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

(November 13–27, 1943)

The line after the Zunyi Conference and the line before the Zunyi Conference are distinguished by Marxism-Leninism and non-Marxism-Leninism. Those who were slandered as opportunists before the Zunyi Conference have today become the principal leaders. Yet this leading body is still the Central Committee elected by the Fourth Plenum and the Fifth Plenum. This is a contradiction, which has been endured for many years—from the September Conference the year before last to the present, we have endured it for another two years. I still ask comrades to endure it a little longer and not be in a hurry to resolve this issue. The Zunyi Conference only concentrated on resolving the military line, because during the Long March, military leadership was the central issue. At that time, the resolution of military leadership was almost equivalent to the resolution of the political line. At the December 1937 Conference, because Wang Ming returned to China and attacked the Central Committee’s line, the Central Committee’s line after the Zunyi Conference was interrupted as a result. At the December Conference, I was isolated; I alone persisted to the end on protracted war, guerrilla warfare as the primary form, and the principle of independence and self-reliance within the united front. At the Sixth Plenum of the Sixth Central Committee, I reached a negative conclusion regarding Wang Ming’s “everything through the united front” and other such views, but it was not published at the time. A very favorable condition for the Sixth Plenum was that Wang Jiaxiang brought back directives from the Communist International. At the September Conference the year before last, the question of the Party’s line during the War of Resistance was raised. Wang Ming resolutely refused to admit errors in line. I said it was acceptable not to speak of errors in line, but there were four errors of principle, namely: (1) the theory of quick victory, (2) mobile warfare, (3) toward the Kuomintang, only unity and no struggle, and (4) organizational assertiveness of independence. But Wang Ming still refused to admit them, and soon launched a counterattack, claiming that his line was correct

[1] This is part of a speech by Mao Zedong at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China criticizing Wang Ming’s “Left” opportunist errors during the ten-year civil war period and his Right opportunist errors in the early stage of the War of Resistance.

and the Central Committee’s line was erroneous. To make a concrete analysis of concrete problems is the soul of Marxism-Leninism. Many comrades like to make summaries but do not like to analyze problems. Synthesis is the result of analysis, and analysis is the means of synthesis. Unified things must undergo analysis—discovering problems, exposing problems, analyzing problems—only then can correct conclusions be reached. Our aim is to expose errors in line while also protecting comrades; we must not deviate from this orientation. At the Luochuan Conference, I raised the point that after the War of Resistance began, the main danger would be Right deviation, but no one understood it. In a revolution, when the bourgeoisie adopts a policy of violence, the revolutionary ranks are prone to produce “Left” opportunism; when the bourgeoisie adopts a policy of reform, the revolutionary ranks are prone to produce Right opportunism. Chiang Kai-shek is vigilant, resolute, and clear-cut in the face of his class enemies; every Communist Party member should learn from this. He is a class politician. During the Great Revolution, the key to our first failure was the Second National Congress of the Kuomintang. At that time, I advocated counterattack, because we had one-third, the Left wing had one-third, and the others had one-third, and the Left wing was very much in favor, but in the end we voluntarily retreated. In the *History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks)*, the term “line” is rarely mentioned, but Chinese comrades like to chew on these two characters; henceforth, it would be better to use them less.