Talk with Dagong Bao Reporters
 (September 5, 1945)
Dagong bao published Comrade Mao Zedong’s talk on September 6. Mr. Mao
Zedong met with our reporters yesterday afternoon and made the following
statements:
In the five days since I arrived in Chongqing, I have been discussing issues of
unity with the central government. At present, we have not yet achieved concrete
results to reassure my fellow countrymen. All I can say now is that a civil war
can definitely be avoided. If we do not unify our political and military commands,
there will be no end of trouble. The unification of the political and military commands must, however, be built on a basis of democratic politics. Only a political conference consisting of representatives of the various political parties and
nonaligned individuals can begin to resolve the country’s present situation; only a
democratic and unified coalition government can bring happiness to all of China’s
people. What democracy means is that the people have power. The situation in the
border areas and the Liberated Areas is different from that in the other areas. They
have governments elected by the people, they have self-defense armies, and they
do not have watch-group heads [baojia zhang]. The watch-group heads rule over
the people and are most undesirable. The other result of the discussion is that the
National Assembly will be postponed. As for the question of delegates, the two
sides have not yet been able to reach agreement. The Communist Party is not in
favor of retaining the former delegates; in principle, we propose holding general
elections.
Finally, Mr. Mao commented on the Sino-Soviet Treaty:
This treaty is a guarantee of peace in the Far East. Some people think that it
has an unfavorable influence on our country’s democratic movement. But actually, it is just the opposite; let’s wait and see. Some others are surprised that the
Soviet Union has taken the Nationalist government as its partner, but actually,
there is nothing but the Nationalist government that can be taken as a partner.
The treaty does not, however, restrict the Soviet Union’s right to criticize Chinese
politics; public opinion can still have its own voice. Several days ago, the Soviet
Union’s Red Star newspaper published a commentary saying that China should
move toward democratic politics; it has high hopes for the union of the two parties. China has gained a strong and powerful neighbor, and we need not worry
about being invaded by other countries.
Mr. Mao expressed the hope that the discussions would soon yield results.
--- Notes

Our source for this document is Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 9, pp. 327–28, which reproduces
the text from the pamphlet Wei heping er fendou (Xinhua ribaoshe, November 1945).
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-33