The complete list of war criminals is yet to be proposed by all sectors of the nation based on actual circumstances.

However, nationally notorious arch war criminals—such as Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren, Chen Cheng, Bai Chongxi, He Yingqin, Gu Zhutong, Chen Guofu, Chen Lifu, Kong Xiangxi, Song Ziwen, Zhang Qun, Weng Wenhao, Sun Ke, Wu Tiecheng, Wang Yunwu, Dai Chuanxian, Wu Dingchang, Xiong Shihui, Zhang Lisheng, Zhu Jiahua, Wang Shijie, Gu Weijun, Song Meiling, Wu Guozhen, Liu Zhi, Cheng Qian, Xue Yue, Wei Lihuang, Yu Hanmou, Hu Zongnan, Fu Zuoyi, Yan Xishan, Zhou Zhirou, Wang Shuming, Gui Yongqing, Du Yuming, Tang Enbo, Sun Liren, Ma Hongkui, Ma Bufang, Tao Xisheng, Zeng Qi, Zhang Junmai, and others—are guilty of heinous crimes, and all the people say they should be put to death.

Those who should be included in the list of arch war criminals naturally number more than these; this should be proposed as appropriate by the people everywhere who have suffered the scourge of war.

The People's Liberation Army has the first right to propose such a list.

For example, Huang Wei, commander of the Kuomintang's 12th Corps, used poison gas in combat, which fully qualifies him as a war criminal.

All democratic parties and people's organizations nationwide have the right to discuss and propose lists of war criminals.

The Chinese people are about to win final victory in the great War of Liberation—a point that now even our enemies no longer doubt.

The war has traveled a tortuous path.

When the Kuomintang reactionary government launched its counterrevolutionary war, the number of its troops was roughly three and a half times that of the People's Liberation Army; its military equipment and the resources of manpower and materiel far exceeded those of the People's Liberation Army; it possessed modern industry and modern means of transport that the People's Liberation Army lacked; it received massive military and economic aid from American imperialism; and it had made long-term preparations.

Precisely because of this, the first year of the war (July 1946 to June 1947) was marked by the Kuomintang's offensive and the People's Liberation Army's defense.

In 1946, the Kuomintang occupied Shenyang, Siping, Changchun, Jilin, Andong, and other cities in the Northeast, along with most of Liaoning, Liaobei, Andong, and other provinces; south of the Yellow River, it occupied Huaiyin, Heze, and other cities, and most of the Hubei-Henan-Anhui, Jiangsu-Anhui, Henan-Anhui-Jiangsu, and southwestern Shandong liberated areas; north of the Great Wall, it occupied Chengde, Jining, Zhangjiakou, and other cities, and most of Rehe, Suiyuan, and Chahar—blustering and swaggering as if it were invincible.

The People's Liberation Army adopted the correct strategic principle of focusing primarily on annihilating the Kuomintang's effective strength rather than on holding territory, destroying on average about eight brigades (equivalent to present-day divisions) of Kuomintang regular forces per month, and finally compelled the Kuomintang to abandon its plan for an all-out offensive and, in the first half of 1947, to restrict the focus of its offensive to the two flanks of the southern front, namely Shandong and northern Shaanxi.

In the second year of the war (July 1947 to June 1948), a fundamental change occurred.

Having already wiped out large numbers of Kuomintang regular forces, the People's Liberation Army shifted from defense to offense on both the southern and northern fronts, while the Kuomintang side was forced to shift from offense to defense.

The People's Liberation Army not only recovered most of the lost territory in the Northeast, Shandong, and northern Shaanxi but also extended the battle lines into Kuomintang-controlled areas north of the Yangtze River and the Wei River.

At the same time, in operations to capture cities such as Shijiazhuang, Yuncheng, Siping, Luoyang, Yichuan, Baoji, Weixian, Linfen, and Kaifeng, it learned the tactics of storming fortified positions.

The People's Liberation Army formed its own artillery and engineer corps.

It must not be forgotten that the People's Liberation Army had no airplanes or tanks, but once it had built up artillery and engineer forces surpassing those of the Kuomintang army, the Kuomintang's defensive system, along with its airplanes and tanks, appeared insignificant.

The People's Liberation Army became capable not only of mobile warfare but also of positional warfare.

In the first half of the third year of the war (July to November 1948), another fundamental change occurred.

The People's Liberation Army shifted from a long-term numerical disadvantage to an advantage.

It became capable not only of capturing Kuomintang cities with strong fortifications but also of encircling and annihilating in a single operation powerful, crack Kuomintang corps of tens or even hundreds of thousands of men.

The speed at which the People's Liberation Army annihilated Kuomintang forces greatly increased.

Consider the statistics on the destruction of enemy regular forces at the battalion level and above (including enemy troops that rose in revolt): in the first year, 97 brigades, including 46 whole brigades; in the second year, 94 brigades, including 50 whole brigades; in the first half of the third year, according to incomplete statistics, 147 divisions, including 111 whole divisions.

The number of whole enemy divisions destroyed in half a year exceeded the total number of whole enemy divisions destroyed in the previous two years by 15.

The enemy's strategic battle lines have completely collapsed.

The enemy in the Northeast has been completely wiped out; the enemy in North China is about to be completely wiped out; only a remnant of the enemy remains in East China and the Central Plains.

The destruction of the Kuomintang's main forces north of the Yangtze River has greatly facilitated the People's Liberation Army's future operations to cross the Yangtze, advance south, and liberate all of China.

Alongside the victories on the military front, the Chinese people have also won great victories on the political and economic fronts.

Because of this, the victory of the Chinese People's War of Liberation on a nationwide scale is now entirely beyond dispute in world opinion, including all imperialist newspapers. The enemy will not eliminate itself.

Neither the Chinese reactionaries nor the aggressive forces of American imperialism in China will voluntarily withdraw from the stage of history.

Precisely because they see that the victory of the Chinese People's War of Liberation on a nationwide scale can no longer be prevented by purely military means, they are placing increasing emphasis day by day on methods of political struggle.

The Chinese reactionaries and the American aggressors are now, on the one hand, using the existing Kuomintang government to carry out "peace" intrigues, and on the other hand, they are scheming to use certain individuals who have ties both with the Chinese reactionaries and the American aggressors and with the revolutionary camp, to instigate and incite them, urging them to work hard to infiltrate the revolutionary camp and form a so-called opposition faction within it, in order to preserve reactionary forces and undermine revolutionary forces.

According to reliable intelligence, the U.S. government has already decided on such a conspiratorial plan and has begun to carry out this work in China.

The policy of the U.S. government has shifted from simply supporting the Kuomintang's counterrevolutionary war to a two-pronged struggle: first, organizing the Kuomintang's remaining military forces and so-called local forces to continue resisting the People's Liberation Army in remote provinces south of the Yangtze River and in border regions; second, organizing an opposition faction within the revolutionary camp to do its utmost to halt the revolution at this point; if it must advance further, it should take on a moderate hue and must by no means encroach too much on the interests of imperialism and its lackeys.

The British and French imperialists are supporters of this U.S. policy.

Many people have not yet seen this situation clearly, but it probably will not be long before they can see it clearly.

The question now confronting the Chinese people, all democratic parties, and all people's organizations is: should the revolution be carried through to the end, or should it be abandoned halfway?

If the revolution is to be carried through to the end, then revolutionary methods must be used to completely, thoroughly, cleanly, and totally eliminate all reactionary forces; to unswervingly persist in overthrowing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism; to overthrow the Kuomintang's reactionary rule nationwide; to establish nationwide a people's democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat and based on the worker-peasant alliance; to bring about a great reversal for the Chinese nation, transforming it from a semi-colony into a truly independent state; to bring about a great liberation for the Chinese people, casting off the oppression of feudalism and bureaucrat-capital (i.e., China's monopoly capital) from their heads, and thereby heal their wounds and create the prerequisites for transforming from an agricultural country into an industrial one, and create the possibility of transitioning from a society where man exploits man to a socialist society.

If the revolution is to be abandoned halfway, that would mean going against the will of the people, accepting the will of the foreign aggressors and the Chinese reactionaries, allowing the Kuomintang to heal its wounds, and then one morning pouncing suddenly to strangle the revolution and return the whole country to a dark world.

The question now is one that is posed with such clarity and such sharpness.

Which of the two roads should be chosen?

Every democratic party and every people's organization in China must consider this question, must choose the road it will take, and must make its attitude clear.

Whether China's democratic parties and people's organizations can cooperate sincerely and not break up halfway depends on whether they can reach a unanimous view on this question and whether they can take united steps to overthrow the common enemy of the Chinese people.

What is needed here is unity and cooperation, not the establishment of any "opposition faction" or any "middle road."

Who are the enemies the Chinese people oppose today?

As everyone knows, they are none other than the reactionaries headed by Chiang Kai-shek, Li Zongren, Chen Cheng, He Yingqin, Gu Zhutong, Chen Guofu, Chen Lifu, Kong Xiangxi, Song Ziwen, Zhang Qun, Weng Wenhao, Sun Ke, Wu Tiecheng, Wang Yunwu, Dai Chuanxian, Wu Dingchang, Xiong Shihui, Zhang Lisheng, Zhu Jiahua, Wang Shijie, Gu Weijun, Song Meiling, Wu Guozhen, Liu Zhi, Cheng Qian, Xue Yue, Wei Lihuang, Yu Hanmou, Hu Zongnan, Fu Zuoyi, Yan Xishan, Zhou Zhirou, Wang Shuming, Gui Yongqing, Du Yuming, Tang Enbo, Sun Liren, Ma Hongkui, Ma Bufang, Tao Xisheng, Zeng Qi, Zhang Junmai, and others—all of them Chinese reactionaries headed by these utterly evil men. Over the long years of more than two decades, from the counterrevolutionary coup of April 12, 1927, to the present, has it not been proven that they are a gang of blood-soaked, ruthless executioners who kill without blinking?

Has it not been proven that they are a gang of professional imperialist lackeys and traitors to the nation?

Let everyone think back: from the Xi'an Incident in December 1936, from the Chongqing negotiations in October 1945 and the Political Consultative Conference in January 1946, how much the Chinese people have done for this gang of bandits with the utmost kindness and forbearance, hoping that they would establish domestic peace.

But did all these good-faith wishes change one iota, one whit, one fraction of their class nature?

The history of these bandits cannot be separated in any instance from American imperialism.

Relying on American imperialism, they plunged 475 million compatriots into an unprecedentedly brutal civil war; using bombers, fighter planes, artillery, tanks, bazookas, automatic rifles, gasoline bombs, poison gas bombs, and other lethal weapons supplied by American imperialism, they slaughtered millions of men, women, young and old; and American imperialism, relying on them, plundered China's territorial rights, maritime rights, air rights, inland navigation rights, commercial privileges, and privileges in internal and foreign affairs, down to the privilege of beating people to death and raping women without facing any punishment.

Should the Chinese people, who have been forced to fight such a prolonged bloody war, still show affection and tenderness toward these utterly vicious enemies, rather than thoroughly eliminating and expelling them?

Only by thoroughly eliminating the Chinese reactionaries and driving the aggressive forces of American imperialism out of China can China have independence, democracy, and peace—is this truth still not clear?

The enemy is now trying hard to appear harmless and pitiful (let the reader remember, this pitiful appearance will be put on again in the future).

Sun Ke, who recently became president of the Kuomintang's Executive Yuan, did he not declare last June that "on the military front, as long as we fight to the end, it can ultimately be resolved"?

Yet as soon as he took office this time, he has been talking profusely about "honorable peace," saying things like "the government has striven to pursue peace; because peace could not be realized, it had no choice but to use force, and the ultimate aim of using force is still to restore peace."

A United Press dispatch from Shanghai on December 21 immediately predicted that Sun Ke's statement "will meet with the widest acclaim among U.S. official circles and Kuomintang liberals."

U.S. official circles are now not only enthusiastic about China's "peace" but have repeatedly stated that ever since the Moscow Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the Soviet Union, the United States, and Britain in December 1945, the United States has adhered to a policy of "non-interference in China's internal affairs."

How should we deal with these gentlemen from the Land of Gentlemen?

Here an ancient Greek fable applies: "A farmer saw a snake stiff with cold in winter. Taking pity on it, he picked it up and placed it against his chest. Warmed by the heat, the snake revived, and once it recovered its nature, it bit its benefactor, inflicting a fatal wound. As the farmer lay dying, he said: I pitied a wicked creature and deserve this evil reward!"

The poisonous snakes, foreign and Chinese, hoped that the Chinese people would die like this peasant, and that the Communist Party of China and all the revolutionary democrats in China would, like this peasant, harbour kind-hearted feelings towards poisonous snakes.

But the Chinese people, the Communist Party of China and the genuine revolutionary democrats in China heard and remembered this labourer’s testament.

Moreover, the big snakes and small snakes, black snakes and white snakes, snakes that bare their poisonous fangs and snakes that transform themselves into beautiful women, though already sensing the threat of winter, have not yet frozen stiff, even though they are entrenched over a large part of China’s territory!

The Chinese people will never take pity on snake-like evildoers, and they honestly believe that those who put on airs and talk about how we should take pity on such evildoers, or else it would not accord with the national conditions or be great enough, are by no means loyal friends of the Chinese people.

Why should snake-like evildoers be pitied?

Which worker, which peasant, which soldier advocates pitying such evildoers?

Indeed, there is a certain kind of “liberal-minded members of the Kuomintang” or non-Kuomintang “liberal-minded persons” who advise the Chinese people to accept the “peace” of the United States and the Kuomintang, that is to say, they should enshrine the remnants of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism as sacred objects, lest these precious things become extinct in the world.

But they are by no means workers, peasants or soldiers, nor are they friends of the workers, peasants and soldiers.

We hold that the revolutionary camp of the Chinese people must be expanded and must accommodate all those who are willing to join in the present revolutionary cause.

The revolutionary cause of the Chinese people needs a main force, but it also needs allies; an army without allies cannot defeat the enemy.

The Chinese people, now in the midst of a revolutionary upsurge, need their own friends and should remember their friends and not forget them.

Friends loyal to the people’s revolutionary cause, friends who strive to protect the interests of the people and oppose protecting the interests of the enemy, are undoubtedly not few in China, and undoubtedly not a single one should be forgotten or treated coldly.

We also hold that the revolutionary camp of the Chinese people must be consolidated, must not tolerate the intrusion of bad elements, and must not allow erroneous propositions to prevail.

In the midst of the revolutionary upsurge, the Chinese people, besides remembering their friends, should also firmly remember their enemies and the friends of their enemies.

As stated above, since the enemy is now scheming to use the method of “peace” and the method of infiltrating the revolutionary camp to preserve and strengthen their positions, while the fundamental interests of the people demand the thorough elimination of all reactionary forces and the expulsion of the aggressive forces of U.S. imperialism from China, then all those who persuade the people to take pity on the enemy and preserve the reactionary forces are not friends of the people, but friends of the enemy.

The surging tide of the Chinese revolution is compelling all social strata to decide their attitudes.

A new change is taking place in the balance of class forces in China. Large masses of the people are breaking away from the influence and control of the Kuomintang and coming over to the side of the revolutionary camp, leaving the Chinese reactionaries completely isolated and helpless.

As the People’s War of Liberation draws ever closer to final victory, all revolutionary people and all friends of the people will unite ever more firmly and, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, resolutely advocate the thorough elimination of the reactionary forces and the thorough development of the revolutionary forces, until a people’s democratic republic is established throughout China and a unified democratic peace is achieved.

In contrast, the U.S. imperialists, the Chinese reactionaries and their friends, though unable to unite firmly and though they will endlessly quarrel among themselves, revile each other, blame each other and abandon each other, will nevertheless cooperate on one point: using every possible method to try to undermine the revolutionary forces and preserve the reactionary forces.

They will use every method: open and secret, direct and devious.

But it can be asserted that their political schemes will meet with the same failure as their military offensives.

The Chinese people, with their ample experience, and their general staff, the Communist Party of China, will surely smash the enemy’s political schemes just as they have smashed the enemy’s military offensives, and carry the great People’s War of Liberation through to the end.

In 1949, the People’s Liberation Army will advance south of the Yangtze River and will win still greater victories than in 1948.

In 1949, we will achieve still greater successes on the economic front than in 1948. Our agricultural and industrial production will rise to a higher level than before, and railway and highway communications will be fully restored. The operations of the main formations of the People’s Liberation Army will shed the vestiges of guerrilla warfare that still exist and enter a higher degree of regularization. In 1949, a Political Consultative Conference will be convened, with no participation by reactionary elements, to fulfil the tasks of the people’s revolution, proclaim the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and form the central government of the republic. This government will be a democratic coalition government under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with appropriate representatives from all democratic parties and people’s organizations.

These are the main concrete tasks which the Chinese people, the Communist Party of China, and all democratic parties and people’s organizations in China should strive to fulfil in 1949.

We shall fear no difficulties and unite as one to fulfil these tasks.

The feudal oppression lasting several thousand years and the imperialist oppression lasting a hundred years will be thoroughly overthrown through our struggles.

The year 1949 is an extremely important year, and we should redouble our efforts.

(From a New China News Agency dispatch, Northern Shensi, December 30)