Speech at a Military Meeting of the Eighth Route Army’s Rear Area Garrison Corps[1]

(May 5, 1939)

The tasks of the Rear Area Garrison Corps are, on the one hand, to prepare for operations against Japan, and on the other, to defend the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region. The diehards within the Kuomintang have now fixed upon a policy toward the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, which they call “encirclement on four sides and sabotage from within”—that is, launching military attacks around the perimeter of the Border Region and sending agents inside to carry out sabotage. In consolidating the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, we have one policy and two principles. The one policy is “not yielding a single step.” The two principles are “we will not attack unless we are attacked” and “if we are attacked, we will certainly counter-attack.” Defending the Border Region relies primarily on armed forces—the Rear Area Garrison Corps and the security forces. In China’s affairs, it has always been true that whoever has the gun holds sway. If we want to make revolution, we cannot do without guns; having only a mass movement without guns will lead to collapse.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech on the tasks of the Eighth Route Army’s Rear Area Garrison Corps and other issues at a military meeting of the Corps.