Only by Restoring Unity Within the Country
Will It Be Possible to Overcome the
Offensive of the Japanese Bandits

(February 2, 1941)

To Zhou [Enlai] and Dong [Biwu] (in Chongqing), Liao [Chengzhi]¹ and Pan
[Hannian]² (in Hong Kong), Liu Xiao³ (in Shanghai), [Chen] Tanqiu4 (in Dihua),5
Hu [Fu, i.e., Liu Shaoqi] and Chen [Yi], [Li] Xiannian, [Zhang] Yunyi, [Peng]
Xuefeng, Zhu Rui, Luo [Ronghuan] and Chen [Guang], Li [Yu] and Luo
[Shunchu], Peng [Dehuai] and Zuo [Quan], Liu [Bocheng] and Deng [Xiaoping],
[Song] Renqiong, Nie [Rongzhen] and Peng [Zhen], Lü [Zhengcao] and Cheng
[Zihua], He [Long] and Guan [Xiangying], Xiao Ke, and Gao [Gang] and Xiao
[Jingguang] (copy and forward):

1. Taking advantage of Chiang Kaishek's concentrating all his efforts to fight
the Communists, the Japanese bandits have gathered a force of more than five

Our source for this text is *Mao Zedong junshi wenji*, Vol. 2, pp. 625-28, where it is printed
from Mao's handwritten manuscript, preserved in the Central Archives.
1. Liao Chengzhi (1908-1983) was a native of Guangdong. Since 1937 he had been the
Chinese Communist Party representative in Hong Kong, and he remained there until the fall
of Hong Kong to the Japanese in December 1941.
2. Pan Hannian (1906-1977) was a native of Jiangsu. At this time, he was the head of the
Eighth Route Army office in Shanghai.
3. Liu Xiao (1908-1988) was a native of Hunan. At this time he was secretary of the
Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and head of the Department for Urban Work of the
Central China Bureau.
4. Chen Tanqiu (1896-1943) was a native of Hubei. In 1939, after a period in Moscow,
he became the Communist Party representative in Xinjiang. He was arrested in 1942 on the
orders of Sheng Shicai, and executed in 1943 at the same time as Mao's son, Mao Zemin.
5. Today known as Urumchi.
6. Luo Shunchu (1914–1981) was a native of Fujian. During the War of Resistance
Against Japan, he occupied various positions, including that of chief of staff of the First
Column of the Eighth Route Army.
7. Song Renqiong (1909-), a native of Hunan, was at this time chairman of the South
Hebei Administrative Office of the Chinese Communist Party.
8. Regarding Xiao Ke (1908-), see note 2 to the text of May 9, 1941.

divisions and regiments and divided it into several routes to surround about
150,000 troops under Tang Enbo, He Zhuguo, Li Xianzhou, and Li Pinxian east of
the Beiping-Hankou railway. The enemy's main force is the Xinyang route, which
has hurried northward and is engaged with Tang Enbo's main force in fierce battle.
The *xian* of Miyang, Wuyang, Xiping, and Shangcai have already been occupied.
Telecommunication with Yexian has been blocked; Wei Lihuang has gone to
Yexian in haste to supervise; the government offices in Luoyang have been moved
to Lushi. At the same time, the enemy in Suxian has crossed the Huai River and
occupied Mengcheng and Woyang and is now engaged in pitched battle with He
Zhuguo and Li Xianzhou. It is also reported that the enemy in Kaifeng is coming
down south via Weishi. The Central Army around Tongguan marched by night to
the front for reinforcement. The enemy is also hitting out in the Jingzhou and
Dangyang areas so as to pin down the Sichuan army and the northwest army and
prevent them from being able to reinforce in the north.

2. The present Battle of Henan¹⁰ is the biggest battle since the Battle of
Yichang.¹¹ Whatever its military outcome, politically it is a heavy blow to Chiang
Kaishek, because he instigated the Southern Anhui Incident, which created a deep
rift between the Guomindang and the Communist Party, and so the enemy was
given a chance to step in. Chiang Kaishek has been in high spirits and has looked
down upon Japan and concentrated his efforts on fighting the Communists with
all his might ever since the three countries formed an alliance. The contradictions
between Japan and the United States have intensified, and Britain, the United
States, and the Soviet Union have been assisting China. Just after Chiang Kaishek
singlehandedly created the rift between the Guomindang and the Communist Party
(after destroying the New Fourth Army in the Southern Anhui Incident and issuing
the order declaring the New Fourth Army mutinous on January 17), the enemy
started a large-scale offensive during the second half of January. So obvious are
the consequences of Chiang Kaishek's fighting the Communists. In our propaganda in various places it should be emphasized that such counterrevolutionary
policies on Chiang Kaishek's part of concentrating solely on internal suppression
can only create opportunities for the enemy, and that, if not changed, it will inevitably lead to national extinction. Also to be raised emphatically are the twelve
conditions for a solution to the current situation put forward by our Party's Central
Committee. Only if Chiang Kaishek immediately realizes the error of his ways
and puts into effect the proposals made by our Party's Central Committee can

there once again be a restoration of domestic unity, which Chiang Kaishek has
already begun to break apart. Only when domestic unity is restored can the Japanese bandits' attack be resisted and our nation be saved from destruction.
3. After we expressed our unyielding stand and he met with the enemy's large-scale attack, Chiang Kaishek offered us a cheap method of compromise, which
consisted of conditions such as allowing an extension on the date for our Central
China forces to move northward, reorganizing the New Fourth Army into the Eighth
Route Army's newly designated First Army, and so on. This has been firmly rejected by Comrade Enlai, and in the end Comrade Ye Jianying is being sent back to
Yan'an for discussions. His flight left Chongqing today and should arrive tomorrow. Chiang's eagerness to seek compromise in a crisis can already be perceived in
a general way. We must maintain the stance of sharp struggle, and we certainly
will not compromise with him unless our necessary conditions are met. It is of
utmost importance to disseminate widely the twelve points regarding the way to
resolve the current situation and to make them known to everyone in all circles of
society, so as to create public opinion which will be helpful in finding a solution.
We append the twelve conditions proposed to Chiang Kaishek by the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party for the settlement of the current
situation. 12
Central Secretariat
On the 1st13 (Jianying has arrived in Yan'an as of
the morning of February 2)

10. The Battle of Henan, also known as the Battle of Southern Henan, took place from
January 24 to February 10, 1941. The Japanese Army launched a large-scale attack on
southern Henan on January 24, and the Guomindang Army adopted the tactic of moving
around its main forces under Tang Enbo so that the Japanese were unable to engage them in
battle directly. In this way the Guomindang Army was able to recover territories occupied
by the Japanese.
11. This is the battle in which the Guomindang Army lost the area of Yichang to the
Japanese in June 1940.

12. We omit the balance of this last paragraph, which consists of a verbatim repetition of
the twelve conditions which appear toward the end of the "Order and Statement of the
Revolutionary Military Commission" dated January 20, 1941, translated above.

13. The editors of the Junshi wenji indicate that this telegram was drafted on February 1,
but finalized and sent out on the 2nd.