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

(July 13, 1943)

Because the Allied forces recently landed on Sicily, the Soviet Union repulsed the German offensive, the ambassadors of various countries in Chongqing intervened, and, most importantly, our Party mobilized the broad masses to resolutely resist Chiang Kai-shek and Hu Zongnan’s troop deployments to attack the Border Region and their public propaganda calling for the “abolition of the CCP” and the “abolition of the Border Region,” the Kuomintang has been compelled to temporarily ease the situation of attacking the Border Region. However, as long as the troops newly transferred to attack the Border Region have not yet completely withdrawn, it cannot be considered that this offensive has been halted. When the Central Committee issued this year’s “July 7” manifesto, it adopted a relatively moderate attitude toward the Kuomintang. After discovering that the Kuomintang was actively arranging to attack the Border Region and openly propagating the abolition of the CCP, it was absolutely necessary for us to adopt the policy of “persisting in the War of Resistance, opposing civil war” and “persisting in unity, opposing splits,” and to mobilize the masses to prepare their strength and express resolute resistance. The attitude of the Yan’an Mass Rally Commemorating the Sixth Anniversary of the War of Resistance, expressed in its open telegram calling for unity and opposing civil war, was also entirely correct. The policy of not provoking the Kuomintang adopted over the past two years was correct; we secured a relatively calm environment to carry out various constructions. In the future, in addition to continuing to implement nationwide the six major policies of rectifying the Three Styles, better troops and simpler administration, unified leadership, supporting the government and cherishing the people, developing production, and examining cadres, the Central Committee must also use this incident to rapidly carry out the following tasks: (1) Launch a political offensive to strike at the Kuomintang’s anti-communist arrogance. (2) Make necessary military preparations, transfer a certain number of troops to the Border Region and northwestern Shanxi, strengthen military technical training, organize government organ self-defense forces, and intensify militia work. (3) Intensify

[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 Kuomintang’s preparations to attack the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and the CPC’s countermeasures.

the universal surprise campaign to ferret out spies and secret agents and the propaganda and education work against espionage. (4) Strengthen class education within the Party and among the people. (5) Carry out propaganda work to expose the Kuomintang’s various criminal acts and reactionary ideologies and policies, so as to counter the Kuomintang’s counterrevolutionary propaganda.