Reply to Zhou Enlai’s Telegram[1]

(March 15, 1941)

Your telegram of the 15th[2] received. (1) Minor issues such as the Xinhua Daily, arrests, issuance of passports, and payment of salaries may be resolved first, but on major issues we must not relax in the slightest. (2) Chiang’s gestures are not entirely deception; there is an element of partial concession aimed at seeking compromise, as the domestic and international situation does not permit him to make no concessions.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee in reply to Zhou Enlai.

[2] In his telegram of March 15 to Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai reported on his conversation with Chiang Kai-shek on the 14th, stating that under our political offensive, Chiang, in order to temporize, was adopting a superficially conciliatory approach while in reality intensifying his arrangements for defeating us one by one. His old tricks remain the three characters: pressure, intimidation, and deception. Pressure has become difficult, intimidation is ineffective, and he is now resorting to deception. Zhou also sought instructions on whether to take advantage of the present possibility to first resolve minor issues such as arrests and payment of salaries, or to wait and resolve them together with the major issues.