Comrade Mao Zedong Summarizes
Twenty-Two Years of Heroic Struggle at
the July 1 Evening Party for Cadres
(July 1, 1943)
(Special report by our newspaper) At the grand evening party on July 1, Comrade Mao Zedong
summarized the six years of War of Resistance and the twenty-two years since the founding of the
Chinese Communist Party. His report was full of confidence in the victory of the War of Resistance and
in a bright new China and a new world. That evening, all the seats in the Central Auditorium were
taken. Those present included all the comrades of the Party Central Committee, Party comrades, and
nonpartisan cadres at every level. The leader of the Japanese Communist Party, Comrade Okano
Susumu,1 who recently arrived in Yan’an, and Soviet and American guests in Yan’an were also present.
After Comrade Li Fuchun announced the opening of the meeting, Comrade Mao Zedong stepped onto
the platform amid enthusiastic applause from the entire audience. He began his report with the following
words:
Today we are commemorating the twenty-second anniversary of the Party and
the sixth anniversary of the War of Resistance Against Japan. Now, all the anti-Fascist forces in the world and in China, the Communist parties in every country
all around the world, and our own Chinese Communist Party have only one task,
that is, to defeat the common enemy of mankind—the German, Italian, and
Japanese Fascist invaders.
In summarizing the six years of the War of Resistance, Comrade Mao Zedong said:
It has been six years since China began the War of Resistance. In terms of time,
this has been longer than for any other country.
He pointed out:
In the past year, fundamental changes have taken place in the features of the

world war. In the past, all the countries in the world were attacked by the
Fascists, and the Fascists were actively assaulting every country. Moreover, they
won the offensives and oppressed the anti-Fascist countries. This was the
situation in the past, an unfavorable and difficult situation. Now the situation is
totally different, and fundamental changes have taken place. These changes have
occurred during the past year. The victory of the Soviet winter offensive, the
American and British victories in North Africa and the Pacific Ocean, and the six
years of perseverance in the War of Resistance Against Japan by the Chinese are
the factors that led to these fundamental changes. Among them, the major
victory in Stalingrad in particular played a decisive role in these changes. In the
past, the Fascist invaders were rampant, and they held the initiative. Now they
have lost the initiative, and it is in the hands of the Allied countries.
Comrade Mao Zedong spoke in an affirmative tone:
The problem for the future is to finish off the Fascists. This should be divided
into two steps: first, dispose of the Germans, then eliminate the Japanese. The
coming year will probably be a year of decisive battle in Europe.
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out:
Last year we said that a decisive battle in Europe could begin in 1942. But due
to the failure to open up the second front in Europe,2 our prediction did not come
true. The key issue this year is still the second front in Europe. The earlier it is set
up, the earlier victory will come.
Comrade Mao Zedong further explained:
In the past, we pointed out tendencies and possibilities. We Communists often
did so in order to make everyone see the bright future in the midst of difficulties.
Now that the passive situation of the Allied countries is over and it has turned
active, things that were only possibilities in the past will soon become realities
today. There is still no second front in Europe, but certainly that day will not be
far away. It is the goal toward which all human beings in this world are striving.
With regard to the battlefield in China, Comrade Mao Zedong said:
When the big boss Hitler has been toppled, there is no doubt that the second
boss, the Japanese Fascists, will also be overthrown. Some people in the rear

echelon are confused and are not in favor of defeating Hitler first. This is wrong.
The entire world has now formed an anti-Fascist front, and no state is fighting
independently. Therefore, strategy should not be decided from the point of view
of the immediate interest of one country. Instead, it should be based upon who
should first be defeated for the greatest benefit of the entire anti-Fascist front.
Looking at things in this way, we can see that, after defeating Hitler, it will be
quite easy to defeat the Japanese.
After comparing the past six years of the War of Resistance and the present situation, Comrade Mao
Zedong made the following conclusion:
It is certain that the bright future we pointed out in the past is already within
reach.
Comrade Mao Zedong continued by summarizing the twenty-two years of the Chinese Communist
Party. He compared the world during World War I and the world during World War II. He also
compared the China of twenty-two years ago and the China of today. Then he pointed out:
The conclusion we draw from these comparisons will increase our confidence
in a bright new world and a bright new China. We know in which direction the
world is headed and in which direction China is headed, whether the world will
become a bright world soon and whether China will become a bright China soon.
Comrade Mao Zedong first compared the two world wars.
In the past thirty years, the world has experienced two wars of unprecedented
scale. They were the inevitable result of the development of the world economy.
World War I was correctly predicted by Lenin, and it was Stalin who predicted
World War II. Their correct predictions proved that Marxism-Leninism is the real
scientific truth.
World War I was an unjust war, an imperialist war. At that time, there was
only one Russian Bolshevik party, and very few people in the other countries
were true Communists. However, among the social democratic parties in every
country, their leaders all supported imperialist wars, and most of their members
were still not enlightened. This was the situation thirty years ago.
During World War II, the look of the world has completely changed. Among
the Allied countries, there are socialist countries, capitalist countries, colonies,
and semicolonies. All the Communist parties in the Allied countries have taken

part in the war. This is a just war.
It was only in the third year of World War I that a socialist country—the Soviet
Union—was established by the Russian Bolsheviks. It is no more than twenty
years since then, and the Soviet Union has become the hero in the anti-Fascist
war of mankind all over the world. Without the Soviet Red Army, the Soviet
people, and the Soviet leader Stalin, and without the battle for Stalingrad, the fate
of mankind still would be unknown. With a Bolshevik party led by Lenin and
Stalin, the old Russia became a socialist Soviet Union. The world now has this
territory with a socialist state, and it is influencing the entire world; it has now
become the hero in the anti-Fascist movement in the world.
With regard to the Communist movement in the whole world, after the victory
of the October Revolution in 1917, the Communist International was set up in
1919. As a result, in the East the Chinese Communist Party was founded in 1921,
the Japanese Communist Party was founded in 1922, and the Communist Party of
India in 1933. Our Chinese Communist Party held its First Party Congress
twenty-two years ago. Only twelve representatives were present at the meeting.
Today it has become such a large political party.
Comrade Mao Zedong said:
In its twenty-two-year history, the Chinese Communist Party has already
carried out three big revolutionary movements. Now it is working in
coordination with the people of the entire country to organize a united front and
to gather our strength to deal with the Japanese invaders. It is absolutely certain
that now we are not merely an isolated party. Rather, we have people throughout
the country and the world fighting with us against the Fascists, and we have the
Japanese Communist Party and the Communist Party of India fighting together
with us against Japanese imperialism.
Comrade Mao Zedong ridiculed the Japanese bandit chief Tōjō [Hideki] who is fond of saying “one
billion people.”
But all of these one billion people oppose the Japanese Fascists. The 450 million
Chinese, 400 million Indians, 100 million people in Southeast Asia, and 100
million people in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are, as a matter of fact, all opposed to
the Japanese Fascists.

Comrade Mao Zedong expressed his warm welcome to the leader of the Japanese Communist Party and
the representative of the Japanese people, Comrade Okano Susumu. He said:
We have long been living in the mountains, so we hope that Comrade Okano
Susumu, who is now in Yan’an, will give us as much advice as possible, now in
service for unifying to defeat the Japanese Fascists and in the future for building
a new China and a new Japan.
Comrade Mao Zedong turned to a comparison of present-day China with China of World War I. He said:
At that time, China had no Communist Party, and the people were so
unenlightened that they did not even know that there is a distinction between
good foreigners and bad foreigners. They still did not know how to distinguish
between imperialists and good and honest workers and farmers. By then
Marxism had existed for seventy years, but we were not aware of it. When
teaching philosophy, economics, and sociology at school, the teachers did not
even know Marx’s name. The old democratic culture already existed at that time
in China, but there was still no new democratic culture, literature, and arts.
Writing in the vernacular was not even recognized. China was also a participant
in World War I, but it only helped the imperialists. Its semicolonial status not
only did not change; instead, it became worse.
China now is a China that is fighting the War of Resistance. The people’s
consciousness has reached such a degree that they have joined the international
front to fight against the Fascists. Culture has progressed with the founding of
the Communist Party. We often take many of the progressive things before us for
granted. As a matter of fact, compared with the past, they are like a change of
dynasties.
Comrade Mao Zedong said:
From this, it can be seen not only that fundamental changes have taken place
in the past six years in the War of Resistance but also that the circumstances of
the world and China are essentially different from thirty years ago. This is earthshaking progress, and it is made by humanity with its own hands. This anti-Fascist war will inevitably create a more progressive world and a more
progressive China. The Fascists want to drag the world backward. That won’t do.
Our direction is to march forward.

“Direction must be accompanied by policy,” Comrade Mao Zedong said. Thus he turned to the issue of
policy. He said:
Policy can be divided into two parts: national policy and policy for the border
regions and the anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines.
He said:
With regard to national policy, the declaration commemorating the sixth
anniversary of the War of Resistance by the Party Central Committee3 put
forward four suggestions for the government. They were to “strengthen military
capacity,” “enhance unity,” “reform politics,” and “develop production.” With
regard to how to handle things after the victory of the War of Resistance, the
Party has already made it very clear in the July 7 Declaration of last year4—we
hope to continue our cooperation with every party and group to build the nation
together.
Then Comrade Mao Zedong began to talk about the Party’s policies in the border region and in the areas
behind enemy lines. He said:
At present, our War of Resistance has two battlefields: the front[line]
battlefield and the battlefield behind enemy lines. The struggle in the battlefield
behind enemy lines is extremely ruthless. We Communists have done our work
in those areas. In the past few years, we have come up with many new things,
such as anti–“mopping-up,” anti-“nibbling,” Crack Troops and Simple
Administration, supporting the government and cherishing the people,
supporting the army, production movements, and rectifying the Three Work
Styles, and so forth.
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out:
When we see shortcomings in other areas, the only thing we can do is to give
our suggestions, but this is not the case in the border region and in the areas
behind enemy lines, where we can take our own actions, and, therefore, we
should do a much better job.
Comrade Mao Zedong summarized Party policy in the border region and the areas behind enemy lines
during the past six years by dividing the time into two periods.
The first period covers the first four and a half years after the beginning of the

War of Resistance (until the end of 1941), the second period covers the past year
and a half.
During the first period, the Party’s attention was focused on the following
issues: how to form an anti-Japanese National United Front, how to mobilize the
masses, how to resist the enemy’s attack in cooperation with friendly armies,
how to create anti-Japanese base areas behind enemy lines, and how to make all
kinds of policies, such as land policy, labor policy, and the “Three-Thirds”
system.5 These are all issues that required urgent solutions at that time. During
the past year and a half of the past four and a half years, we were also forced to
deal with the two major conflicts launched by anti-Communist elements.
In the second period, that is, in the past year and a half, apart from carrying on
the work mentioned above, we also carried out the rectification of the Three
Work Styles, Crack Troops and Simple Administration, supporting the
government and cherishing the people, and the movement to support the army.
Comrade Mao Zedong explained in particular detail the rectification of the Three Work Styles. He said:
This event has ensured that the Party is unified ideologically and politically, as
well as ensuring the purity of its organizational composition.
Comrade Mao Zedong pointed out:
We must tirelessly carry on these tasks through to the end to guarantee victory
in the War of Resistance. Everything should aim to defeat the enemy, to
overcome present difficulties, and to embrace the oncoming light.
The report ended amid thunderous applause.
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 9, pp. 33–40, where it is reproduced from the July 3,
1943, issue of Jiefang ribao. A shortened version of the document, excluding the reporter’s descriptions and
with a few minor revisions, can be found in Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 28–34.

--- Notes

1. Okano Susumu would spend the remainder of the war years with the Communists in Yan’an.

2. On the second front on the European continent, see above, text of February 21, 1943.

3. “Declaration of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Commemorating the Sixth
Anniversary of the War of Resistance” was published in Jiefang ribao on July 2, 1943; see below, text of July
2, 1943.

4. Referring to the July 7, 1942, “Declaration of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in
Commemoration of the Fifth Anniversary of the War of Resistance.”

5. Regarding the “Three-Thirds” system, see above, note to the text of January 26, 1942.