Speech at the Meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China[1]

(January 12, 1939)

After the Sixth Plenary Session, the work in the Border Region must be given a push forward, starting with the Border Region Council, so that the Border Region can cope with difficult circumstances and create a favorable external impact. Therefore, the Border Region Council must be convened. The Kuomintang attacks us for setting up something different, but in order to implement a democratic system, we must set up something different; otherwise, we cannot demonstrate our progress. It is still better to use the name Senate for the council. To resolve the Border Region issue, the following principles must be upheld: (1) Matters of the Border Region shall be handled by us; (2) The democratic system must be guaranteed.

Our principle is: We will not attack unless we are attacked; if we are attacked, we will certainly counter-attack.

[1] Part one of this text is an excerpt from Mao Zedong’s speech on the issue of the Senate of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region at the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China; part two is an excerpt from Mao Zedong’s speech on the issue of friction at the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.