August 1, 1939

[This speech was delivered by Comrade Mao Tse-tung at a memorial meeting
held by the people of Yenan for the martyrs of Pingkiang.]


Today, the First of August, we are gathered here for a memorial meeting.
Why are we holding this memorial meeting? Because the reactionaries have
killed our revolutionary comrades, killed fighters against Japan. Who should
be killed in these times? The Chinese traitors and the Japanese imperialists.
China has been fighting Japanese imperialism for two years, but the outcome
is not yet decided. The traitors are still very active, and very few of them
have been killed. Yet our revolutionary comrades, all warriors against Japan,
have been killed. Killed by whom? Killed by the troops. Why did the troops
kill fighters against Japan? They were carrying out orders; certain people
gave them the order to kill. Who gave them the order to kill? The
reactionaries.[1] Comrades! Logically, who would
want to kill fighters against Japan? First, the Japanese imperialists, and
next, the Chinese collaborators and traitors such as Wang Ching-wei. But
the scene of the killing was not Shanghai, Peiping, Tientsin or Nanking,
or any other place occupied by the Japanese aggressors and Chinese collaborators;
it took place in Pingkiang, in the rear of the War of Resistance, and among
the victims were Comrades Tu Cheng-kun and Lo Tzu-ming, responsible comrades
of the Pingkiang Liaison Office of the New Fourth Army. Obviously, the killing
was perpetrated by a gang of Chinese reactionaries acting on the orders of
the Japanese imperialists and Wang Ching-wei. Preparing to capitulate, these
reactionaries obsequiously carried out the orders of the Japanese and Wang
Ching-wei, and the first people they killed were the most resolute fighters
against Japan. This is no trivial matter; we must raise our voices against
it, we must denounce it!

The whole nation is now resisting Japan and has forged a great union of the
people for the purpose of resistance. But within this great union there are
reactionaries and capitulators. What are they doing? They are killing fighters
against Japan, holding back progress and working in collusion with the Japanese
aggressors and Chinese collaborators to pave the way for capitulation.

Has anyone taken action on this serious case of the murder of anti-Japanese
comrades? The murder was committed at 3 p.m. on June 12, today is August
1, but in all this time have we seen anyone step forward and take action?
No. Who should have done so? Action should have been taken under the law
of the land by the administrators of the law. If such a thing had happened
in the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region, our high court would have acted
long ago. But although nearly two months have elapsed since the Pingkiang
massacre, the law and its administrators have done nothing. What is the reason?
The reason is, China is not unified.[2]

China must be unified; there can be no victory without unification. But what
does unification mean? It means that everybody should resist Japan, that
all should unite and strive for progress and that there should be due rewards
and punishments. Who ought to be rewarded? Those who resist Japan, those
who uphold unity, those who are progressive. And who ought to be punished?
The collaborators and reactionaries who undermine resistance, unity and progress.
Is our country now unified? It is not. The Pingkiang massacre proves it.
It shows that there is no unification where there should be. We have long
demanded the unification of the whole country. First, unification on the
basis of the War of Resistance. But now, instead of being rewarded, Tu Cheng-kun,
Lo Tzu-ming and the other comrades who were resisting the Japanese have been
brutally murdered, whereas scoundrels who oppose resistance, prepare to
capitulate and commit murder go unpunished. That is not unification. We must
oppose these scoundrels and capitulators, and arrest the murderers. Second,
unification on the basis of unity. Those who stand for unity ought to be
rewarded and those who undermine it ought to be punished. But now, Comrades
Tu Cheng-kun, Lo Tzu-ming and the others who upheld unity have been punished,
have been brutally murdered, whereas the scoundrels who undermine unity are
allowed to go scot-free. That is not unification. Third, unification on the
basis of progress. The whole country must go forward; the backward must try
to keep pace with the progressive, and the progressive must not be held back
to the pace of the backward. The butchers at Pingkiang killed progressive
people. Hundreds of Communists and patriots have been assassinated since
the outbreak of the War of Resistance, the Pingkiang massacre being only
the most recent example. It will be disastrous for China if this continues;
all who resist Japan may be murdered. What do these murders mean? They mean
that the Chinese reactionaries, acting under orders from the Japanese
imperialists and Wang Chingwei, are preparing to capitulate, and that is
why they begin by killing fighters against Japan, by killing Communists and
patriots. If this is not stopped, China will perish at the hands of these
reactionaries. These murders, therefore, concern the whole country, they
are of the gravest importance, and we must demand that the National Government
punish these reactionaries with the utmost severity.

Comrades must also realize that Japanese imperialism has recently intensified
its disruptive activities, that international imperialism has become more
active in helping Japan,[3] and that the traitors
in China, both the overt and the covert Wang Ching-weis, are more active
than ever in sabotaging the War of Resistance, wrecking unity and turning
the clock back. They want to surrender the greater part of our country, cause
an internal split and engineer a civil war. At the present time certain secret
measures known as "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien
Parties"[4] are being extensively enforced. They
are reactionary to the core, helpful to Japanese imperialism and detrimental
to resistance, unity and progress. Which are the "alien parties"? The Japanese
imperialists, Wang Ching-wei and the traitors. How can the Communist Party
and all the other anti-Japanese political parties, which are united in resistance
to Japan, be called "alien parties"? Yet the capitulators, reactionaries
and die-hards are deliberately creating friction and disunity within the
anti-Japanese ranks. Is this kind of activity right or wrong? It is absolutely
wrong! (unanimous applause.) When it comes to restriction, what
sort of people should be restricted? The Japanese imperialists, Wang Ching-wei,
the reactionaries and capitulators. (Unanimous applause.) Why restrict
the Communist Party, which is the most resolute in resisting Japan, the most
revolutionary and the most progressive? It is absolutely wrong. We the people
of Yenan voice our firm opposition and strong protest. (Unanimous applause.)
We must oppose the "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien
Parties", for such measures are at the very root of all kinds of criminal
actions that wreck unity. We are holding this mass meeting today for the
sake of continued resistance, unity and progress. To this end, the "Measures
for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties" must be abolished, the
capitulators and reactionaries must be punished, and all revolutionary comrades,
all the comrades and people resisting Japan must be protected. (Warm
applause and slogan shouting.)

NOTES


1. These reactionaries were Chiang Kai-shek and his henchmen.
On June 12, 1939, acting on a secret order from Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang's
27th Group Army dispatched troops to surround the New Fourth Army Liaison
Office at Pingkiang, Hunan Province, and in cold blood murdered Comrade Tu
Cheng-kun, staff officer of the New Fourth Army, Comrade Lo Tzu-ming, major
and adjutant of the Eighth Route Army, and four other comrades. This massacre
aroused indignation not only among the people in the anti-Japanese democratic
base areas but also among honest people in the Kuomintang areas.

2. Comrade Mao Tse-tung defined unification in order to
counter the Kuomintang reactionaries' use of "unification" as a pretext for
their schemes to liquidate the Communist-led anti-Japanese armed forces and
base areas. After the renewed Kuomintang-Communist co-operation for joint
resistance to Japan, the slogan of "unification" became the Kuomintang's
chief weapon in attacking the Communist Party, which it accused of always
seeking to be different and of obstructing unification and damaging the cause
of resistance. This reactionary clamour increased after January 1939, when
the Fifth Plenary Session of the Kuomintang's Fifth Central Executive Committee
adopted the "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties" on
the proposal of Chiang Kai-shek. Comrade Mao Tse-tung wrested the slogan
of "unification" from the Kuomintang reactionaries and turned it into a
revolutionary slogan for opposing the Kuomintang's divisive activities against
the people and the nation.

3. After the fall of Wuhan in October 1938, Japan's main
policy became one of employing political means to lure the Kuomintang into
capitulation. International imperialism, including the British and U.S.
imperialists, also repeatedly suggested to Chiang Kai-shek that he should
negotiate peace, and Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, indicated that
Britain would take part in the so-called "reconstruction of the Far East".
The Japanese aggressors and the international imperialists stepped up their
conspiracies in 1939. In April of that year, Clark-Kerr, the British ambassador
to China, acted as an intermediary between Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese
aggressors in arranging a peace parley. In July an agreement was reached
between Britain and Japan under which the British government was prepared
to recognize the "actual situation" Japan had brought about in China.

4. The "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien
Parties" were secretly issued by the central authorities of the Kuomintang
in 1939. They imposed severe restrictions on communist and all other progressive
ideas, speech and action, with the aim of disrupting all the anti-Japanese
organizations of the people. They also stipulated that in places where, in
the opinion of the Kuomintang, "the Communists were most active", the "law
of collective responsibility and collective punishment" was to be enforced
and an "information network", or counter-revolutionary secret service, was
to be generally established within the pao-chia organizations. Pao
and chia were then the basic administrative units of the
Kuomintang's fascist regime. Ten households formed a chia and
ten chia a pao.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.