The Reactionaries Are Expanding Their
Anti-Soviet and Anti-Communist Activities
under the Instigation and Encouragement
of the Authorities of the Guomindang
Government
(February 26, 1946)
(Xinhua News Agency, Yan’an, February 26) Under the instigation and encouragement of the government authorities, the efforts by the fascist reactionaries
within the Guomindang to foment and organize insolent anti-Soviet, anti-Communist activities in various places are now being expanded daily. In Chongqing,
the reactionaries are continually planning to create incidents. After organizing the
students in Shaci district to participate in the anti-Soviet, anti-Communist demonstration on the 22nd, they used the same ploy the next day to incite the students in
Beibei1 to march toward Chongqing, replaying the anti-Soviet, anti-Communist
farce of the 22nd. On the walls of the sales outlet of New China Daily that was
destroyed on the 22nd, special agents put up loathsome insulting slogans, such as
“Down with the Red Traitors.” In Chengdu, the reactionaries reenacted the same
farce, inciting an anti-Soviet, anti-Communist demonstration, and similarly
special agents broke into the office of New China Daily, destroying furniture and
throwing books around. In Nanjing, the “Greater East Asia Youth Association”
and the “Association of Resistance Soldiers,” organized by the reactionaries
ies, “appealed for voluntary participation in the war” to “recover the Northeast
by arms” (see the Associated Press telegram on the 22nd from Chongqing). In
Shanghai, reactionaries incited a crowd of students to demonstrate in front of the
Soviet consulate. In other places, such as Beiping, Wuhan, Taiyuan, Nanchang,
Guiyang, and Bishan, reactionaries are desperately fabricating anti-Soviet, antiCommunist public opinion and making active arrangements for demonstrations.
Even in Taiwan, which the Guomindang has just received [news of], there
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong xinwen gongzuo wenxuan, pp. 351–53.
Mao did not write the original draft, but he made extensive revisions and additions to it. As
in the case of similar texts in the previous volumes of this series, the passages he changed
are set in bold.
occurred a demonstration on the 24th, supposedly to “protest the Soviet sabotage
of the Sino-Soviet Friendship Alliance.” Based on the above various news items,
one may learn that the Guomindang reactionaries are now initiating a reactionary
high tide throughout the country. In all these reactionary demonstrations,
including the one that occurred on the 22nd in Chongqing, students who
were deceived into participating by the Guomindang fascist reactionaries
accounted for a very small percentage of the total student population in those
places. For example, in Chongqing on the 22nd there were only 7,000 people.
By the 23rd, this number had declined to 2,000. In Shanghai on the 23rd,
there were just over 2,000 people. It can be seen from this that the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people have a very high political consciousness.
They can distinguish right from wrong and will by no means blindly follow
the reactionaries. The reason the reactionaries were able to incite some of
the masses to join the demonstrations was in part through coercion and in
part through deceit. This was done by taking advantage of the people’s ignorance of the real situation in the Northeast and of the reactionaries’ scheme
to instigate international and civil war. We believe that once the true situation in the Northeast is understood and the schemes of the reactionaries are
revealed, the actual masses will by no means blindly follow the reactionaries. What is noteworthy is that these insolent activities on the part of the fascist
reactionaries not only were not stopped by the Guomindang government authorities but also they received support and encouragement from many government
personages. A telegram from the American United Press agency states, “Some
observers in Chongqing say that the fact the government did not intervene in
the anti-Soviet demonstrations shows that the government was in favor of the
anti-Soviet incitement. If the government had wanted to, it could have halted the
demonstrations right after they began.” When the Beibei student demonstrators,
who were instigated by the reactionaries, marched to the Nationalist government
building on the 23rd, according to the Central News Agency, Wu Dingchang
[1984–1950, native of Sichuan], chief of Civil Affairs of the Nationalist government, told them the following: “The patriotic demonstrations by you students
yesterday and today have already won respect and sympathy at home and abroad.
As soon as the Chairman returns to Chongqing, I will convey your views to him. I
think the Chairman will be equally moved. In recent days, demonstrations of this
kind have taken place in various other places, such as in Beiping and Shanghai.
This testifies to the keen patriotism of the students throughout the country, something that indeed is very fortunate for the country.”
But no matter how energetically the Guomindang fascist reactionaries
deceive and instigate some students to stage counterrevolutionary demonstrations designed to set off an international and civil war and no matter how
some government authorities instigate and encourage such counterrevolutionary demonstrations, in the final analysis the reactionaries themselves are
bound to suffer defeat. The scheme to instigate the two powers, the United

States and the Soviet Union, to launch a so-called third world war so that the
Chinese fascist reactionaries will benefit and make a turn for the better is
bound to fail. The policy of unity of the United States and the Soviet Union
will definitely not change and will by no means be incited by these stinking
Chinese fascists. For the Chinese people, this scheme is anti-national.
That is to say, if the reactionary scheme were to succeed, it would benefit
only the residual forces of the German, Japanese, and Italian fascists and
would be absolutely harmful to the interests of the Chinese nation. As for the
reactionary slogans, such as “Recovering the Northeast by Blood and Iron,”
“Voluntary Participation in War to Recover the Northeast by Arms,” and
“Down with the New Imperialism,” the Chinese people will soon realize that
these are part of the reactionary scheme opposing the interests of the Chinese
nation. As for the reactionaries’ scheme to instigate a civil war, the Chinese
people understand very well that it is manifested in their intense slander and
insults against the Chinese Communist Party and the democratic personages. A civil war definitely must not be launched again. Generally speaking, under circumstances whereby the reactionaries are running amuck, the
Chinese people will unite all the more to halt all reactionary activities.

--- Notes

1.  District in Chongqing.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-94