Speech at the First Meeting of the First Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China[1]

(June 19, 1945)

Participating in the National Assembly convened by Chiang Kai-shek is dangerous, so we refuse to participate. We have decided not to participate, placing an issue before the United States and Chiang Kai-shek, and also giving the middle-of-the-roaders material to work with. Whether this National Assembly can be convened or not, the time when Chiang Kai-shek will make up his mind is in November. The disadvantage of convening it is that everyone would be illegal; the advantage of convening it is that Chiang Kai-shek would be riding a tiger and unable to dismount, becoming the target of public criticism. Our Liberated Areas People’s Representative Conference, on the other hand, is secure and beneficial without drawbacks. It may develop in two directions: one is toward a coalition government, electing a Federation of Liberated Areas; the other is also toward a coalition government, but through a tortuous path. Establishing a Federation of Liberated Areas is a major step, and the prospect is the formation of a new-democratic government.

Comrade Wang Ming wrote me a letter, expressing complete agreement with and support for the three documents of the First Plenary Session—the session’s agenda, the division of work in the Central Committee, and the resolution on the Liberated Areas Representative Conference.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech at the first meeting of the First Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.