Resolution of the Central Committee of
the Chinese Communist Party on
Unifying Party Leadership in the Anti-Japanese Base Areas and Rectifying
Relationships Among Various
Organizations
Passed by the Politburo of the Chinese
Communist Party Central Committee
(September 1, 1942)
Since the War of Resistance began, Party leadership in the various anti-Japanese
base areas has generally been unified, and relationships among the various Party,
government, military, and popular (mass) organizations have been basically
united. Because of this, we have stood firm in the face of bitter struggle over
several years and have coordinated the national War of Resistance. However,
because of the poisonous influence of subjectivism and sectarianism and because
certain political views and organizational relationships still have not been clearly
understood or properly resolved, in certain districts there still persist some
instances of discord in the relationships among the Party, government, military,
and mass organizations (actually, they are the relationships among Party
members and cadres in these different systems). For example, the spirit of unity is
insufficient; there is no marching order; each regards himself as the authority; the

army lacks the spirit of respect for local Party and government authority; the
Party and government are not separated; Party members and cadres in the
government agitate for the independence of Party leadership; Party members
dominate mass organizations; departmentalism and factional prejudices persist,
and so on. These instances of discord hinder the maintenance and construction of
the anti-Japanese base areas and the further Bolshevization of our Party. The
construction of base areas and the implementation of democracy require the
centralization [yiyuanhua]1 of leadership in every base area. With the cruelty of
the Japanese “mopping-up” campaign, the strengthening of the blockade and
strongholds, the difficulty of communications between higher and lower levels,
and the increase in local and guerrilla warfare, there is a need for greater
flexibility in the relationship between higher and lower levels and an increase
and strengthening of an active spirit of independence in each district (military
district, subdistrict), as well as an active and general unification of leadership and
closer coordination among all organizations in every district, so that none will
provide the enemy with an advantageous loophole. To attain these objectives, the
Central Committee especially issues the following resolution:
1. The Party is the vanguard of the proletariat and the highest form of
proletarian organization; it should lead all the other organizations, such as the
army, government, and mass organizations. The unification and centralization
[yiyuanhua] of leadership in the base areas should be expressed in a unified Party
committee that leads everything in that base area (Central Committee bureaus,
subbureaus, district committees, and local committees). Thus, it has been decided
that the representative bodies of the Central Committee (Central Committee
bureaus and subbureaus) and Party committees at each level (district and local
committees) are to be the highest leading organs in each district, unifying
leadership in each district over Party, government, military, and mass work, and
that all former local Party political and military committees are to be abolished
(their establishment was necessary and correct during the founding period of the
base areas). The character and composition of the Party committees at each level
must be changed; Party committees at each level should not merely be
committees that guide local work but should also be unified organs leading the
Party, government, military, and mass organizations in that district (they should
not, however, be joint conferences). For that reason, they must include the

principal responsible Party members and cadres in Party affairs, the government,
and the army (the standing committee of the Party committee should also include
responsible cadres from the three areas of the Party, the government, and the
military), and it should not be made up wholly or mostly of Party workers. The
job of the Party committee at each level should be to take care of each area,
discuss and investigate each aspect of Party, government, military, and mass
work in each area and should not be limited only to local work.
2. Decisions, resolutions, and directives of organs representing the Central
Committee and district and local Party committees must be unconditionally
carried out by lower-level Party committees, as well as by Party groups at the
same level in the government, military, and mass organizations. Relationships of
subordination between higher and lower levels in the government, military, and
mass organizations should remain unchanged. Resolutions, orders, and
regulations from higher levels of government, orders and instructions from
higher levels of the military leadership, and resolutions of higher-level mass
organizations (of the above documents, the more important must pass through
the Party member responsible for that organ, to be delivered to the Party
committee at the same level for approval, or they can be discussed and confirmed
by the responsible members in the Party committee and thereafter be issued as
orders, but not all need to be approved) must not only be unconditionally carried
out by lower-level government, military, and mass organizations but must also be
unconditionally carried out by lower-level Party committees. They must not be
opposed or shelved under the pretext of lacking instructions from higher-level
Party committees. If lower-level Party committees have views that differ from the
resolutions of higher-level government, military, and mass organizations, they
may report them to a higher-level Party committee. If disputes arise within a
Party committee when deciding concrete problems according to a resolution of
the organization’s higher level, they must be resolved according to the principle
of majority rule. Even if responsible persons in government, military, or mass
organizations do not agree with the majority opinion, they must still carry out
the decision of the Party committee at the same level, but they may report their
opinions to the related higher-level organ.
3. Central Committee bureaus and subbureaus are the representative organs of
the Central Committee and are under its direction. Party district committees and

local committees are selected by the representative assemblies of military and
local Party organizations, subject to higher-level approval. District and local
Party committees should include responsible people from the local Party
organization, Party cadres in the army, and Party groups in the government.
Whether the main armed forces should participate in county committees is to be
decided according to the concrete situation in the locality. County committees (in
which the main armed forces do not participate) and district committees should
include only responsible Party persons from the local Party and from local troops
and government. For secretaries of Party committees at each level, comrades
should be selected who can assume responsibility for any aspect of Party,
government, military, or mass work. Secretaries of Party committees must thus
understand not only Party affairs but also military and government work.
Secretaries of district Party committees are to be selected by decision of the
Central Committee bureaus and subbureaus and approved by the Central
Committee. The secretaries of local Party committees are to be selected by the
district Party committees and approved by the subbureaus and bureaus of the
Central Committee. In order to unify the leadership of the local Party and the
Party in the military, secretaries of subbureaus and district and local committees
are to serve concurrently as political commissars in the military districts or
subdistricts (divisions or brigades), and assistant secretaries are to be appointed to
be in charge of Party work. If the political commissar for a military district or
subdistrict is selected as the Party secretary of a subbureau, district Party
committee, or local Party committee, an assistant political commissar can then be
appointed specifically to handle the military work. The secretaries of subbureaus,
district Party committees, and local Party committees should pay attention to
each aspect of work and, except for concurrent services as political commissars,
should not be concurrently responsible for other concrete work. When, in a few
special cases, it is not necessary for the secretary of a Party committee to act
concurrently as political commissar or for a political commissar to act
concurrently as secretary of a Party committee, the approval of the higher-level
Party committee or Central Committee must be obtained. Military administrative
committees and political departments in the army are to become departments of
Party committees at the same level (Central Committee bureaus, subbureaus,
Party districts, or local committees), are to have privileges and duties equal to

those of the other departments (such as organization departments, propaganda
departments), and are not to be subordinate to other departments and
committees, yet they differ from other committees or departments in that they
retain direct relationships of subordination and leadership between higher and
lower levels. Military policy (such as the principles on the expansion or the
establishment of armies, political work) and broad political aims of military
action (such as the strategy and planning and summarizing of military service in
the counter–mopping-up campaigns) must be submitted to Party committees for
discussion, but military commanders and political commissars (i.e., secretaries of
Party committees) are to make decisions on concrete military action (the final
power of decision making by military commanders and political commissars on
military affairs depends on the work regulations of the political departments).
Unlimited democratic discussion can only lead to defeat in military activities. The
appointment and dismissal of important military personnel must still pass
through the military organs and be handled according to the already existing
regulations.
4. The main armed forces are armed units under Party leadership and the
powerful mainstay in establishing base areas and carrying on the struggle. The
main armed forces should take the consolidation and sustaining of their
respective base areas as their primary task. The main armed forces are definitely
of a national character, yet at the same time concretely they have a local
character. The most important reason that past leadership in certain base areas
was not unified is that the comrades leading the main armed forces in those areas
did not have a correct and integrated understanding of the establishment and
maintenance of their base area. As a consequence, certain policies they carried
out (such as arming the local population as part of establishing the military,
military expansion, and unified collection and consumption in financial and
economic policy) merely concentrated on the main armed forces and ignored
integration of the overall tasks of the base area. This led to disputes with the local
Party and government. At the same time, the leading organs of the Party and the
government in some localities and districts have not had a real understanding of
the fact that everything is subordinate to the demands of the war, have not been
capable of fulfilling the necessary responsibilities regarding questions of
reinforcements for the main armed forces, the guarantee of supplies and

materials, the privileged treatment of the families of resistance fighters, and the
counteracting of desertion, and thus have brought about discordant relations
between the army and the local Party and government. In the future, to realize
the centralization [yiyuanhua] of leadership in the base areas, there must be, in
addition to the establishment of Party committees as unified organs of Party
leadership in the district, a correction of several errors in thought and policy
among the main armed forces and among certain leaders of the local Party and
government organs. We must carry out the various policies of the Central
Committee on the base areas and the various directives of the Military
Commission on the military establishment. In the future, the main armed forces
must carry out the decisions and resolutions of the Party committees at each level
and the laws of each level of government. The main armed forces must also carry
out the resolutions of the lower-level Party committees and lower-level
government units (i.e., county, district, and locality) of the area where they are
stationed. If there are differences of opinion, reports may be made to higher-level
Party committees or to higher government levels. In addition, they should
regularly communicate with and assist one another. Plans of the main armed
forces—such as orders regarding military movements, troop deployment, and
martial law—must be respected and carried out by local Party, government, and
mass organs. The main armed forces should be responsible for the protection of
Party, government, and mass organs. In all instances in which Party, government,
and mass organs have been needlessly harmed because of carelessness or lack of
attention on the part of the army, the responsible military personnel are to be
punished. If disputes arise in the future, there should first be a lower-level
compromise solution, and then the dispute and the solution are to be reported to
a higher level; the method in which each organization merely makes accusations
to a higher level and fails to achieve a negotiated solution to the problem on the
spot is to be opposed.
5. The systems of political authority (representative assemblies, government)
are the organs of power, and their ordinances are of a compulsory character. The
relationship between Party committees and the political system must be clearly
defined. A monopoly of the work in the political system by Party committees, a
lack of distinction between Party and government, disobedience by Party
members and cadres within the political power system to Party committee

resolutions, and actions which are contrary to Party discipline must all be
corrected. In order that the “Three-Thirds” system2 be carried out, leadership of
the Party within the political system should exist in matters of principle, policy,
and overall political orientation but should not intervene everywhere or
monopolize affairs. Lower-level Party committees do not have the power to
change or to refuse to carry out the resolutions and ordinances of higher-level
representative assemblies and the government, and Party organs and Party
members should become models of adherence to the ordinances of representative
assemblies and the government. The Party should advance its political work by
promoting the actual authority of the representative assemblies and the
government. When Party cadres or members disobey the ordinances of the
representative assemblies or the government, they should be severely punished
by Party organizations. The leadership of the Party in the representative
assemblies and the government can only work through its respective Party
members and Party organs, and Party committees and Party organs have no right
to give direct orders to the representative assemblies and government organs.
Party groups must obey Party committees of equal rank, yet the work style of
Party groups must be reformed; they cannot force obedience of people outside the
Party, but must operate through personal persuasion and political work. If the
Party group fails to persuade a majority in the representative assembly or
government and the opinion of the Party group is not adopted by the
representative assembly or the government, the minority must submit to the
majority, and the principle of democratic centralism must not be opposed. But if
comrades in Party groups do not firmly uphold the resolutions of equal-ranking
Party committees because their own views differ from those of the Party
committees, their action is contrary to Party discipline, and it should be reproved
and punished. The Party must delegate competent cadres to work in the
representative assemblies and the government; all concentration of cadres in
Party organs to the neglect of political work must be corrected. When the “Three-Thirds” system is carried out, the number of Party members in the political
system will decrease, but the quality of the Party members in the political system
must be greatly improved. Party members and cadres working in the political
system must obey the decisions, resolutions, and discipline of Party committees
and Party groups and must not take advantage of their own positions for

independent action. In this respect, it should be especially pointed out that for the
practical realization of the leadership of the Party in the “Three-Thirds” system,
the Party relies on unanimity in speech and action of Party members and Party
cadres in the political system and their absolute obedience to Party resolutions.
Strict Party discipline among Party members and Party cadres in the political
system is of great significance. Party committees must be careful in transferring
Party members within the political system; the procedure must involve the Party
members’ formal resignation from the political organ. Relations between the
government and the army must be improved; in the army, instructions should be
given on the protection of the government; the government must guarantee
supplies and transportation for the army; military commanders must be elected as
government officials [weiyuan] and assembly members. The army should be a
model of respect for the government and for the execution of ordinances, and
illegal acts committed by soldiers must be severely punished by military organs.
Except for the expression of opinions to the assemblies or the government by
soldiers in their capacity as citizens, government officials, or assembly members,
soldiers and military organs do not have the right to intervene in the internal
work of the assemblies or the government. However, political organs of the army
must give all possible assistance to the work of the government.
6. Mass organizations are bodies organized on the initiative of the masses
themselves, and the Party, government, and army should not directly intervene in
their internal activities. The Party’s leadership of mass organizations is exercised
through its own Party members and groups. However, failure to distinguish
between the Party and the people, monopolization, and complete uniformity must
all be corrected. To the greatest extent possible, the membership of the
committees of the mass organizations at each level should include more than half
non-Party people. The issue of Party groups in mass organizations is the same as
that of Party groups in the government. The government should respect the
independence of the mass organizations and give them whatever assistance is
necessary, but it should demand that mass organizations carry out government
ordinances. Mass organizations should, in accordance with the law, petition the
government for registration and thus attain legal status. When mass
organizations break government laws, the government can punish and even
dissolve them; aside from this, the government cannot in any case interfere with

the activities and work of the mass organizations. Mass organizations should
rally the masses, support the government and army, and assist resistance
mobilization. But mass organizations are by no means political organs; they must
not take over administrative functions from the government by arrests,
examinations, judgments, or by other actions. The army and mass organizations
should assist each other but should not intervene in each other’s affairs.
7. In guerrilla areas, due to their special nature, the centralization [yiyuanhua]
of leadership should not merely be limited to mutual relationships; there must
also be centralization, when necessary, of Party, government, military, and mass
structures. The organs of Party committees, government, and mass organizations
can be amalgamated with military and political organs. Party, government, and
mass cadres in army or guerrilla units are responsible for specific tasks (such as
superior or subordinate military commanders or political commissars or various
jobs in the political departments). When there are hostilities, they are to
participate in the work of the army and the guerrilla units. When there is a lull,
they are to carry out their former tasks in the Party, government, or mass
organizations (as secretaries of Party committees, county magistrates, or labor
union leaders).
8. On the one hand, the centralization [yiyuanhua] of Party leadership is to be
expressed in the mutual relations between Party, government, and mass
organizations of the same level; on the other hand, it is to be expressed in the
relations between upper and lower levels. In this sphere, strict adherence to the
principle of obedience of lower levels to higher levels and obedience of the entire
Party to the Central Committee are of decisive significance in unifying Party
leadership. When carrying out policies and regulations, the leading organs in
each base area must follow Central Committee directives. When deciding new
questions of a general nature that affect the entire country, Party, or army, they
must ask for instructions from the Central Committee and must not endanger the
unified leadership of the entire Party by setting up strange new standards and
making decisions on their own. (This does not pertain to decisions of a local
nature or those that are not contrary to higher-level or Central Committee
decisions.) Failure of Party, government, military, or mass organizations at lower
levels to execute with determination higher-level or Central Committee decisions,
resolutions, orders, or directives, compliance in appearance only, or failure to ask

for instructions from higher levels or the Central Committee for the solution of
new questions of principle or questions which should, according to their nature,
not be decided independently are all signs of an impure Party spirit and the
destruction of unity.
In this respect, the attention of leading comrades of the Party, government,
army, and mass organizations in the base areas should again be drawn to the fact
that responsible Party members in Party committees, the government, the army,
and mass organizations at all levels must not make statements, engage in
discussions, or make broadcasts that have national significance without obtaining
Central Committee permission. The writings of leading comrades at each level
should be examined by the Party committees or appropriate members of the
Party branches at the same level. The principal contents of the writings by
individuals with rank higher than subbureau committee member or army
commander that have national significance or significance for the entire Party
should first be submitted to the Central Committee by report or telegram.
Localities should no longer make direct broadcasts to the outside world. This
should be unified in the New China News Agency in Yan’an. It should be
thoroughly understood that the actions of responsible higher-level Party cadres
who take it upon themselves to express political views without obtaining the
approval of a specific organization at an equal level or higher is a major
transgression of Party organizational principles and an evil obstruction to unity!
9. In order to unify leadership in the base areas and in order to improve
relations among the Party, the government, the army, and the people [min],3
ideological education must be given to Party members and cadres within the
system of Party, government, army, or mass organizations. The Three Work
Styles must be rectified and the poison of subjectivism and sectarianism must be
eliminated. At cadre meetings, on the basis of Central Committee resolutions and
Comrade Mao Zedong’s report, teach cadres to recognize the larger aspects and
to consider situations in their entirety, summon cadres to carry out criticism and
self-criticism, make cadres understand situations in their entirety and not
succumb to partial or particular biases, and understand the correct relationships
between the part and the whole, between higher and lower levels, and between
this and that part of a situation. If we are to strengthen educational work in the
various Party, government, military, and mass organizations, we must make all

comrades recognize the importance of a centralized [yiyuanhua] leadership and
the revolutionary order and laws of the base areas. Here we must especially warn
military cadres that when discordant relations exist among the Party, the
government, the army, and the people [min], the greatest responsibility should
generally fall on the military cadres. Since the army is in possession of weapons,
it is easy for it to act single-handedly, disregard the government and the Party,
break discipline, act independently, and harm the interests of the masses. As a
consequence, political cadres in the army in particular must restrain their
subordinates and hold themselves in check. They must call on the troops under
their command to support Party leadership, support the government, and rigidly
uphold Party leadership and government laws. At the same time, they should
correct those views among some Party members and cadres that are contrary to
reality. These people believe that only the work done in Party committees or
Party organs can really be called Party work. In fact, for all Party members and
cadres military work, mass work, economic work, technical work, or cultural
work are all Party work. The work done in Party organs is only a part of the
Party’s work. (It is Party affairs work.) In following Party leadership, Party
members must follow the Party’s line, policies, resolutions, decisions, directives,
and discipline. Certain Party members only follow Party leadership in their
slogans or they distort Party leadership and as a result they do not earnestly
study and carry out the Party’s line, policies, resolutions, decisions, directives,
and discipline. Such attitudes are incorrect.
10. The purpose of strengthening the unity of leadership in each anti-Japanese
base area is to facilitate the war against the Japanese bandits. “Everything bows
to the demands of war” is the highest principle of unified leadership. The entire
Party must understand that if the army is weak and if the war is lost, it will be
impossible for the base areas to exist, and the Party, government, army, and
masses will collapse. It is thus the duty of the Party committees, the government,
the mass organizations, and the entire people to strengthen the army and increase
its fighting power. Party committees, government, and mass organizations all
have a constant responsibility to solve the problems of army recruitment,
provisions, and clothing; to supply and transport ammunition, to provide living
quarters, to transport the wounded and disabled, to provide nursing and care for
them, to give preferential treatment to families of anti-Japanese soldiers, and so

forth, and any carelessness in these matters is extremely mistaken and harmful.
In the army itself, it must be thoroughly understood that without the integration
of the Party, government, and mass organizations, the army by itself would not
be able to fight on in the War of Resistance for a single day. We must therefore
intensify education in the army so that it will cherish the base areas, treasure
human and material resources, respect the Party and government, strengthen
discipline, and give the Party, government, and masses the necessary assistance.
Recruitment and transportation for the army and preferential treatment for the
families of resistance fighters must be worked out according to government
orders and regulations; irregularities are harmful to the war effort and
disadvantageous to the army itself.
11. On the basis of the principles contained in this resolution and the concrete
conditions in each locality, leading organs in the base areas are to decide the
various relevant detailed provisions and carry them out through government
ordinances, army regulations, the bylaws of the mass organizations, or by other
means, in order to solve the many concrete problems of unified leadership. After
decisions have been reached, they must be reported to the Central Committee.
Notes
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji Vol. 8, pp. 155–63, which is based on Zhengfeng wenxian.

--- Notes

1. We have used “centralization” for yiyuanhua, whereas both Compton, tr., Mao’s China and Saich, ed.,
Rise to Power have used “unity” or “unification” in their translations. We are concerned about not
confounding yiyuanhua, the total amalgamation of separate functions under direct Party rule, with tongyi
(unity). However, we realize that “centralization” could suggest jizhonghua. We have marked the
appearances of yiyuanhua in our translation.

2. See above, note 1 to the text of January 26, 1942, and note 4 to the text of February 20, 1942.

3. Clearly “people” here for min is most elegant; however, the use of min in the rest of the document is
short-hand for minzhong tuanti (mass organizations).