(August 6, 1946)
This is a very important talk by Mao Zedong on the international and domestic situation shortly after the end of the Second World War. In this talk, Mao Zedong put forward the famous thesis that "all reactionaries are paper tigers." This thesis armed the minds of the Chinese people, strengthened their confidence in victory, and played an immensely great role in the People's War of Liberation. Just as Lenin regarded imperialism as a "colossus with feet of clay," Mao Zedong regarded imperialism and all reactionaries as paper tigers, both speaking from their essence. This is a fundamental strategic thought of the revolutionary people. Since the period of the Second Revolutionary Civil War, Mao Zedong had repeatedly pointed out that revolutionaries must, strategically and as a whole, despise the enemy, dare to struggle against them, and dare to seize victory; at the same time, tactically, in terms of strategy, in every part, and on every specific issue of struggle, they must take the enemy seriously, adopt a cautious attitude, pay attention to the art of struggle, and employ appropriate forms of struggle according to different times, places, and conditions, so as to isolate and eliminate the enemy step by step. In his article "On the Question of Whether Imperialism and All Reactionaries Are Real Tigers," written on December 1, 1958, during the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong pointed out: "Just as everything in the world has a dual character (the law of the unity of opposites), so imperialism and all reactionaries have a dual character—they are both real tigers and paper tigers. In the past, the slave-owning class, the feudal landlord class, and the bourgeoisie, before they gained ruling power and for a period after they gained it, were full of vitality, were revolutionaries, were progressives, and were real tigers. Over the subsequent period, because their opposites—the slave class, the peasant class, and the proletariat—gradually grew in strength and waged increasingly fierce struggles against them, these ruling classes gradually transformed into their opposites, became reactionaries, became backward people, became paper tigers, and eventually were or will be overthrown by the people. Even when reactionary, backward, and decadent classes face life-and-death struggles with the people, they still retain this dual character. On the one hand, they are real tigers that devour people, devouring millions upon millions. The people's struggle has gone through times of hardship and difficulty, following many tortuous paths. To eliminate the rule of imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism in China, the Chinese people spent over a hundred years and lost probably tens of millions of lives before achieving victory in 1949. Look, were these not live tigers, iron tigers, real tigers? But in the end, they turned into paper tigers, dead tigers, bean-curd tigers. This is a historical fact. Have people not seen or heard of these things? Truly, thousands upon thousands! Thousands upon thousands! Therefore, viewed in essence, in the long term, and from a strategic standpoint, imperialism and all reactionaries must be truthfully regarded as paper tigers. On this basis, we build our strategic thinking. On the other hand, they are also live, iron, real tigers that can devour people. On this basis, we build our tactical and strategic-operational thinking." On the necessity of despising the enemy strategically while taking the enemy seriously tactically, see Chapter V, Section 6, of "Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War" in Volume I of this book, and the first part of "Some Important Issues Concerning the Party's Current Policy" in this volume.

Straong asked: Do you think there is hope for a political or peaceful resolution of China's problems in the near future?
Mao replied: That depends on the attitude of the U.S. government. If the American people tie the hands of the American reactionaries who are helping Chiang Kai-shek wage civil war, then there is hope for peace.
Q: If the United States gives no more help beyond what it has already given [2], how much longer can Chiang Kai-shek fight?
A: Over a year.
Q: Can Chiang Kai-shek sustain himself economically for that long?
A: He can.
Q: What if the United States declares that it will give no more help to Chiang Kai-shek from now on?
A: At present, there is no sign that the U.S. government and Chiang Kai-shek have any desire to stop the war in the short term.
Q: How long can the Communist Party hold out?
A: As far as our own wishes are concerned, we do not want to fight even for a single day. But if circumstances force us to fight, we can fight all the way to the end.
Q: If the American people ask why the Communist Party is fighting, how should I answer?
A: Because Chiang Kai-shek wants to massacre the Chinese people, and for the people to survive, they must defend themselves. This is something the American people can understand.
Q: What is your view on whether the United States is likely to launch an anti-Soviet war?
A: The propaganda about an anti-Soviet war has two aspects. On the one hand, U.S. imperialism is indeed preparing for an anti-Soviet war, and the current propaganda about an anti-Soviet war and other anti-Soviet agitation are political preparations for such a war. On the other hand, this propaganda serves as a smokescreen put up by the U.S. reactionaries to cover up many of the actual contradictions directly confronting U.S. imperialism at present. These contradictions are those between the U.S. reactionaries and the American people, as well as those between U.S. imperialism and other capitalist countries and colonial and semi-colonial countries. The actual significance of the U.S. anti-Soviet war slogan at present is to oppress the American people and expand its aggressive influence in the capitalist world. As you know, Hitler and his partners, the Japanese militarists, for a long time used the anti-Soviet slogan as a pretext to enslave their own people and aggress against other countries. Now the U.S. reactionaries are doing exactly the same.
If the U.S. reactionaries want to stir up war, they must first attack the American people. They are already attacking the American people—politically and economically oppressing American workers and democratic elements and preparing to impose fascism in the United States. The American people should rise up and resist the attacks of the U.S. reactionaries. I believe they will do so.
Between the United States and the Soviet Union lies an extremely vast zone, containing many capitalist countries and colonial and semi-colonial countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Before the U.S. reactionaries have subjugated these countries, an attack on the Soviet Union is out of the question. Now the United States controls in the Pacific an area larger than the entire sphere of influence of the former British Empire—it controls Japan, Kuomintang-ruled China, half of Korea, and the South Pacific; it has long controlled Central and South America; and it still wants to control the entire British Empire and Western Europe. Under various pretexts, the United States is carrying out large-scale military deployments and establishing military bases in many countries. The U.S. reactionaries claim that all the military bases they have established or are preparing to establish around the world are aimed against the Soviet Union. It is true these military bases are directed at the Soviet Union. But at present, the first to suffer U.S. aggression is not the Soviet Union but the countries where these military bases are established. I believe it will not be long before these countries come to recognize who is really oppressing them—whether it is the Soviet Union or the United States. The U.S. reactionaries will one day find themselves opposed by the people of the whole world.
Of course, I am not saying that the U.S. reactionaries do not want to attack the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is the defender of world peace and a powerful factor obstructing the U.S. reactionaries in their bid to establish world hegemony. With the Soviet Union present, the ambitions of the United States and world reaction can never be realized. Therefore, the U.S. reactionaries hate the Soviet Union bitterly and indeed dream of destroying this socialist state. But at present, so soon after the end of World War II, the U.S. reactionaries are making such a noisy fuss about an American-Soviet war, creating a foul atmosphere—this compels one to examine their real aims. As it turns out, under the anti-Soviet slogan, they are frantically attacking the workers and democratic elements in the United States and turning all the target countries of U.S. expansion into appendages of the United States. I believe the American people and the people of all countries threatened by U.S. aggression should unite to oppose the attacks of the U.S. reactionaries and their lackeys in various countries. Only when this struggle succeeds can a third world war be avoided; otherwise, it cannot be avoided.
Q: That is a very good explanation. But what if the United States uses the atomic bomb? What if the United States bombs the Soviet Union from bases in Iceland, Okinawa, and China?
A: The atomic bomb is a paper tiger used by the U.S. reactionaries to scare people. It looks terrifying but actually is not. Of course, the atomic bomb is a weapon of mass slaughter, but the outcome of a war is decided by the people, not by one or two new types of weapon.
All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are truly powerful. Before the February Revolution of 1917 in Russia, which side truly held the power in the country? On the surface, the tsar at that time was powerful; but a gust of wind from the February Revolution swept him away. In the final analysis, the power in Russia lay with the Soviets of Workers', Peasants', and Soldiers' Deputies. The tsar was nothing but a paper tiger. Was not Hitler once regarded as very powerful? But history proved him to be a paper tiger. So was Mussolini, and so was Japanese imperialism. On the contrary, the strength of the Soviet Union and of the people in all countries who love democracy and freedom has proved far greater than was expected.
Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters, the U.S. reactionaries, are also paper tigers. Speaking of U.S. imperialism, people seem to feel it is immensely powerful, and the Chinese reactionaries are using American "power" to intimidate the Chinese people. But the U.S. reactionaries, like all reactionaries in history, will be proven to have no great power. In the United States, there is another group of people who are truly powerful—the American people.
Take the situation in China. What we rely on is nothing more than millet plus rifles, but in the end, history will prove that this millet plus rifles is stronger than Chiang Kai-shek's airplanes plus tanks. Although there are still many difficulties before the Chinese people, and the Chinese people will suffer prolonged hardships under the combined attacks of U.S. imperialism and the Chinese reactionaries, these reactionaries will one day be defeated, and we will one day be victorious. The reason is none other than that the reactionaries represent reaction, while we represent progress.

NOTES
[1] Anna Louise Strong (1885–1970) was an American progressive writer and journalist. She visited China many times starting in 1925. During her fifth visit to China, in June 1946, Mao Zedong met with her in Yangjialing, Yan'an, in August and delivered this talk. In 1958, she came to settle in China. From 1962 onward, she regularly compiled "China Newsletters" to introduce foreign readers to the achievements of New China's construction. Her works include *Millions of the Chinese People*, *One-Fifth of Mankind*, and *The Chinese Conquer China*.
[2] To support Chiang Kai-shek in launching an anti-popular civil war, U.S. imperialism gave enormous aid to the Kuomintang government. By June 1946, the United States had equipped 45 Kuomintang divisions. It trained 150,000 Kuomintang military personnel, including army, navy, air force, special agents, traffic police, staff officers, medical officers, and quartermasters. Using warships and airplanes, the United States transported 14 Kuomintang armies, comprising 41 divisions, and eight traffic police brigades, totaling over 540,000 troops, to the front lines for attacks on the liberated areas. The U.S. government landed 90,000 marines in China, occupying key cities such as Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin, Beiping (Beijing), and Qinhuangdao, and protecting communication lines for the Kuomintang in North China. According to materials disclosed in the U.S. State Department's white paper *United States Relations with China*, released on August 5, 1949, total U.S. aid to the Kuomintang government from the start of the War of Resistance Against Japan in 1937 through 1948 amounted to over $4.5 billion (the overwhelming majority of U.S. aid to the Kuomintang government during the War of Resistance was also reserved by the Kuomintang for later use in the anti-popular civil war). In reality, however, the figure for U.S. aid to Chiang Kai-shek far exceeded this amount. The U.S. white paper admitted that U.S. aid to the Kuomintang government amounted to "more than 50 percent of the monetary expenditure" of that government and, "as a proportion of that government's budget, exceeded the amount of postwar U.S. aid to any Western European country."