The Current Situation and the Tasks for the
Next Six Months
(October 20, 1945, 5:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.)
To all Central Bureaus, and to be forwarded to all district Party committees and
all commanders of army units:
The next six months or so, beginning now, will be a transitional period from
the stage of resistance to Japan to the stage of peaceful reconstruction. The struggle over the next six months will be a decisive factor in determining our future
political position during the entire stage of peace. During this period, the task
of our Party in the areas occupied by the Guomindang (such as Chongqing,
Shanghai, and Beiping) will be to expand the work of the national democratic
united front; to cooperate with our vast numbers of sympathizers and those whom
we are likely to win over, both in China and abroad; to organize the broad masses;
to launch movements advocating democracy, meting out punishment to Chinese
traitors, remedying the economic crisis, extending relief to the unemployed, and
assisting people to return to their homes; and to continue to negotiate with the
government authorities on issues yet to be resolved. The central task of our Party
in the Liberated Areas will be to concentrate our forces to resist the attacks of
the diehard armies and to expand as many of the Liberated Areas as possible. To
achieve this, one thing we must do is to move a large number of army troops and
cadres to places such as the Northeast and Rehe, organize the people there and
expand the army, and stop and repel incursions there by the diehard armies. In all
the Liberated Areas you will organize powerful field armies and systematically
annihilate the diehard troops when they attack us, the more the better, and the
more neatly and thoroughly the better. This is a defensive war. We have every
reason to act like this since our position is justified and we are in a better situation.
All the work in the Liberated Areas should serve this central task. This includes a
reduction of rent for land and a reduction of interest on loans; wiping out traitorous Chinese elements; establishing a democratic government; and carrying on the
political task of dismantling the diehard puppet regime. An especially important
part of this battle for victory will be to organize the production activities of the
people in the Liberated Areas next year and to guarantee the supply of grain,
bedding, clothing, and daily necessities to both the army and the people in the
Liberated Areas. The next six months will be similar to the last six: an especially
intense period for the work of the whole Party. We hope that the leaders in each
area and the core cadres demonstrate skill in managing their own work. During
the past few months our Party has achieved great victories, but what the final
result will be depends on our efforts in the next six months. Our view is that while
the diehard faction is contending with us for North China and the Northeast (with
the support of the Americans, the Japanese, and the puppet armies), it suffers from
its own disadvantageous conditions (thin distribution of troops across vast areas,
lack of familiarity with the people and the territory, deep penetration into the
territory, isolation from the masses, logistical difficulties, structural disparities,
and so on). As long as our Party adopts a clear orientation and makes resolute
efforts, it is altogether necessary and entirely possible to triumph over and wipe
out a great part of the diehard army attacking North China and the Northeast; to
achieve an advantageous position for our Party and our army in North China and
the Northeast, thus forcing the diehard faction to acknowledge our position; and
then for the two parties to reach a compromise and create a new stage of peaceful
reconstruction. Peace, democracy, unity, and unification are the established policies of our Party. This is stipulated in the October 10 Chongqing Agreement,1 and
it is also the road the Guomindang must take. The Guomindang has, however,
been trying hard in recent months to control more territory to gain superiority in
North China and the Northeast. It has been trying hard to weaken our Party and
our army to force us into a compromise that will be favorable to them in the realization of a peaceful reconciliation. Therefore, in this current transitional stage,
large-scale and intense military struggle has broken out (we must not mistakenly
conclude from the current large-scale military struggle that civil war has already
begun). Our Party must clearly perceive the current situation, which is both unavoidable and already upon us, and we must resolutely uphold the orientation of
both uniting and struggling and of achieving the goal of unity through struggle.
We must never hesitate in the slightest in striving for victory in the current struggle, so we will then be at a greater advantage as we turn to the new stage of peaceful reconstruction. The greater our victory in the current struggle, the speedier the
realization of peace will be and the better for all the people of China. Hence, we
must make use of all the forces built up in the Liberated Areas over the years and
the forces we will continue to rapidly build up in the fighting over the next six
months to strive for a great victory in this struggle, because this is a decisive battle
for China in the new historical stage.
The Central Committee
from a copy in the Central Archives.
nese Communist Party and the Guomindang in Chongqing on October 10, 1945, which is
also known as the “Double Ten Agreement.”

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Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 40–42, where it is reproduced
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-51

--- Notes

--- Notes

1.  This refers to the summary of the conversation signed by representatives of the Chi