Telegram in Reply to the Southern Bureau[1]

(February 9, 1940)

The Central Committee agrees with the Southern Bureau that the central issue in the current negotiations with the Kuomintang is no longer the question of whether the border region should comprise twenty-three counties and the army be expanded into nine divisions, but rather the question of nationwide friction.

[1] This is an excerpt from a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in reply to the Southern Bureau.