Decision to Convene the Second Session of the
Second Provincial Assembly in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region1
(July 5, 1944)
The Japanese bandits in their death throes have invaded Henan and Hunan. Chinese troops on the front lines have fallen back, and the country is in extreme peril;
the Northwest is in extreme peril. But reports of victory keep flowing in from the
battlefields behind enemy lines where the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth
Army are fighting, and every democratic base area behind enemy lines gets stronger
by the day, so these places have become the focus for the hopes of the people of
the whole country. In order to unite all our strength to fight the War of Resistance
and to prepare the counteroffensive against the enemy, we have decided to convene
the Second Session of the Second Provincial Assembly of the Border Region2 in
November of this year.
This meeting will mainly discuss the following issues:
1. Unity and democracy. The reason the anti-Japanese base areas in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region have developed and strengthened is that their reliance
on political, economic, and cultural democracy has forged together the hearts of the
people of every social class and political party. At this year’s Political Council, we
should examine the good and unsuccessful experiences, reflect the ideas of every
side, give unity and democracy more substantive content, and mobilize everyone,
old and young, male and female, together to increase our strength. Moreover, we
will use the model of the border region to
propel the people of the entire country to work together to quickly stop all
separatist and anti-democratic phenomena.
2. Military affairs. We have made some achievements in our past work in
supporting the military and the families of revolutionary fighters and martyrs as
well as in organizing the masses, but there still are flaws. From today on, we
should work harder at both tasks and devote ourselves to uniting the military and
the people as one and to turning the people of the entire county into fighters to
defeat Japanese imperialism. At the Provincial Assembly this year, we should
examine this sort of work.
3. Economic and cultural construction in the border region. The legacies that
the old society left to the border region are poverty, ignorance, and sickness. For
many years now, all the people have waged a struggle, under the leadership of
the government, against the phenomenon of poverty. This phenomenon has been
eradicated or reduced, and the lives of the people have improved substantially;
the new phenomenon of plentiful clothing and abundant food spreads farther
every day. But it is not yet universal. Especially because of the demands of the
War of Resistance and to prepare against famine, we must increase production.
We must therefore call on the people to ensure that within the next two to three
years every household has at least one year’s worth of extra grain. In order to
change the phenomenon of too many treeless mountains in the border region, we
should call on the people to plant trees. Within the next five to ten years, each
household should have planted and nurtured at least one hundred trees.
Production of every sort of industrial good in the border region has increased, but
we are not yet self-sufficient. Especially in the areas of cloth, iron, and so on, we
must strive to be totally self-sufficient within the next three years. Moreover, we
do not want mere quantity; we also want quality. In the area of struggling
against ignorance, although we have made progress in recent years, illiteracy is
not yet eradicated. We must use every effective means to encourage everyone,
male and female, young and old, to learn at least a thousand characters within
the next several years. In the struggle against sickness, we must work even harder
before we will be able to overcome the phenomenon of “sickness in the midst of
prosperity.” Within the next several years, we must attain the goal of at least one
doctor in every xiang [township], and at least one pharmacy in every qu
[district]. In sum, we should allow economic, cultural, and health campaigns that

are vigorously developing, or that have just started to develop, to take enormous
steps forward. The methods for doing this are: government operations or
operations by the people. And the most important method is people running
things with government help, calling on the people to organize every sort of
cooperative. Only if the public and private sectors cooperate and look after each
other voluntarily (any kind of coercion or assignment is forbidden), and if the
largest number of people are organized into economic, cultural, and health
cooperative movements, will we be able to complete the tasks mentioned above.
The Provincial Assembly this year should concretely discuss these tasks.
4. Elections. The Border Region Provincial Assembly should hold another
election next year. In order to further enable the people to elect to the Provincial
Assembly those whom they love and support and to allow these new council
members to better reflect the interests of the people and to decide on the plans for
the War of Resistance and building the country, at this year’s Provincial
Assembly we should discuss the regulations and system for elections.
The above four points are the most important issues that must be discussed at
this year’s Political Assembly. This joint meeting enjoins every level of
government, every council member, every level of the Political Assembly, every
anti-Japanese group, and every labor hero to engage in heated debate before this
session convenes and to prepare your opinions so as to facilitate bringing them
forth at the Political Assembly. Such discussion will be beneficial to
strengthening the unity of the War of Resistance and making resolutions about
every sort of construction in the border region. This is of the greatest importance!
Notes
1. This resolution was drafted by Mao Zedong.

--- Notes

Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 179–81, where it is reproduced from the
original preserved in the Central Archives.

2. The assembly was held from December 4 to December 19, 1944.