Both of your telegrams have been received. This anti-Communist propaganda campaign was carried out by He Yingqin under secret orders from Chiang [Kaishek],
but it was opposed by the pro-British and pro-American elements such as Guo
Taiqi¹ and Wang Shijie,² and has been stopped for the time being after [Zhou]
Enlai's counterattack. Chiang and He's purpose is none other than to prepare public opinion so that they will have an excuse to force us to move north of the Yellow
River once Japan attacks the Soviet Union. But as long as the Soviet Union is able
to defeat Germany (in the past two weeks the German army has made no progress),
Japan will certainly not dare to attack the Soviet Union, and as long as the Soviet
Union, the United States, and Great Britain cooperate (Britain and the Soviet Union
have already signed an agreement, and the United States and the Soviet Union are
getting closer day by day), Chiang will certainly not dare to launch an extensive
anti-Communist campaign, so the whole situation is to our advantage. If Japan
risks attacking the Soviet Union and Chiang forces us to move northward, there
still will be no change in our orientation; politically it will continue to be an antifascist international united front and an anti-Japanese national united front, and,
militarily, until there are changes in our weaponry, it will remain a timeless protracted guerrilla war against the enemy that is neither adventurous nor passive.
The troops in Central China and Shandong will certainly not move north; our
policy toward Chiang's attacks will be one of self-defense; our orientation toward
all anti-Communist propaganda and every single anti-Communist action on the
part of the Guomindang will continue to be that we will not attack anyone who
does not first attack us. As for Chiang and He, if He attacks us we will attack him,
and if He stops we will stop too. We should prepare to persist in this orientation for