Speech on the Question of Yan Xishan[1]

(May 11, 1939)

The change in Yan Xishan’s attitude, apart from the overall intensification of the friction trend, is also due to Japan’s sowing of discord, the dissatisfaction of the old factions in Shanxi, and pressure from the Kuomintang Central Committee, among other factors. We should still support Yan Xishan conditionally and may carry out necessary criticism of him.

[1] On May 11, 1939, the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China convened a meeting to hear and discuss a report by Wang Shiying, Director of the Eighth Route Army Office in Shanxi, on the situation of Yan Xishan’s forces. Wang Shiying stated that the recent high-level military, political, and civilian cadres’ meeting of Jin-Sui convened by Yan Xishan (i.e., the Qiulin Meeting) was basically right-leaning. This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech on the question of Yan Xishan.

Archival photo

1939, Mao Zedong in Yan’an.

1939, Mao Zedong and Ma Haide in Yan’an.