On the Current Situation: Telegram to Zhou Enlai[1]

(September 5, 1940)

The current situation is extremely urgent. Our Party should actively advocate for the defense of Chongqing and the defense of the Southwest and Northwest. Militarily, we should propose that one-third of the Eighth Route Army be dispatched to Hubei to undertake the task of defending Chongqing, and that the New Fourth Army should not move north. This is not only to resist Chiang Kai-shek’s pressure on us, but primarily a proposition to save the nation from peril.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram sent by Mao Zedong to Zhou Enlai, who had returned to Chongqing.