Conversation with John S. Service[1]

(April 4, 1945)

The policy of the Chinese Communist Party toward the United States is to seek friendly American support for achieving democracy in China and for cooperation in the war against Japan. Toward the Kuomintang, the policy remains: on the one hand, to criticize and attempt to stimulate its progress; on the other, to propose compromises that can serve as the basis for achieving genuine unity, democracy, and the concentration of all the nation’s forces on winning the war. This compromise must mean the end of Kuomintang and Chiang Kai-shek dictatorship, and it must include recognition of the Communist Party’s army as part of the national army and of the Liberated Areas’ governments as lawful local governments. Toward the Kuomintang, we will not strike the first blow or fire the first shot. However, the National Assembly that Chiang Kai-shek now plans to convene will certainly bring civil war. Once attacked, we will counter-attack. Should civil war break out in China, we hope that the United States will adopt a policy of non-intervention toward both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.

[1] This is part of the final conversation Mao Zedong, together with Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, and Dong Biwu, held with John S. Service at his residence. Service left Yan’an on April 4, 1945, having been recalled to the United States.