To All Strategic Regions[1]

(July 22, 1944)

It is reported that there are four million followers of the Catholic Church nationwide, one and a half million in North China, and two hundred twenty thousand in Suiyuan. This is a major issue. Both the Japanese and the Kuomintang are contending for the faithful. Our Party must pay attention to this; winning over the faithful is a task our Party must not neglect.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, requesting investigations and telegraphic reports on the distribution of Catholic and Protestant followers in the anti-Japanese base areas and guerrilla zones, as well as their performance during the War of Resistance and their attitudes toward the Chinese Communist Party.