on the continuous consolidation and expansion of
the Anti-Japanese National United Front. All the above-mentioned ideas must be
well known to the people of our country, since they have been repeatedly expounded in the documents and manifestos issued by the Chinese Communist Party
in the past few years (such as the August 1 Statement in 1935, the Ten-Point Program for Resisting Japan and Saving the Country issued last September, the statement on current affairs issued by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist
Party last December as well as the speeches and comments made by the leaders
and members of our Party). While taking an active part in the work of the People's
Political Council, we will faithfully carry out all the instructions from the Central
Committee of our Party, and continually strive for the realization of all our Party's
proposals during the period of the anti-Japanese war.
At the time when the first meeting of the People's Political Council is taking
place, the iron heels of the enemy have already entered the Central Plains, and the
enemy's gunfire is heard all over the region from the Yangzi to the Huai and from
the Yellow River to the Han; Anhui, Jiangxi, Hunan, and Hubei are under the
threat of the enemy's cavalry; and Wuhan has become a target on which the enemy
is casting his anxious and greedy eyes. Under such circumstances, we believe that
no issue is more urgent than how to defend Wuhan and win victory in the third
stage of the anti-Japanese war.
At present, it is our belief that the most critical issues, for whose solution we
must put forward a plan rapidly, are basically as follows: how to muster our military, human, financial, and material resources to defend our military, political,
economic, and transportation center, Greater Wuhan, and effectively conduct the
third stage of the anti-Japanese war; how to reform the current conscription system, which has been plagued with all sorts of abuses, and replace it with a method

of enlistment based on widescale political mobilization, so that our country's army
can be replenished continuously by an adequate source of soldiers who have a
strong national consciousness, and meanwhile the cause of creating a new army
can be carried out quickly and effectively; how to find a concrete method for
really achieving the goal of "whoever has money gives money"; how to guarantee
a minimum level of improvement in the life of the people, so that those who have
strength can help with their strength; how to mobilize and organize the popular
masses on a large scale and, at the same time, unify the mass movements and
mass organizations under the general principles of the anti-Japanese war and democracy; how to guarantee the people's freedom of speech, assembly, press, and
association, and the legal rights of all the anti-Japanese parties as well; how to
train the young people in a really effective way and enable them to take over the
responsibilities as cadres in the anti-Japanese war and in the construction of our
country so that the current situation in many youth training classes, with which
the young people are disappointed, can be rectified; how to improve the political
institutions at all levels, first of all, the institutions at the xian level and below;
how to push forward local autonomy seriously, and so on. All these things are the
pressing demands of the people all over the country and also the necessary measures to win the anti-Japanese war. We will express our ideas and present our
proposals in the Consultative Council along with the people from all sides who
share our viewpoints.
Today, when the enemy bandits are running rampant, our officers and soldiers
at the front are fighting a bloody battle to defend the survival and independence of
the Chinese nation. On this great and heroic national battlefield, thousands upon
thousands of our officers and soldiers are helping one another, pointing their guns
at the enemy with one heart and one mind, and gloriously shedding their warm
blood together, regardless of which party they belong to or where they come from.
We are persuaded that in this meetingplace of the People's Political Council, just
as on the battlefields of our war for national liberation, all the members of the
council will absolutely not be divided into "the ruling party" and "the opposition
party," nor will there be partisan struggles between different parties and factions.
On the contrary, all of us, without distinctions of party or region, will eliminate all
misunderstandings and will together devote our efforts to helping win final victory in the anti-Japanese war. The reason is that, since the Provisional Congress of
the Guomindang proclaimed the program for the anti-Japanese war and building
the country, not only does our Party believe that the overall policy of the
Guomindang during the war is basically similar to our Party's program during the
anti-Japanese war, but other parties have also expressed agreement with it. The
National Government and its policy of fighting a long-term anti-Japanese war in
order to achieve the final victory of our nation and our country have won unanimous support from people all over the country. On such a foundation, we believe
that the People's Political Council will be able to carry out its work successfully in
a harmonious and friendly atmosphere.