Order and Statement of the Revolutionary
Military Commission of the
Central Committee of the
Chinese Communist Party on the
Southern Anhui Incident
(January 20, 1941)
I. Order
Order of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (Yan'an, January 20, the 30th year of the Republic):
The New Fourth Army of the National Revolutionary Army has won fame both at
home and abroad by its distinguished service in the War of Resistance. Army
Commander Ye Ting has an outstanding record in leading the army against the
enemy. Recently, however, while it was moving northward in accordance with
instructions, this army was treacherously attacked by the pro-Japanese clique, and
Commander Ye, wounded and exhausted in the fighting, was thrown into jail.
Informed of the whole course of the Southern Anhui Incident by telegrams from
Chen Yi, commander of the First Detachment of said army, and Zhang Yunyi, the
army's chief of staff, the Commission expresses its great wrath and its deep solicitude for our comrades. In addition to the adoption of separate measures to deal
with the towering crimes of the pro-Japanese clique in sabotaging the War of
Resistance, attacking friendly armed forces,¹ and launching a civil war, the Commission hereby appoints Chen Yi as acting army commander of the New Fourth
Army of the National Revolutionary Army, Zhang Yunyi as deputy army commander, Liu Shaoqi as political commissar, Lai Chuanzhu as chief of staff, and
Deng Zihui² as head of the Political Department. Acting Commander Chen Yi and

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 7, pp. 265-73, which reproduces it from a
documentary collection published in China in 1942, indicating as usual the variants between that version and the text as it appears in Vol. 2 of the Selected Works.
his associates are hereby instructed to devote their efforts to strengthening the
army, reinforcing unity within its ranks, ensuring good relations with the people,
carrying out the Three People's Principles, adhering to the Testament of the Director General, and consolidating and expanding the Anti-Japanese National United
Front in the struggle to defend our people and our country, to carry the War of
Resistance forward to the end, and to guard against attacks by the pro-Japanese
clique. It is so ordered.
1.
II. Statement³
Given that the National Government Military Commission's order of January 17
declaring the New Fourth Army mutinous, cancelling its designation, and placing
its army commander, Ye Ting, on trial in court is indeed a sudden and grave turn of
events in the anti-Japanese ranks, a Xinhua News Agency correspondent conducted
a special interview with the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the
Chinese Communist Party on the significance of the incident and their measures in
response to it. Said Commission's spokesman made the following statement:
The recent incident had been brewing for a long time. Present developments are
but the opening phase of a national emergency. Since the formation of their triple
alliance with Germany and Italy, the Japanese bandits have redoubled their efforts
to engineer changes within China so as to find a quick solution to the Sino-Japanese
War. Their purpose is to use the Chinese themselves to suppress the anti-Japanese
movement and consolidate the rear for Japan's southward drive, so that it will be
free to drive south in coordination with Hitler's offensive against Britain. A considerable number of ringleaders from the pro-Japanese clique have long entrenched
themselves in party, government, and army organizations and have been carrying
on agitation day and night. The preparations for their plot were completed by the
end of last year. The attack on the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui and the
reactionary order of January 17 are only the first open signs of this plot. Incidents
of the gravest nature will now be staged one after another. What are the details of
the plot of the Japanese bandits and the pro-Japanese clique? They are as follows:
1. To publish the two telegrams of October 19 and December 8 to Zhu De, Peng
Dehuai, Ye Ting, and Xiang Ying over the signatures of He Yingqin and Bai
Chongxi, in order to arouse public opinion.

2. To start a press campaign on the importance of observing military discipline
and military orders, in preparation for launching civil war.
3. To wipe out the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui.
4. To declare that the New Fourth Army has mutinied and cancel its official
designation.
These four steps have already been taken.
5. To appoint Tang Enbo, Li Pinxian, Wang Zhonglian, and Han Deqin as Communist-suppression commanders of the various route armies in Central China, with
Li Zongren as supreme commander, in order to attack the New Fourth Army units
under Peng Xuefeng, Zhang Yunyi, and Li Xiannian and, if this comes off, to make
further attacks on the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army in Shandong
and northern Jiangsu, with the Japanese troops acting in close coordination.
This step is now being taken.
6. To find a pretext to declare that the Eighth Route Army has mutinied, cancel
its official designation, and order the arrest of Zhu [De] and Peng [Dehuai].
This move is now in preparation.
7. To close down the liaison offices of the Eighth Route Army in Chongqing,
Xi'an, and Guilin, and arrest Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, Dong Biwu, and Deng
Yingchao.
This move has also begun, with the closing down of the liaison office in Guilin.
8. To close down the New China Daily.
9. To launch attacks on the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and seize
Yan'an.
10. To make wholesale arrests of prominent people favoring resistance to Japan and suppress the anti-Japanese movement in Chongqing and in the provinces.
11. To destroy Communist Party organizations in all provinces and make wholesale arrest of Communists.
12. To proclaim the recovery of lost territories by China' upon the withdrawal
of Japanese troops from Central and South China and at the same time to carry out
propaganda on the necessity of concluding a peace with honor.8
13. Japan to launch most ferocious attacks on the Eighth Route Army by bringing up its troops originally stationed in Central and South China as reinforcements
to the north, and to carry out a joint attack by Chinese and Japanese forces in
order to annihilate the whole Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies.
14. Continue last year's state of ceasefire between the Chinese and Japanese
armies 10 on all fronts in order to turn it into one of general truce and peace negotiations while ceaselessly attacking the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.

15. The two countries of China and Japan¹¹ to sign a peace treaty and China to
join the triple alliance.
Active preparations are now being made for all these moves.
Such in general outline is the treacherous plot of Japan and the pro-Japanese
clique. The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party pointed out in its
manifesto of July 7, 1939: "Capitulation presents the greatest danger in the current
situation, and anticommunism is, in fact, the preparatory step to capitulation."
Last year's July 7 manifesto declares, "Unprecedented danger of capitulation and
unprecedented difficulties in the War of Resistance are upon us today." Zhu [De],
Peng [Dehuai], Ye [Ting], and Xiang [Ying] pointed this out even more concretely
in their telegram of November 9 of last year: "Certain people at home are engineering a so-called new anti-Communist onslaught in an attempt to clear the way
for capitulation. They want to put an end to the War of Resistance by what they call
Sino-Japanese cooperation in suppressing the Communists. They want to substitute civil war for the War of Resistance, capitulation for independence, a split for
unity, and darkness for light. Their activities are most sinister and their designs
most pernicious. People are telling each other the news, and all are horrified. Indeed, the situation has never been so critical as it is today." Thus the Southern
Anhui Incident and the order of January 17 of the Military Commission in
Chongqing are merely the beginning of a series of incidents. The order of January
17 in particular is full of grave political implications. The fact that those who
issued this counterrevolutionary order dared to do so openly, risking universal
condemnation, shows that they must have determined upon a complete split and
out-and-out capitulation. Because without the backing of their masters the political representatives of the flabby class of big landlords and big bourgeoisie in China
cannot move an inch, let alone embark on an undertaking as this which has shocked
the whole world. In the present circumstances, it seems very difficult to make
those who issued the order change their minds, and it will probably be impossible
to do so without emergency action by the whole nation and strong diplomatic
pressure from abroad. Hence the urgent task of the whole nation now is to watch
developments with the utmost vigilance and prepare itself against any sinister eventuality that the reactionaries may precipitate; there must not be the slightest negligence. As for China's future, the matter is quite clear. Even if the Japanese bandits
and the pro-Japanese clique are able to succeed in their plots, we Chinese Communists and the Chinese people will never allow them to keep up their tyranny
indefinitely; not only are we duty bound to step forward and take control of the
situation, but we are also confident of our ability to do so. However dark the situation, however thorny the road, and whatever the price exacted on that road (the
[loss suffered by the] New Fourth Army¹² in southern Anhui is part of that price),

1. The Chinese Communist Party can no longer be easily deceived and crushed,
as it was in the 16th year of the Republic.¹³ It is now a major party standing firmly
on its own feet.
2. The majority of members of other parties and groups in China, including the
Guomindang, who are apprehensive of the disaster of national subjugation certainly have no wish to capitulate and fight a civil war. Some of them are hoodwinked for the moment, but they may come to their senses in due course.
3. The same is true of China's troops. Most of their opposition to the Communists is under compulsion.
4. The vast majority of the nation's people have no desire to be slaves without
a country.
5. The imperialist war is on the eve of a great change. However rampant they
may be for the moment, the parasites who depend on imperialism will soon find
out that their bosses are not reliable. The whole situation will change when the tree
falls and the monkeys scatter.
6. The outbreak of world revolution¹⁴ is only a question of a very short time,
and it is certain that this revolution will support the Chinese revolution in the
struggle for victory simultaneously.
7. The Soviet Union is the preeminent great force¹⁵ in the world and will definitely help China fight the War of Resistance to the very end.
For all the reasons stated above, we hope that those who are playing with fire
will not get too dizzy. We hereby serve them with this formal warning: You had
better be careful. This sort of fire is no plaything. Look out for your own heads! If
this group of people calms down and gives the matter some thought, they will
have to take the following steps promptly and in earnest:
1. Rein in on the brink of the precipice and stop the provocations.
2. Rescind the reactionary order of January 17 and publicly admit that they are
completely wrong.
3. Punish He Yingqin, Gu Zhutong, and Shangguan Yunxiang, the three chief
culprits in the Southern Anhui Incident.
4. Release Ye Ting and reinstate him as army commander [of the New Fourth
Army].
5. Return all the men and arms captured in southern Anhui to the New Fourth
Army.
6. Compensate all the officers and men of the New Fourth Army who were
wounded and the families of those who were killed in southern Anhui.

7. Withdraw the troops sent to Central China for suppression of the Communists.
8. Demolish the blockade line in the Northwest.
9. Release all patriotic political prisoners throughout the nation.
10. Abolish the one-party dictatorship and introduce democratic government.
11. Carry out the Three People's Principles and observe the Director General's
Testament. 16
12. Arrest all ringleaders of the pro-Japanese faction and bring them to trial in
accordance with the law of the land.
There will, of course, be a return to normal if these twelve points are put into
effect, and we Communists and the whole people will certainly not push matters to
extremes. Otherwise, "I am afraid that the Ji Sun [family]'s troubles will not come
from Chuanyu, but will rather be found within the screen of their own court."17 In
other words, [they]18 will inevitably be "lifting a rock only to drop it on their own
toes, and then we would be unable to help them even if we so wished. We value
cooperation, but they must value it, too. To be frank, there is a limit to our concessions; the stage of concessions is over as far as we are concerned. They have inflicted the first gash, and a very deep one at that. If they still care for their own
future, they should come forward of their own accord and dress the wound. "It's
not too late to mend the fold even after sheep have strayed." It is a matter of life
and death for them, and we feel obliged to give them this final piece of advice. But
if they remain impenitent and keep up their wrongdoing, the people of China,
having reached the end of their forbearance, will dump them on the muck heap
and then it will be too late for repentance. As for the deployment of the New Fourth
Army, the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's Revolutionary Military Commission issued an order on January 20, appointing Chen Yi as acting
army commander, Zhang Yunyi as deputy army commander, Liu Shaoqi as political commissar, Lai Chuanzhu as chief of staff, and Deng Zihui as director of the
Political Department. With more than 90,000 troops remaining in Central China
and the southern part of Jiangsu, the New Fourth Army, though subjected to pincer attacks by the Japanese bandits and the anti-Communist troops, will certainly
fight on despite all hardships and will never cease to render loyal service to the
nation. Meanwhile, the units of its brother army, the Eighth Route Army, will not
sit by and watch it suffer these pincer attacks, but will certainly take steps to give
the necessary assistance--this I can say bluntly. As for the statement made by the

spokesman of the Military Commission in Chongqing, the only possible comment
is that it is "self-contradictory." While the Chongqing Military Commission stated
in its order that the New Fourth Army had mutinied, the spokesman said that its
aim was to move into the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou triangle in order to establish a base there. Just suppose we accept what he says. Can a move into the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou triangle be regarded as a mutiny? That blockhead of a
Chongqing spokesman did not stop to think. Against whom would one mutiny in
that area? Is it not an area under Japanese occupation? Then why should you prevent them from moving into that area and instead try to wipe them out while they
were still in southern Anhui? Ah, of course. That is, after all, what loyal servants
of Japan19 would do. Otherwise, are they not afraid of offending their Japanese
masters? Yes, it's true, if they did not eliminate the New Fourth Army in southern
Anhui, their Japanese bosses would be angry and would say, "My sons, how useless you are. Just let me give you a few dozen lashes on your backsides." Ouch! Is
it not going to be rather painful? Better to carry out the order. Hence their plan to
mass seven divisions in an annihilation campaign arose; hence their order of January 17 was issued; hence Ye Ting was put on trial. Hence this and hence that, and
there will be a whole series of acts to be put on in future. All right, so the backsides
will be spared a beating, but do they want to be praised into the bargain? I still call
that Chongqing spokesman an idiot, however, for he spilled the beans on their
fathers' plans. Without being pressed he voluntarily let the cat out of the bag and
revealed the plans of the Japanese 20 to the whole country and the whole world. 21

--- Notes

1. Friendly armed forces → The people's armed forces

2. Deng Zihui (1896–1972), a native of Longyan in Fujian, was at the time head of the
New Fourth Army's Political Department.


3. Statement → Statement by the Spokesman of the Revolutionary Military Commission
of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to a Correspondent of the Xinhua
News Agency (January 22, 1941)

4. Incident → Anti-Communist Southern Anhui Incident

5. Party, government, and army organizations → Party, government, and army organizations of the Guomindang

6. New Fourth Army → New Fourth Army units

7. The recovery of lost territories by China → A so-called "recovery of lost territories"
by the Guomindang government

8. A peace with honor A so-called "peace with honor"

9. Carry out a joint attack by Chinese and Japanese forces → Cooperate with the
Guomindang army

10. The Chinese and Japanese armies → The Guomindang and Japanese armies
---

11. The two countries of China and Japan → The Guomindang government and Japan

12. The New Fourth Army → The New Fourth Army units
the Japanese bandits and the pro-Japanese clique are certainly doomed. The reasons are as follows:

13. The 16th year of the Republic → 1927

14. The outbreak of world revolution → The outbreak of revolution in many countries

15. The preeminent great force → The strongest force

16. The Director General's Testament → "The Director General's Testament." (This
refers, of course, to Sun Yatsen.)

17. This is a quotation from the Analects of Confucius, Book XVI, Chapter 1 (see Legge,
Vol. I, p. 309). Ji Sun was a minister in the state of Lu, who was planning to attack a
neighboring minor state called Chuanyu. Confucius made the remark in chiding two of Ji
Sun's underlings for going along with his foolishness in creating strife "within the family."

18. [They] → The reactionaries

19. Japan Japanese imperialism

20. The Japanese Japanese imperialism

21. The whole country and the whole world → The people of the whole country