June 17, 1941: What is lacking in the Kuomintang? Aircraft and artillery? Cadres and talent? A strategy for resisting Japan? Yes, all these are important, but what is most urgently needed is national confidence. Some leaders of the KMT frequently denounce others—especially the Communists—for supposedly having no sense of nation or people. Yet both the Communist Party and the Chinese people have never been passive in the War of Resistance or in the struggle for national liberation. Therefore, no matter how novel the rhetoric or how voluminous the pamphlets, such attacks merely serve to highlight a wasteful use of paper—hardly consistent with Mr. Chiang Kai-shek’s proclaimed austerity drive. One may well question, however, just how much genuine national consciousness remains in the ideological storehouses of these very same leaders. We offer no glee, only a grave and earnest admonition: Pray take heed; add more weight to this crucial balance! It will benefit both you and us, as well as our beloved nation and people.

Consider calmly: To what extent has your adulation of and reliance upon the United States now reached? We do not ask you to abandon your illusions about America—after all, freedom of thought and speech prevail—but as Confucius taught, “The essence lies in clear expression; excess is as bad as deficiency.” Why insist that China and Britain are America’s left and right wings, and that the Han River and the English Channel alike constitute its borders? And why claim that Sino-American relations have already transcended those of mere allies by a factor of three hundred twenty-six? Has the United States ever undertaken any treaty obligations toward China in all of history? And if they are to be surpassed still further, what kind of sweet, idyllic bond could that possibly be? Did Captain Roosevelt perhaps come to China to cultivate a few sworn brotherhoods? You lift others to heavenly heights, while the curve charting U.S.-Japanese trade in military supplies soars ever higher; you treat a blank piece of paper from Secretary Hull as though it were a sacred talisman of Guanyin, even as the U.S. negotiates with Nomura on how to compel China to cease hostilities—as if China had somehow already thrown itself wholeheartedly into America’s embrace! That, indeed, would be true transcendence of allied ties, truly treating the Han River as if it were the Mississippi. Must we really depend on America? At least let us not rely on an “American” residing on Mars! For the America here on Earth, no matter how bitterly Shen Baoxu might weep and stand day and night before the State Department’s gates, at present it can only dispatch its Pacific Fleet across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, you once pinned all your hopes on a Soviet–Japanese war, and now you pin them on a U.S.–Japanese conflict—despite the fact that, high above in the blue sky or deep below in the netherworld, there is not the slightest sign of such a war on today’s agenda. Should the unfortunate event of a U.S.–Japan compromise actually come to pass, how will this farcical spectacle conclude? The people accuse you of engaging in calculated deception; how can you deny it? Even if no such compromise materializes, what imperial grace has America bestowed upon me—that great, struggling nation—such that we must find abject self-debasement amusing, thereby forfeiting both our national dignity and our personal integrity to such an extreme degree? How much national consciousness underlies all this propaganda? In which chapter or page of Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalism does it find its roots? Into which dictionary entry of Mr. Chiang Kai-shek’s slogan of “self-reliance” does it fit?

Reflect once more with calm: To what point has your suppression, vilification, and slander of the Communist Party and the Chinese people now progressed? What vast apparatus have you erected to combat them? This apparatus has grown ever larger, until it has come to resemble, in allegorical fashion, a camel oppressing a poor Arab, squeezing out every other function of a wartime government and leaving it confined to the tent’s margins. To pursue such a policy when the enemy presses hard against our borders—whether in ancient times or among all peoples—is, without exception, not conducive to strengthening or founding a nation; rather, it can only bring ruin and disaster. Surely even you cannot fail to grasp this simple truth. But since you regard fellow countrymen as outsiders and are enamored of establishing your national center on the New York Stock Exchange, it follows that you must also view your own people as alien—and thus be unable to discern in them the boundless strength and limitless future of the nation. Moreover, as the saying goes: “Even a single foot of cloth can still be sewn into garments, and a peck of rice can still be pounded into grain; yet if brothers cannot tolerate one another, what hope remains?” You go so far as to brand your own compatriots as irreconcilable enemies! How bold you were during the Southern Anhui Incident and in your various anti-Communist campaigns! How creative and energetic you proved in fabricating rumors and shaping anti-Communist public opinion! Having unhesitatingly portrayed the people and their vanguard as traitors and bandits, what confidence in the nation can possibly remain within you? Despite all intolerable hostility, as long as you continue the resistance, the Communist Party and the people will still cherish you and remain willing to cooperate with you—a trust that, regrettably, seems equally scarce in your ranks. With neither trust in others nor in yourselves, how much national consciousness can you truly claim? Again, in which chapter or page of Sun Yat-sen’s Nationalism does this reside? Into which dictionary definition of Chiang Kai-shek’s “self-reliance” does it fit?  “What a faithless and perverse generation!” Jesus declared. “Truly I tell you, if you had faith as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move; nothing would be impossible for you.” In these days when national confidence is being so grievously trampled, we cannot help but borrow these words of Jesus to address the Kuomintang. Many within the KMT have lately grown pessimistic, even recognizing that dependence on America offers no way forward. They marvel at how the Communists, under far harsher conditions, have nonetheless achieved greater victories. Regardless of how perilous the domestic and international environment may be, the Communists steadfastly stand firm as Mount Tai through storm and tempest, pressing ever onward. What secret lies behind this resilience? The entire secret of the Communist Party resides in its unwavering faith in the Chinese nation and its people; it fights side by side with the broad masses of the nation, refusing to place its trust in any foreign power, especially any imperialist state.

Then why should the Kuomintang be incapable of bolstering its own national confidence, of trusting the people and itself, instead of prostrating itself before the grandiose, imperialist schemers who plot against us? Many “theoreticians” of the KMT argue that, of the Three Principles of the People, what is most urgently needed today is precisely nationalism—that is, a single principle. Why, then, can the KMT not devote itself wholeheartedly to upholding even this one principle? Were the KMT to resolutely strengthen its national confidence and vigorously pursue a war of national independence, all its difficulties could be overcome, and a bright future would lie ahead.