Telegram to the Leaders of the Qiongya Forces[1]

(March 11, 1940)

It is necessary to resolutely change the past policy of relying on the Kuomintang. Do not depend on the Kuomintang for pay and provisions; rely on your own efforts to expand the forces as much as possible. And rely on the masses, establish guerrilla base areas, and strike at the enemy and puppets.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram from Mao Zedong to the leaders of the General Headquarters of the Qiongya Independent Guerrilla Forces for Anti-Japanese Resistance in Guangdong Province. The Qiongya Forces were led by the Chinese Communist Party on Hainan Island and were formed on the basis of the Hainan Island peasant uprising forces of September 1927. At the time, they were called the General Headquarters of the Qiongya Independent Guerrilla Forces for Anti-Japanese Resistance in Guangdong Province. In 1947, they were reorganized into the Qiongya Column of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.