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

(July 7, 1943)

The recent moves by Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan to mass river defense forces and actively prepare for an attack on the Border Region, along with the Kuomintang’s public propaganda advocating “abolish the CCP” and “abolish the Border Region” to create anti-communist public opinion, are reactionary acts through which they attempt to exploit the tense relations between Germany and the Soviet Union and between Japan and the Soviet Union, estimate that Japan will attack the Soviet Union, and seize the opportunity of the dissolution of the Communist International to impose military pressure and political intrigue, in an attempt to dissolve the CCP, abolish the Border Region, and abolish the Eighth Route Army. Over the past two years, we adopted a policy of “peace with the Kuomintang” that did not provoke the Kuomintang, maintaining over two years of relative calm, which was correct. Now that the situation has changed, it is no longer applicable, and we must adopt propaganda to counter their anti-communist propaganda and military means to counter their military attacks.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China concerning the issue of dealing with the anti-communist propaganda launched by the Kuomintang and its preparations to attack the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region.