New China News Agency Reporter
Discusses the Current Situation
The Danger of Civil War Has Never Been More
Serious
(July 22, 1945)
(New China News Agency, Yan’an, July 22) The New China News Agency
reporter publishes his commentary on the current situation. The New China
Agency reporter said: In the past half a year, the political situation in China has
been pushed to the brink of civil war by the policy of [U.S. ambassador Patrick]
Hurley and Chiang Kaishek. The dark situation in China, like that in Greece,
threatens the people of all China and threatens the War of Resistance Against
Japan and international peace. This dangerous situation raises a serious task for
the people in China’s liberated areas, for all the democratic parties and groups
and people from all walks of life in the regions ruled by the Guomindang, as well
as for the tripartite alliance among Britain, the United States, and the Soviet
Union. This task is to rectify the Hurley–Chiang Kaishek policy and to check the
crisis of civil war. Everyone understands that in order to defeat the Japanese
invaders and build international peace, we should never allow a civil war in
China and never allow the Hurley–Chiang Kaishek policy to continue without
being curbed. Encouraged by Hurley, Chiang Kaishek announced on January 1
and March 1 a plan which is, in essence, a plan to prepare for a civil war. This
plan adopts the form of holding a National Assembly and “returning political
power to the people.” Although this plan has met with some obstacles, and the
method of the “National Assembly” had to be revised slightly at the National

Political Council, the crisis of a civil war still continues to develop. With regard
to the Hurley–Chiang Kaishek reactionary plan, the Chinese Communist Party
expressed its stand of resolute objection from the very beginning. The other
democratic parties, including the democratic faction within the Guomindang
itself, also expressed their attitude of opposition. On the eve of the convocation of
this Political Council, the Chinese Communist Party announced that it will not
send any representatives to attend. This action gave courage to many
representatives from the democratic faction to oppose the “National” Assembly
from within and outside the Political Council. During their stay in Yan’an, the
Communist authority exchanged views with Zhu Fucheng, Huang Yanpei,1 and
others of the six members of the Political Council. We expressed the same
attitude. The Political Council lasted for two weeks and was over on the
twentieth. The theme of the entire meeting was the issue of the National
Assembly. In several heated debates, the dictatorial faction and the democratic
faction each expressed their own stance. On the nineteenth, a resolution was
passed. The New China News Agency reporter points out that this resolution
contains some compromise, but does not change the reactionary plan of the
Guomindang. This resolution mentions four issues: (1) the date of the National
Assembly; (2) the representative character of the National Assembly; (3) the
official powers of the National Assembly; and (4) some democratic demands. In
terms of the date, the resolution said: “The representatives at this conference
cannot reach an agreement; hence, this conference will not propose a specific
opinion and will leave it to the government to decide after considering the
situation.” In the eyes of the reactionaries, the “date” is not an issue that concerns
merely the “prestige of the government.” Instead, it is an issue of dictatorship and
civil war. They are determined to maintain one-party rule, or dictatorship, and
they do not allow the National Political Council, in which non-Guomindang
delegates participated, to make the decision on the date of the National
Assembly.
On the issue of a civil war, every military arrangement of the Guomindang
reactionaries is aimed at the specific objective of “regaining lost territory” in the
Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and in all liberated areas behind enemy
lines and eliminating the Chinese Communist Party. As far as civil war is
concerned, they can still fight one without the National Assembly, but they can

fight it even better with the National Assembly. The date “should be decided by
the government after consideration of the situation.” What kind of situation will
they consider? Of course, they will consider the most favorable opportunity to
preserve the Guomindang dictatorship. In particular, they will consider the
opportunity for starting a large-scale civil war. It must be said that this point had
some positive significance in that in a roundabout way, it did not recognize
November 12 as the confirmed date to hold the National Assembly. That is, the
National Assembly, a magic weapon that threatens the people, is still in the
hands of the dictator. He can use it at any time, but to cope with firm opposition
from the people, the date may be changed somewhat. The political situation in
China has developed to the following situation: If the Chinese dictator is trying
hard to “return political power to the people,” the earlier the better. But the
Chinese people are resolutely opposing it. This seems strange and funny, but in
reality it shows the unprecedented new environment in which the Chinese
dictator and the Chinese people live. This could not have happened during the
early and middle periods of World War II and China’s War of Resistance Against
Japan, because at that time the Chinese dictatorial system had still not suffered a
crisis as serious as this one, because a democratic force as strong as this one
among the Chinese people still did not exist, and because the international
environment was not as advantageous to the struggle for the liberation of the
Chinese people as it is today. The resolution of the Political Council on July 19
did not approve the dictator’s reactionary plan to hold the National Assembly
this year and “return political power to the people.” For the dictator, it did not
hurt the dictatorial system at all. For the people, it did not increase their rights in
the very least. We must remember: The magic weapon of the “National”
Assembly is still in the hands of the dictator. Moreover, even without the
“National” Assembly, they can still start a civil war. The Chinese people
absolutely must not be negligent or careless in the least. The Chinese dictatorial
faction is very sly. They are good at playing tricks in politics and at
organizing sudden attacks on the people. The Chinese people, and, above all,
the democratic parties, must pay special attention to the next step of this
group. The New China News Agency reporter has said: Because the second
article of the resolution by the Political Council is very vague, the
reactionary faction can take advantage of it. This article said: “As regards

the representatives of the National Assembly, we ask the government to
make proper decisions according to the proposals of the representatives at
this conference after weighing the law and the facts, so that the National
Assembly will be completely representative.” The “government” referred to
here is the government of the dictatorial faction. The “law” referred to here
is the law of the dictatorial faction. Now they are writing the resolution, and
in the future they will “weigh” the results as a whole. The result cannot be
anything but to force the people to accept the continual legitimacy of the
whole bunch of “representatives” of the National Assembly from ten years
ago. The dictatorial faction will also “weigh” the “facts,” but the result will
not be anything else but “electing” or sending more people. In this way, they
can boast that it is already “highly representative.”
Nonetheless, the Chinese people and the democratic parties should look at
it this way. The “government” must be a nationally unified, democratic
coalition government made up of representatives of all the political parties
and nonpartisans. We oppose any “National” Assembly put together by the
present Guomindang dictatorship. The “laws” must be drafted anew by the
coalition government. We oppose any reactionary representative laws or
organizational laws of the National Assembly, and so on that are drafted by
the Guomindang dictatorship. The “facts” are that the so-called
representatives of the National Assembly from ten years ago were
fraudulently elected by the Guomindang alone, so we must completely
negate them. During the entire period before the enemy is totally wiped out,
the national territory is completely liberated, and the people have absolute
freedom, we must not allow the election of representatives to the National
Assembly. Only after all the old representatives are negated, and when new
elections of new representatives are held with all the necessary conditions,
can we say that it is “highly representative.” We agree absolutely with the
words “highly representative.” From now on, whoever wants to convene a
“National” Assembly that does not have any representative character or is
not highly representative will suffer resolute opposition. Article 3 states:
“When the constitution is formulated, it must be carried out immediately, so
that the aim of the government to return political power to the people will
be realized as early as possible.” This article shows that the Guomindang

dictatorial faction still insists on this reactionary plan. They have always
called for “making and promulgating” the constitution and opposed
“implementing” it, but now they are singing a beautiful tune of
“implementing it as soon as possible.” What do they mean? They mean to
“elect” the big president, imitating Yuan Shikai in becoming the emperor.
Today’s dictatorial faction or monarchists in China need this very much.
They are anxious to suppress the people and start a civil war with a
monarchy (a big president) to maintain their reactionary rule. Article 4 lists
several demands. One is “adopting possible political procedures.” The
dictatorial faction is sure to play some new tricks with this article. They will
continue to shut out and refuse the demands of the democrats to hold a
conference of political parties, eliminate one-party dictatorship, and set up a
coalition government. The word “legal” was added to the second point,
guaranteeing the freedom of the people. The words “according to the law”
were added to the third point, to recognize all political parties. In the eyes of
the dictator, everything is well. The fourth point, “the establishment of
publicly elected institutions at various levels in all the provinces,” is also
what the dictatorial faction wants because the “publicly elected” is, in fact,
party elected. With these institutions, the throne of the dictator will be more
secure. To summarize all the points in Article 4, the dictator will not lose
anything. Only one point has meaning, which is requiring that these
measures be carried out “before the meeting of the National Assembly.” This
shows that the National Assembly is unlikely to be held this year. In his
summary, the New China News Agency reporter concludes: There is not the
slightest change in the dictatorial system, and the danger of civil war is
more serious than ever. Now all the hard facts, including the military
operations around the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, prove that
the Guomindang reactionary clique is preparing earlier and more actively to
start an extremely large-scale civil war in order to assist the Japanese
invaders. The decisions on the National Assembly by the National Political
Council will not change this dangerous situation. The New China News
Agency reporter said that only three conditions can change the political
situation in China. First, the army and people in the liberated areas must
unite as one, firmly expand the liberated areas and reduce the lost territory,

and resolutely check the civil war. Second, the people’s democratic force in
the Guomindang-occupied territory must unite as one to firmly oppose civil
war. Third, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union must unite
as one on the issue of the East and oppose the civil war in China. The
Chinese people should work hard to achieve these three conditions and to
oppose the danger of a civil war.
Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong xinwen gongzuo wenxuan, pp. 339–44, where it is reproduced
from the original of the revised document preserved in the Central Archives. Text in boldface added by Mao.
1. Zhu Fucheng (1873–1948) was a democratic figure who had been active in the Revolutionary Alliance
and the Xinhai Revolution. In September 1945 he helped form the September Third Study Society, a small
democratic party. Huang Yanpei (1878–1965) was a Chinese educator, industrialist, politician, and a founder
of the China Democratic League in 1944.