According to a January 16 dispatch from the Central News Agency of the Nanjing Kuomintang reactionary government: "A government spokesperson stated: In order to end the war sooner and alleviate the suffering of the people, the government has, since January, undertaken various measures and steps. On the 11th of this month, it went further and formally appointed peace negotiation representatives. In recent days, it has only been waiting for the Chinese Communist Party side to designate representatives and agree upon a location, so that discussions can proceed. However, according to a broadcast by the Xinhua News Agency from northern Shaanxi on the 15th, a spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party, while on the one hand declaring a willingness to discuss a peaceful settlement with the government, on the other hand engaged in wanton insults, with language full of perversity. Furthermore, it was stated that the location for negotiations can only be determined after the complete liberation of Beiping. May we ask, if the Chinese Communist Party side does not promptly designate representatives and agree upon a location, and does not cease military actions, but instead shifts the blame to the so-called complete liberation of Beiping, is this not delaying time and prolonging the calamity of war? It must be known that the people of the entire nation hope to eliminate the calamity of war, and this is already a matter of extreme urgency. In order to show its utmost sincerity, the government still hopes that the Chinese Communist Party will recognize that today's affairs should take saving the people as the prerequisite, and swiftly designate representatives to proceed with discussions, so that peace may be realized at an early date." Also, according to a January 16 Shanghai dispatch from the Nanjing Central News Agency: "Japanese war criminal, General Okamura Yasuji, former commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army, after a retrial by the Ministry of National Defense's military tribunal for the trial of war criminals on the 16th, was declared not guilty by Presiding Judge Shi Meiyu at 16:00 hours. The atmosphere in the court at that time was tense. After standing solemnly to hear the verdict, Okamura revealed a faint smile." And so on. Based on this, the spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party expresses the following points:

(1) Japanese war criminal General Okamura Yasuji, former commander-in-chief of the China Expeditionary Army, is the chief war criminal among all war criminals of the Japanese army of aggression in China. He has now been declared not guilty by the war crimes military tribunal of the Nanjing Kuomintang reactionary government. The Chinese Communist Party and the General Headquarters of the Chinese People's Liberation Army declare: This is not permissible. The Chinese people, in the eight-year War of Resistance Against Japan, sacrificed countless lives and property, and fortunately won the victory and captured this war criminal. It is absolutely not permissible for the Nanjing Kuomintang reactionary government to arbitrarily declare him not guilty. The people of the entire nation, all democratic parties, people's organizations, and patriotic personages within the system of the Nanjing Kuomintang reactionary government must immediately rise up and oppose this criminal act by the Nanjing reactionary government side of betraying national interests and colluding with Japanese fascist militarists. We now issue a solemn warning to the gentlemen of the Nanjing reactionary government: You must immediately re-arrest and imprison Okamura Yasuji, without fail. This matter is closely related to your current request to conduct negotiations with us. We believe that your various current actions are an attempt to use sham peace negotiations to cover up your preparations to reorganize for war, which includes a conspiracy to entice Japanese reactionaries to come to China and join you in slaughtering the Chinese people. You released Okamura Yasuji for precisely this purpose. Therefore, we will absolutely not permit you to do this. We have the right to order you to re-arrest Okamura Yasuji and, in accordance with the time and place of which we will notify you, you will be responsible for escorting him to the People's Liberation Army. As for other Japanese war criminals, the Nanjing reactionary government has absolutely no authority to arbitrarily release them or allow them to escape. Violators will be severely punished without leniency.

(2) From the January 16 statement by the spokesperson for the Nanjing Kuomintang reactionary government, we learn that the gentlemen of Nanjing are requesting peace negotiations with such intensity, fervor, diligence, and urgency, all supposedly for the purpose of "shortening the duration of the war," "alleviating the suffering of the people," and "taking saving the people as the prerequisite." And they feel that the Chinese Communist Party side's response to accepting your wishes is this: not intense, not fervent, not diligent, not urgent, and "not ceasing military actions," which is truly "delaying time and prolonging the calamity of war." We will tell you gentlemen of Nanjing frankly: You are war criminals. You are the ones who are to be put on trial. We do not believe in the so-called "peace" or "will of the people" that comes from your mouths. You relied on American power, violated the will of the people, tore up the truce agreement and the resolutions of the Political Consultative Conference, and launched this incomparably cruel anti-people, anti-democratic, and counter-revolutionary civil war. At that time, you were so intense, fervent, diligent, and urgent, and would not listen to anyone's advice. You convened a bogus National Assembly, formulated a bogus constitution, elected a bogus president, and issued a bogus order for "mobilization to suppress the rebellion," again with such intensity, fervor, diligence, and urgency, and again would not listen to anyone's advice. At that time, the government-run or government-patronized so-called consultative councils, chambers of commerce, labor unions, peasant associations, women's organizations, and cultural organizations in Shanghai, Nanjing, and all major cities all raised a clamor, "supporting the mobilization to suppress the rebellion," "eliminating the Communist bandits," again with such intensity, fervor, diligence, and urgency, and again would not listen to anyone's advice. Now, two and a half years have passed. The people you have slaughtered number in the millions. The villages you have burned, the women you have raped, the property you have plundered, and the living and non-living forces destroyed by your air force are innumerable. You have committed monstrous crimes. This is a struggle to settle accounts. But this struggle to settle accounts has its cause; it is imperative to settle, to calculate, to struggle, and to contend. You have been defeated. You have enraged the people. The people have all risen up to fight you to the death. The people do not like you, the people denounce you, the people have risen up, you are isolated, and therefore you have been defeated. You proposed five points, we proposed eight points. The people immediately supported our eight points, not your five points. You dare not refute our eight points, dare not insist on your five points. You have declared your willingness to take our eight points as the basis for negotiations. Is this not good? Why not start talking quickly? It seems as if you are very intense, very fervent, very diligent, very urgent, and very much in favor of an "unconditional ceasefire," "shortening the duration of the war," "alleviating the suffering of the people," and "taking saving the people as the prerequisite." And what about us? We are obviously not intense, not fervent, not diligent, not urgent, "delaying time, prolonging the calamity of war." But wait a moment, gentlemen of Nanjing, we will become intense, become fervent, become diligent, become urgent. The duration of the war can certainly be shortened, and the suffering of the people can certainly be alleviated. Since you have agreed to take our eight conditions as the basis for negotiations between the two sides, you and we will be busy together. Implementing these eight conditions will be enough to keep you, us, all democratic parties, people's organizations, and people from all walks of life throughout the country busy for several months, half a year, a year, or several years; I am afraid it still may not be finished! Listen, gentlemen of Nanjing: The eight conditions are not abstract articles; they must have concrete content. For this short period at present, it is important for everyone to think about them. The people will forgive a delay for this reason. To be frank, the people's opinion is that this negotiation must be well prepared. The talks must definitely take place, and your representatives must definitely be prepared to come. But we still need some time to do preparatory work; we will not allow the war criminals to set the time for negotiations for us. We and the people of Beiping are doing an important piece of work: peacefully resolving the Beiping issue in accordance with the eight conditions. Your people in Beiping, such as General Fu Zuoyi and others, have also participated in this work. Through the announcements of your news agency, you have already acknowledged that this work has been done correctly. This not only prepares a location for peace negotiations, but also sets an example for the peaceful resolution of the problems in places like Nanjing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Xi'an, Taiyuan, Guisui, Lanzhou, Dihua, Chengdu, Kunming, Changsha, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Taiwan, and Hainan Island. This work should therefore be praised, and the gentlemen of Nanjing should not show an attitude that is not serious enough. We are currently consulting with all democratic parties and people's organizations, as well as non-partisan democratic personages, including those in our areas and those in your areas, on the issue of the list of war criminals, to prepare the concrete content of the first condition. This list can probably be formally published before long. Dear sirs, you know that up to now, we and all the democratic parties and people's organizations have not had time to discuss and formally publish such a list. For this, we must ask for your forgiveness. The reason is that your request for peace talks came a little too late. If it had been a bit earlier, perhaps we would have already prepared it. However, it is not that you have nothing to do. Besides arresting the Japanese war criminal Okamura Yasuji, you must immediately start arresting a batch of civil war criminals, first and foremost those among the forty-three war criminals mentioned in the statement by an authoritative personage of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on December 25 of last year who are in Nanjing, Shanghai, Fenghua, Taiwan, and other places. Among them are Chen Cheng, He Yingqin, Gu Zhutong, Chen Lifu, Chen Guofu, Zhu Jiahua, Wang Shijie, Wu Guozhen, Dai Chuanxian, Tang Enbo, Zhou Zhirou, Wang Shuming, Gui Yongqing, and others. Of particular importance is Chiang Kai-shek. This criminal has now fled to Fenghua and is very likely to flee to a foreign country to seek refuge with American or British imperialism. Therefore, you must swiftly arrest this criminal and not let him escape. You must bear full responsibility for this matter. If he should escape, you will be dealt with for harboring a bandit, and there will be absolutely no leniency. Do not say you were not warned. We believe that only by arresting these war criminals can it be considered as having seriously done a piece of work for the purpose of shortening the duration of the war and alleviating the suffering of the people. As long as the war criminals still exist, the Nanjing reactionary government has only one day to reply.

(3) The preparatory work for the other items of the eight conditions, which both sides should carry out, will be notified to Nanjing on another occasion.