Reply to Peng Xuefeng’s Telegram[1]

(June 28, 1941)

The viewpoint expressed in your telegram of May 3 is inappropriate and erroneous, and your telegram of June 15 still has not changed it. Chiang Kai-shek is still resisting Japan. Chiang still enjoys considerable prestige among the armed forces throughout the country and among the middle and petty bourgeoisie. At present, the resistance against Japan still cannot do without him, he has not yet broken the united front, and he is still pursuing a dual policy. The tactics of strikes and school boycotts can only isolate ourselves, and the tactic of the Eighth Route Army moving south can only deepen the rift between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, which is inconsistent with the Central Committee’s policy of narrowing the rift. Our policy in dealing with Chiang Kai-shek’s anti-communist policy should only be a self-defense policy that is justified, advantageous, and restrained; your opinion, however, goes beyond this policy.

After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, our Party must be especially prudent in its attitude toward the Kuomintang and must not be careless.

[1] This is the main content of Mao Zedong’s telegram in reply to Peng Xuefeng, with copies to Peng Dehuai, Chen Yi, and Liu Shaoqi.