Speech at the Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee’s Seventh Plenum of the Communist Party of China[1]

(February 18, 1945)

Since September of last year, every round of negotiations has been beneficial to us, especially this one, because each round isolates the diehards further. The situation of the Kuomintang army is now different from before; not only the miscellaneous troops but also the Central Army have begun to change. I believe the policy for negotiations is correct. When Hurley came, we convened a Central Committee meeting, and we still adhere to those five guiding principles. Both the Kuomintang and Hurley want us to jump into the water cheaply or at no cost; we have resisted these things. Now they want to ensnare our army again, and we have resisted that as well. We have put forward the Eight-Point Proposal and the proposal for a multiparty conference; this is a principled compromise. Deviating a bit to the "left" or a bit to the right (uncompromising or unprincipled compromise) would both be dangerous.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech at the plenary session of the Sixth Central Committee’s Seventh Plenum after hearing Zhou Enlai’s report on the negotiations with the Kuomintang.