Strengthen Unity and Progress¹
(February 7, 1940)²

A year has passed since New China News in Yan'an became the newspaper of the
Communist Party organizations. In my opinion, this small newspaper is the best
one in China. The main reasons are, first, that it is run by the Communist Party
and, second, that it operates in a context of democratic politics. Without the existence of these two prerequisites at the same time, it would be impossible for it to be
run so well. The direct efforts of the comrades working for the newspaper are
another important prerequisite. It is also impossible to run it well without their
initiative and creativity. But there is no limit as to how "well" it can be run. This
year is its second year, and I hope that it will improve further.

Resistance, unity, and progress-these are three major principles which the Communist Party put forward last July 7 on the second anniversary of the War of
Resistance. The three form an organic whole, and not one of them can be dispensed with. If the stress is solely on resistance to the exclusion of unity and
progress, then such a so-called "War of Resistance" cannot be relied on, and cannot last. A War of Resistance without unity and progress, although at present it is
still a War of Resistance, will ultimately turn into capitulation or end in defeat. We
Communists hold that the three must be combined. For the sake of the War of
Resistance, it is necessary to oppose capitulation, oppose Wang Jingwei's traitorous pact [with Japan], oppose his puppet government, and oppose all the Chinese
traitors and capitulators concealed in the anti-Japanese ranks. For the sake of unity,
it is necessary to oppose splittist activities and internal friction, to oppose attacks
on the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army, and other progressive forces
from behind the front of resistance to Japan, to oppose disruption of the anti-Japanese base areas at the front,³ and to oppose the disruption of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, which is the rear area of the Eighth Route Army,

to oppose the denial of legal status to the Communist Party and the avalanche of
documents for "restricting the activities of alien parties." For the sake of progress,
it is necessary to oppose retrogression and the shelving of the Three People's
Principles and of the Program of Armed Resistance and National Reconstruction,
to oppose the refusal to carry out the injunction in the Director General's Testament to "arouse the masses of the people," to oppose the internment of progressive young people in concentration camps, to oppose the suppression of what little
freedom of speech and of the press there was in the early days of the War of
Resistance, to oppose the scheme to turn the movement for constitutional government into the private concern of a few bureaucrats, to oppose the attacks on the
new army, the eradication⁴ of the League of Self-Sacrifice, and the massacre of
progressives in Shanxi, to oppose the activities of the Three People's Principles
Youth League in kidnapping people along the Xianyang-Yulin Highway and the
Longhai railway, to oppose such shameless practices as taking nine concubines
and making fortunes of 100 million yuan out of the national crisis, and to oppose
the unbridled brutality of the corrupt officials and the rampages of the local bullies
and bad gentry. Without opposing all these, and without unity and progress, the
so-called "War of Resistance" will be just empty talk and victory a vain hope.
What will be the political orientation of New China News in its second year? In my
view, it will be to stress unity and progress, and to oppose all the vicious practices
which are detrimental to the War of Resistance, so that further success can be
achieved in our cause of resistance to Japan.

On the occasion of the first anniversary of New China News, I write this article to
express my sincere hope, and I wish to work with our compatriots throughout the
country toward its realization.

This document was first published in Xin Zhonghua bao, February 7, 1940. We have translated it from Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 6, pp. 145-46, where it is reproduced from this
source. The version in the Selected Works includes only the second paragraph, in slightly
revised form.

--- Notes

1. Strengthen Unity and Progress → We Must Emphasize Unity and Progress

2. February 7 → February 10

3. At the front → Behind the enemy lines

4. Eradication → Persecution