COMRADE MAO TSE-TUNG REFUTES THE RUMOR FABRICATED BY THE COMMANDING
HEADQUARTERS OF A CERTAIN WAR ZONE

January 1940

[Text] Recently, the headquarters of a certain war
zone issued a circular telegram which stated:
"According to reports, Mao Tse-tung returned from
Sinkiang to Yenan and made a report to his subordinates on 5 May. He said that Li Li-san [2621 4539
0005], who led 730 men, including some Russians and
many Soviet-made airplanes, would use the opportunity
of counterattacking the enemy to seize political power
from the central government and would make Lanchow
China's Moscow." A reporter of this newspaper asked
Comrade Mao Tse-tung about this report. The following
is Comrade Mao's reply.

This kind of report must have been fabricated by the Japanese. It is
rather strange that it came from China's war zone headquarters.
I
"returned from Sinkiang to Yenan," but I have not even prepared to go
to Sinkiang. As to Li Li-san, he has been arrested by the Soviet
authorities because of his participation in the activities of the
Trotskiyite reactionary bloc. I don't know how he came back! Those who
instigate a split between the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party
and those who are prepared to surrender to the Japanese aggressors have
fabricated hundreds of thousands of intelligence reports. This piece is
the most clumsy. If it were believed by any person, then that person
must be very stupid. "To seize political power from the central government." What a big headline! The plain fact is that the border region
is being seized [by the Nationalists). In July this year they seized
Hsun-i of the border region. Recently they seized Chen-yyan and
Ning-hsien. Bombers and heavy artillery pieces were used in the attack.
We heard that they will take Ching-yang, Ho-shui, Shun-yao and Lu-hsien
to pave the way for seizing Yenan. In front of us are the Japanese, who
grab large chunks of territory from China. Behind us are the Chinese
who seize small pieces of land from our Shensi-Kansu-Ninghsia border

region. The border region had 23 counties, but now there are only 20
counties left. Even if they take all the counties left in the border
region, the total area is less than one-thousandth of what the Japanese
snatched from us. How brave these gentlemen are! Your newspaper should
publish articles advising those brave gentlemen to restrain themselves a
little. If they are truly brave, let them deal with the Japanese.
According to past experience, no good results will come from civil
strife.

O CHIEH-FANG, No 96, 20 January 1940