Combat Preparations in the Northeast To Be Completed in August and September[1]

(August 8, 1946)

To the Northeast Bureau, for transmission to the various Manchurian and provincial Party committees:

A. On the 6th, Stuart[2] conveyed to Zhou[3] Chiang Kai-shek’s five terms: (1) Surrender the Jiangsu-Anhui Liberated Area. (2) Surrender the Qingdao-Jinan Railway line. (3) Surrender Chengde and the area south of it. (4) In the Northeast, withdraw before October 15 to Heilongjiang, Xing’an, Nenjiang,[4] and Yanji; all other areas to be handed over. (5) Shandong and Shanxi provinces must surrender the areas occupied after June 7. Zhou replied that they are absolutely unacceptable, not even one term can be accepted. B. You must actively prepare for combat and be sure to complete all preparations within the two months of August and September, awaiting orders for action. During these two months, we will not attack unless we are attacked.

The Central Committee
Weiqi

--- Notes

[1] This telegram was drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and addressed to its Northeast Bureau.
[2] Stuart, namely John Leighton Stuart, who became U.S. ambassador to China on July 11, 1946, and actively supported the Kuomintang government in waging civil war against the people.
[3] Zhou, refers to Zhou Enlai.
[4] After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Kuomintang government divided the original three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang into nine provinces: Liaoning, Liaobei, Andong, Jilin, Songjiang, Hejiang, Heilongjiang, Nenjiang, and Xing’an. Here Heilongjiang, Xing’an, and Nenjiang were three of the nine northeastern provinces at that time.