Speech at the Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China [1]

(June 19, 1942)

The content of the declaration commemorating the fifth anniversary of the July 7th Incident should support the establishment of a second front in the anti-fascist war, express confidence in defeating Japanese imperialism next year, and put forward proposals for post-war nation-building.

In the current study movement, Wang Shiwei has been found at the Central Research Institute to be a Trotskyist. [2] We must discover bad elements, save good people, and have the vision to detect bad elements, namely the three kinds of bad elements: Trotskyists, Japanese agents, and Kuomintang agents. We must distinguish between bad elements and comrades who have made mistakes, and carry out meticulous observation and investigation work.

[1] Part one of this text is an excerpt from Mao Zedong's speech at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China discussing matters concerning the commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the War of Resistance; part two is an excerpt from Mao Zedong's speech at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China discussing matters concerning the rectification study movement.

[2] On February 7, 1991, the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China issued the "Decision on the Reexamination of Comrade Wang Shiwei's Trotskyist Issue," which stated: "In the reexamination, no materials were found to prove that Comrade Wang Shiwei participated in a Trotskyist organization. Therefore, the conclusion of 1946 that labeled him a 'counterrevolutionary Trotskyist spy element' is hereby corrected."