November 5, 1945

[This statement prepared by Comrade Mao Tse-tung was issued in the name of
the spokesman for the Communist Party of China. By this time Chiang Kai-shek
had already torn up the "October 10th Agreement", and the civil war against
the Liberated Areas was expanding daily.]


In a dispatch from Chungking, dated November 3, the United Press reported
that Wu Kuo-chen, Director of the Propaganda Department of the Kuomintang
Central Executive Committee, had declared that "the government is entirely
on the defensive in this war" and had proposed measures for "restoring
communications".[1] A Hsinhua News Agency reporter
asked the spokesman for the Communist Party of China about this.

The spokesman for the Communist Party of China replied to the reporter as
follows: What Wu Kuo-chen said about being "on the defensive" is a complete
lie. The Kuomintang, besides occupying the five Liberated Areas evacuated
by our troops in eastern Chekiang, southern Kiangsu, central and southern
Anhwei and Hunan and trampling on the people there, has moved more than seventy
divisions of its regular troops into or close to most of the other Liberated
Areas for example, those in Kwangtung, Hupeh, Honan, northern Kiangsu, northern
Anhwei, Shantung and Hopei -- and has been oppressing the people there and
attacking or preparing to attack our troops. Furthermore, scores of other
Kuomintang divisions are heading for the Liberated Areas. Can this be described
as being on the defensive? Of the eight Kuomintang divisions which reached
the Hantan area in their drive northward from Changteh, two opposed civil
war and favoured peace, while the other six (including three U.S.-equipped
divisions) were compelled to lay down their arms after the troops and people
of the Liberated Areas counter-attacked in self-defence. Many officers of
these Kuomintang troops, including war-zone deputy commanders' corps commanders
and deputy corps commanders, are now in the Liberated
Areas[2] and can confirm the whole truth about
where they came from and how they were ordered to attack. Can this, too,
be described as being on the defensive? Our troops in the Liberated Areas
in Honan and Hupeh Provinces are now completely encircled by more than twenty
Kuomintang divisions from the 1st, 5th and 6th War Zones, with Liu Chih as
field commander in charge of the "suppression of Communists". Our Liberated
Areas in western and central Honan and southern, eastern and central Hupeh
have all been invaded and occupied by the Kuomintang forces, which burned
and killed so wantonly that our troops commanded by Li Hsien-nien and Wang
Shu-sheng could find no shelter and had to seek quarters on the Honan-Hupeh
border in order to survive. But there again they have been closely pursued
and attacked by Kuomintang troops.[3] Can this,
too, be described as being on the defensive? It is the same in the three
provinces of Shansi, Suiyuan and Chahar. In early October, Yen Hsi-shan ordered
thirteen divisions to attack the Hsiangyuan-Tunliu sector in the Shangtang
Liberated Area. Fighting in self-defence, our troops and the people there
disarmed them all, and several commanders of corps and divisions were among
the captured. They are now in the Taihang Liberated Area, every one alive,
and can confirm the whole truth about where they came from and how they were
ordered to attack. In Chungking recently, Yen Hsi-shan told all sorts of
lies about how he had been attacked and how he had merely been "on the
defensive". Probably he had forgotten all about his generals: Shih Tse-po,
Commander of the 19th Corps; Kuo Jung, Commander of the Provisional 46th
Division; Chang Hung, Commander of the Provisional 48th Division; Li Pei-ying,
Commander of the 66th Division; Kuo Tien-hsing, Commander of the 68th Division
and Yang Wen-tsai, Commander of the Provisional 37th
Division.[4] They are now living in our Liberated
Areas and can refute any lies told by Wu Kuo-chen, Yen Hsi-shan and all the
other reactionary instigators of civil war. General Fu Tso-yi, under orders,
has been attacking our Liberated Areas in Suiyuan, Chahar and Jehol for over
two months and on one occasion pushed right to the gates of Changchiakou
and occupied our entire Suiyuan Liberated Area and western Chahar. Can this,
too, be described as being on the defensive and not firing "the first shot"?
Our troops and people in Chahar and Suiyuan rose in self-defence and in their
counter-attacks also captured large numbers of officers and men who can all
testify where they came from, how they attacked, and so
on.[5] In various battles of self-defence we have
captured piles of "bandit suppression" and anti-Communist documents, among
which are the Handbook on Bandit Suppression, orders for "bandit
suppression"[6] and other anti-Communist documents
issued by the highest Kuomintang authorities but dismissed as a "joke" by
Wu Kuo-chen; these are now being forwarded to Yenan. All these documents
are iron-clad proofs that Kuomintang troops have attacked the Liberated Areas.

The Hsinhua News Agency reporter went on to ask the spokesman for the Communist
Party of China about his views on the measures proposed by Wu Kuo-chen for
restoring communications. The spokesman replied: These are nothing but stalling
tactics. The Kuomintang authorities are mustering large forces and are trying
to swamp all the Liberated Areas as in a great flood. Following the failure
of several attacks in September and October, they are preparing new attacks
on an even larger scale. And one way to obstruct these attacks and effectively
check the civil war is not to let them transport their troops by rail. Like
everybody else, we advocate speedy restoration of the lines of communication,
but this can be done only after the settlement of the three problems of accepting
the Japanese surrender, disposing of the puppet troops and realizing
self-government in the Liberated Areas. Which should be settled first, the
problem of communications or these three problems? Why are the troops of
the Liberated Areas, which fought strenuously and bitterly against Japan
for eight years, not qualified to accept the Japanese surrender? And why
should other troops be put to the trouble of coming from afar to accept it?
Every citizen has the right to punish the puppet troops; why are they all
being incorporated into the "national army" and ordered to attack the Liberated
Areas? Local self-government is explicitly stipulated in the "October 10th
Agreement", and Dr. Sun Yat-sen long ago advocated the popular election of
provincial governors; why does the Kuomintang government still insist on
dispatching local officials? The problem of communications should be speedily
settled, but even more so, the three major problems should be speedily settled.
To talk of restoring communications without first settling the three major
problems can only serve to spread and prolong the civil war and help its
instigators achieve their purpose of swamping the Liberated Areas. In order
quickly to stop the anti-popular and anti-democratic civil war which has
now spread all over the country, we advocate the following:

  (1) All the Kuomintang government forces that have entered the Liberated
  Areas in northern China, northern Kiangsu, northern Anhwei, central China
  and nearby regions to accept the Japanese surrender and to attack us should
  be withdrawn immediately to their original positions; the troops of the Liberated
  Areas should accept the Japanese surrender and garrison the cities and lines
  of communication; and the Liberated Areas which have been invaded and occupied
  should be restored.


  (2) All puppet troops should be immediately disarmed and disbanded, and in
  northern China, northern Kiangsu and northern Anhwei the Liberated Areas
  should take charge of such disarming and disbanding.


  (3) The people's democratic self-government in all the Liberated Areas should
  be recognized; the Central Government should not appoint and send out local
  officials; the provisions of the "October 10th Agreement" should be carried
  out.


The spokesman said: Only in this way can civil war be averted; otherwise
there is absolutely no safeguard against it. The documents captured during
the three battles we fought in self-defence in Suiyuan, Shangtang and Hantan
and such concrete actions as massive troop movements and attacks all give
the lie to the claim of the Kuomintang authorities that the so-called restoration
of communications is for the sake of the people and not of civil war. The
Chinese people have been fooled long enough and can be fooled no longer.
At present, the central problem is for the people of the whole country to
mobilize to stop the civil war by every means.


NOTES


1. At the end of the War of Resistance Against Japan, most
of China's railways were either under the control of the army and people
of the Liberated Areas or surrounded by them. Under the pretext of "restoring
communications", the Kuomintang reactionaries tried to utilize these railways
to cut the Liberated Areas apart, transport millions of Kuomintang troops
to northeastern, northern, eastern and central China, attack the Liberated
Areas and grab the big cities.

2. In September 1945, Kuomintang troops from the region
of Chengchow and Hsinhsiang advanced along the Peiping-Hankow Railway to
attack the Shansi-Hopei-Shantung-Honan Liberated Area. In late October their
vanguard, comprising three corps, invaded the region of Tsehsien and Hantan.
The army and people of the Liberated Area rose bravely in self-defence, and
after a week's bitter fighting General Kao Shu-hsun, Deputy Commander of
the Kuomintang's 11th War Zone and concurrently Commander of the New 8th
Corps, revolted against the Kuomintang at Hantan and came over to us with
the New 8th Corps and one column, totalling over ten thousand men. The other
two corps retreated in confusion but were surrounded and disarmed. Many
high-ranking officers were compelled to surrender, including Ma Fa-wu, another
Deputy Commander of the Kuomintang's 11th War Zone concurrently Commander
of the 40th Corps, Liu Shih-jung, its Deputy Commander, Li Hsu-tung, its
Chief of Staff, Liu Shu-sen, a Deputy Division Commander.

3. After Japan's surrender the Kuomintang gathered more
than twenty divisions from three war zones to launch large-scale attacks
on the Liberated Areas in Honan and Hupeh Provinces. Part of the forces of
Hu Tsung-nan, Commander of the Kuomintang's 1st War Zone, advanced from the
northwest to the east along both sides of the Lunghai Railway to invade the
Liberated Areas in western Honan; the forces of Liu Chih, Commander of the
5th War Zone, advanced from the north to the south along both sides of the
Peiping-Hankow Railway to invade the Liberated Areas in central Honan and
central and eastern Hupeh; the forces of the 6th War Zone advanced from southern
Hupeh to the north in concert. Most of these Kuomintang forces were under
the command of Liu Chih. The people's army of the Liberated Areas in Honan
and Hupeh put up a stubborn fight against the invaders, conserved its strength
and moved in late October 1945 to an area on the Honan-Hupeh border in the
Tahung and the Tungpai Mountains and around Tsaoyang. The army later shifted
to Hsuanhuatien, east of the Peiping-Hankow Railway, because the Kuomintang
continued to pursue and attack.

4. About the Shangtang battle, see "On the Chungking
Negotiations", Note 2, p. 63 of this volume. The captured Kuomintang officers
here mentioned were all high-ranking generals in Yen Hsi-shan's army.

5. The province of Suiyuan was abolished on March 6, 1954,
and became part of the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. General Fu Tso-yi
was in 1945 Commander of the Kuomintang's 12th War Zone. His troops had been
stationed at and around Wuyuan and Linho in western Suiyuan during the War
of Resistance Against Japan. After Japan's surrender he was ordered to attack
the Liberated Areas in Suiyuan, Jehol and Chahar Provinces. In August 1945
he occupied Kueisui (now Huhehot), Chining and Fengchen. In early September
he occupied Hsingho, Shangyi, Wuchuan, Taolin, Hsintang and Liangcheng, launched
massive attacks on the Liberated Areas in Chahar and pushed to the neighbourhood
of Changchiakou. In self-defence our army repulsed these attacks and captured
large numbers of his officers and men.

6. The Handbook on Bandit Suppression was a
counter-revolutionary pamphlet compiled by Chiang Kai-shek in 1933 dealing
exclusively with methods of attacking the Chinese people's forces and the
revolutionary bases. In 1945, after the conclusion of the War of Resistance,
Chiang Kai-shek had it reprinted and issued to Kuomintang officers together
with a confidential order, saying: "The present campaign for the suppression
of the bandits, on which the happiness of the people depends, must be speedily
completed. You should urge your officers and men to do their utmost to suppress
the bandits in the spirit of the resistance against Japanese aggression and
in accordance with the Handbook on Bandit Suppression which I have
compiled. Any meritorious action in the service of the state shall be richly
rewarded, and those responsible for delays or mistakes shall be court-martialled.
This order should be made known to and obeyed by all officers and suppressing
the bandits."

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.