Eleven Points Regarding the Negotiations
with the Guomindang
 (August 30, 1945)
To Liu [Shaoqi], and for transmission to the Central Committee:
I am making known, via telegram, eleven points that Zhou [Enlai] will submit
orally1 on the fourth [of September] to four representatives of the Guomindang,
Zhang [Qun], Zhang [Zhizhong], Wang [Shijie], and Shao [Lizi].2 They are as
follows:
	 1.	 Realize the unity of the whole country based on peace, democracy, and unity;
establish an independent, free, rich, and powerful new China, and thoroughly
implement the Three People’s Principles.
	 2.	 Support Mr. Chiang [Kaishek] and recognize Mr. Chiang’s position of leadership in the whole country.
	 3.	 Acknowledge the equal and legal status of the two parties, the Guomindang
and the Communist Party, as well as all democratic parties that resisted the
Japanese, and establish an orientation of long-term cooperation and peaceful
reconstruction of the country.
	 4.	 Acknowledge the contributions and the legality of the army and the local
governments in the Liberated Areas during the War of Resistance Against
Japan.
	 5.	 Harshly punish Chinese traitors and disband the puppet army.
	 6.	 Re-draw the district boundaries in the surrendered area and participate in
accepting the surrender.
	 7.	 End all armed clashes; each unit should remain where it is for now and await
further orders.
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 20–22, where it is reproduced
from the original manuscript preserved in the Central Archives.
	 8.	 During the process of ending partisan politics, rapidly adopt essential measures leading to the democratization of politics, the nationalization of the
army, and steps toward the equalization and legitimization of the political
parties.
	 9.	 The essential measures for democratizing politics:
	a.
Let the Nationalist Government hold a political conference to consult
party and nonparty representatives on affairs of state and to discuss
various issues, including the broad outline for uniting to reconstruct the
country, the principles of democratic administration, the participation
of the various parties in the government, the reelection of the National
Assembly, demobilization, and dealing with the aftermath of the War of
Resistance.
	b.
Establish a provincial system and trust the local governments. In establishing provincial governments in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border
Region and the provinces of Rehe, Chahar, Hebei, Shandong, and
Shanxi, please appoint persons selected by the Central Committee of
the Chinese Communist Party to be chairmen and commissioners and
organize the provincial governments. In other provinces, including
Suiyuan, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and all
the Northeastern provinces, as well as the four special cities of Beiping,
Tianjin, Qingdao, and Shanghai, please appoint persons selected by
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to be the vicechairmen, vice-mayors, and commissioners.
	c.
Vigorously carry out policies of local self-government and general
elections from bottom to top.
	d.
Establish a nationwide amnesty.
	e.
Carry out emergency relief.
	10.	 The essential measures for nationalizing the army:
	a.
Develop a plan for impartially and rationally reorganizing by stages the
standing armies nationwide. The regular army in the Liberated Areas
has reached 1,200,000 troops. They will also be gradually reorganized
into sixteen armies and forty-eight divisions.
	b.
Re-divide the military regions and establish a system of conscription
and recruitment. The aforementioned sixteen armies should be garrisoned in the Huai River valley and the areas north of the Longhai
railway.
	c.
Safeguard the personnel system by appointing former military personnel as officers at all levels in the aforementioned reorganized armies.
	d.
Military personnel from the Central Committee of the Chinese
Communist Party as well as from the localities shall participate in the
work of the Military Affairs Commission and of all relevant departments.
	e.
Establish a Beiping Field Headquarters and a Northern China Political
Committee. Appoint someone from the Chinese Communist Party as
director.

	f.
Reserve officers shall receive readiness training from regional facilities.
	g.
All militia in the Liberated Areas will be organized into local selfdefense corps.
	h.
Set up a fair and reasonable supply system.
	i.
Establish a political education plan.
	11.	 The essential measures for equalizing and legitimizing the political parties:
	a.
Release political prisoners.
	b.
Guarantee all kinds of freedoms. Abolish all unreasonable prohibitions.
	c.
Abolish secret agents.
Mao

--- Notes

1.  These points for the talks were drafted by Zhou Enlai. They were apparently originally to be raised with the Guomindang representatives on September 4, 1945, but were
raised in advance on September 3.

2.  Zhang Qun (1889–1990, native of Sichuan) was head of the Political Department
of the Nationalist Government’s Military Affairs Commission. Wang Shijie (1891–1981,
native of Hubei) was the head of the Nationalist Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Shao Lizi was secretary general of the Guomindang’s War Zone Party Committee under the
Military Affairs Commission.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-30