There Is a Need for and a Possibility of
Coordination Between the Guomindang
and the Communist Party
(February 4, 1944)
Comrade [Dong] Biwu:1
We have taken note of your telegram of the 31st. After reviewing this year’s
overall situation, there is a need for and a possibility of coordination between the
Guomindang and the Communist Party. The opportune moment for such
coordination will be the second half of this year or the first half of next year. But
we should do some preparatory work during the first half of this year. In addition
to having the Yan’an newspapers do their utmost to avoid irritating the
Guomindang and our ordering all base areas to act with caution and to try their
best to avoid starting disputes, we also plan first to send [Lin] Boqu to
Chongqing in late spring or early summer. [Zhou] Enlai is preparing to go to
Chongqing in the second half of this year. Last month during his meeting with
me, Staff Officer Guo requested that Lin [Boqu],2 Zhu [De],3 and Zhou [Enlai] go
to Chongqing. I answered that Lin and Zhou could go to Chongqing at different
times. Guo then raised two issues: first, He [Yingqin]’s4 and Bai [Chongxi]’s5
telegram of the 19th; second, military affairs in the Northwest. I replied that
negotiations would be based on He and Bai’s telegram, and that when the time
comes for the counteroffensive, we will send a proportionate number of soldiers
from Hu Zongnan’s6 troops and from our border region troops to march to the
front. I also told Guo that our Party’s two principles of supporting Chiang
[Kaishek] to fight the War of Resistance and supporting Chiang [Kaishek] to

build our country will never change. According to other sources, there is a rumor
saying that the Investigation and Statistics Bureau said that it had permission
from Yan’an to send a branch of the Central News Agency to Yan’an and that it
would arrive in Yan’an in a few days. This is entirely their own idea. If you are
asked about this, you can deny it. Today there will be another telegram replying
to you regarding [Lin] Boqu’s going to Chongqing.
Mao Zedong
noon on February 4
Notes
Our source for this document is Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi, ed., Wenxian he yanjiu, 1985
huibian ben, p. 175.
1. Dong Biwu was at this time working in the Liaison Office of the Eighth Route Army in Chongqing. He
was also a member of the People’s Political Council. See above, note to the text of July 21, 1943, and note to
the text of January 15, 1940, in Vol. VII, p. 370.
2. On Lin Boqu, see above, note to the text of September 15, 1942.
3. Zhu De was at this time the commander-in-chief of the Eighth Route Army.
4. For He Yingqin, see above, note to the text of October 5, 1943, “Comment on the Eleventh Plenary
Session”; he was at this time the chief of the General Staff of the Military Commission of the Guomindang
government.
5. For Bai Chongxi, see above, note to the text of October 5, 1943, “Comment on the Eleventh Plenary
Session”; he was at this time the vice chief of the General Staff of the Military Commission of the
Guomindang government.
6. For Hu Zongnan, see above, note to the text of February 20, 1942; he was at this time the commanderin-chief of the Thirty-fourth Group Army of the First War Zone of the Guomindang army.