On the Question of Constitutional
Government
(March 1, 1944)
Each Central Bureau, Central Subbureau, and for transmittal to each regional
Party committee:
On the question of constitutional government:
1. Compelled by domestic and international conditions and the demand of
public opinion, during the Eleventh Plenum1 the Guomindang could not but
permit implementation of a constitutional government within a year after the end
of the war. It also permitted, with various limitations, discussion of the question
of constitutional government in all places. Although its goal is to deceive the
people in order to gain more time to stabilize Guomindang rule, still, as long as
the people are permitted to discuss this, there is a possibility of gradually
breaking through the restrictions imposed by the Guomindang and advancing the
democratic movement a step forward.
2. The Central Committee has decided that our Party will participate in this
kind of constitutional movement in the hopes of attracting all possible democratic
elements to us and of achieving our goals of defeating the Japanese bandits and
building a democratic country.
3. In addition to our Party representatives attending the sessions of the
Constitutional Government Advancement Conference convened by the
Guomindang in Chongqing, Yan’an has also convened a forum on constitutional
government. Every base area may, at a suitable time, also convene forums
composed mainly of people outside the Party in order to unite these people under
the goal of genuine democracy. We should also explain our Party’s policies

regarding the constitutional movement to cadres within our Party in order to
prevent excessively leftist or rightist tendencies, and we should check on
implementation of the “Three-Thirds” system.2 We should do our best to
consolidate democratic cooperation with people outside the Party.
Politburo of the Central Committee
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 90–91, where it is reproduced from Mao
Zedong’s handwritten manuscript.

--- Notes

1. Referring to the Eleventh Plenum of the Fifth Congress of the Guomindang, held from September 6 to
13, 1943.

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