Strive to Create All Conditions for Preparing to Counter the Civil War[1]

(August 10, 1945)

With the Soviet Union’s entry into the war and Japan’s surrender, civil war is imminent. Given your position, it is impossible to seize large cities; instead, you should take advantage of the opportunity to expand your areas, seize arms, capture small cities, mobilize the masses, and prepare to counter the civil war.

[1] This is the main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, addressed to Zheng Weisan, Li Xiannian, and Chen Shaomin, with a copy to the Central China Bureau. Zheng Weisan was then Secretary of the CPC Hubei-Henan-Anhui-Hunan-Jiangxi Regional Committee. Li Xiannian was then Commander and Political Commissar of the Fifth Division of the New Fourth Army. Chen Shaomin was then Deputy Secretary of the CPC Hubei-Henan-Anhui-Hunan-Jiangxi Regional Committee.