Speech at the Meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China[1]

(March 23, 1940)

In the relations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the greatest victory since the War of Resistance began has been the demarcation of the line of defense. At present, the strength of our Party can play a semi-decisive role. The approach taken in the telegram of the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army denouncing Wang Jingwei and calling for national salvation is relatively good, and we should adopt an attitude of "joy without licentiousness, sorrow without self-injury."

[1] This is part of a speech made by Mao Zedong at the meeting of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China after hearing a report by Qin Bangxian on the relations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.