CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY AUTHORITIES ON CURRENT SITUATION

30 May 1947

[Text] HSIN-HUA NEWS AGENCY, North Shensi, 30 May--Chinese Communist
Party authorities expressed their views on the current situation to
HSIN-HUA NEWS AGENCY reporters. They said:

The Chiang Kai-shek government, the enemy of the people, has now discovered
that it is besieged by the entire population. Whether on the military or
the political front, it has suffered defeats, is besieged by the might of
the people, whom it has declared an enemy, and can find no way of escape.
Chiang Kai-shek's traitorous group and its master, American imperialism,
have made a wrong assessment of the situation. They overestimated their
own strength and underestimated the people's strength. They regarded
postwar China and the world as the same as in the past, not permitting
changes in the pattern of anything and not permitting anyone to disobey
their will. After Japan's surrender they were determined to restore China
to the old order. Gaining time by means of such deceptions as the Political
Consultative Conference and military mediation, Chiang Kai-shek's traitorous
government mobilized 2 million troops and launched a general attack. The
Chinese Communist authorities said that the war between Chiang Kai-shek's
aggressive army and the People's Liberation Army is the first front, and now
a second front has appeared--the sharp struggle between the great and just
student movement and Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary government. The slogan
of the student movement is food, peace, and freedom, i.e., against
starvation, against civil war, and against oppression. Chiang Kai-shek has
promulgated a provisional method to maintain social order. His army,
police, military police, and secret service clash with the student masses
everywhere. He handles the empty-handed students by such forceful means
as arrests, imprisonment, beatings, and slaughtering, yet the student
movement spreads daily. All social sympathy is on the side of the students,
while Chiang Kai-shek's ferocious features have been starkly revealed. The
student movement is part of the people's movement and its organizer. The
rise of the student movement will inevitably lead to the rise of the entire
people's movement. This has been pointed out in the historical experiences
of the 4 May and 29 January movements of the past. As American imperialism

and its running dog Chiang Kai-shek have replaced Japanese imperialism and
its running dog Wang Ching-wei and adopted the policies of turning China
into an American colony, launching a civil war, and reinforcing the fascist
dictatorial control, they have declared war against the people of the entire
nation and pushed the people of all classes and strata to the verge of
starvation and death. Therefore, they have forced the people to unite and
wage a life-and-death struggle against Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary
government and to make this struggle develop rapidly. There is no other
way out. The people of all classes and strata in China, including workers,
peasants, the petty bourgeoisie, the national bourgeoisie, the enlightened
gentry, other patriotic elements, minorities, and Overseas Chinese,
oppressed by the reactionary policies of the Chiang Kai-shek government
and finding themselves in a situation calling for unity and self-help,
constitute an extremely large national united front. The Chinese Communist
authorities said that the reactionary financial and economic policies long
followed by the Chiang Kai-shek government have now been reinforced by an
unprecedented traitorous treaty--the Sino-American trade treaty. On the
foundation of this treaty, America's monopolistic capital will closely
associate with Chiang Kai-shek's bureaucratic compradore capital and control
the economic life of the entire nation. As a result, it will cause extreme
currency inflation, unprecedented commodity price increases, growing
bankruptcy or national industry and commerce, and ever-deteriorating living
standards of the laboring masses and public and educational personnel.
This situation has forced the people of all classes and strata to unite
and struggle for their lives. The Chinese Communist authorities pointed
out that military suppression and political deception are the two main
tools employed by Chiang Kai-shek to preserve his reactionary control.
Now the people have realized the rapid advance of these tools toward
bankruptcy. Chiang Kai-shek's troops have suffered defeats everywhere
since last July. Over 90 brigades of his regular troops alone have been
wiped out. Not only do they no longer have the vitality they demonstrated
when they captured Ch'ang-ch'un, Ch'eng-te, Kalgan, Ko-tse, Huai-yin, and
An-tung last year, but not even that of the time when they occupied Lin-i
and Yenan this year. Chiang Kai-shek and Ch'en Ch'eng erroneously
estimated the strength and the operational methods of the People's
Liberation Army, taking withdrawal as cowardice and the abandonment of
cities as failure. They wishfully thought to solve the problem inside the
pass in 3 to 6 months before solving the Northeast issue. But 10 months
later Chiang Kai-shek's entire aggressive army has fallen into a desperate
situation, facing waves of attack by the people and the People's Liberation
Army of the Liberated Areas and finding it difficult to escape. More and
more reports of the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek's troops on the frontline
arrive at the rear, and the broad masses, suffocating under the oppression
of Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary government, feel ever more hopeful about
a change in their fate. Precisely at this time, all of Chiang Kai-shek's
political deceptions are rapidly going bankrupt. Everything has turned out
contrary to the expectations of the reactionaries, such as calling a
National Congress to formulate a constitution, reorganizing the one-party

government into a multiparty government, etc. Their goal was to isolate
the Chinese Communist Party and all democratic forces, but the result has
been otherwise. Rather than the Chinese Communist Party or the democratic
forces, the reactionaries themselves have been isolated. Henceforth the
Chinese people know, from their own experience, the truth of Chiang
Kai-shek's National Congress, his constitution, and his multiparty government. Until now many Chinese people, mainly the middle classes and strata,
entertained some illusions about Chiang Kai-shek's sleights of hand and his
talk of peace. After he had torn to shreds several solemn cease-fire
agreements, and after bayonets had been pointed at the student masses
demanding peace and resisting the civil war, with the exception of those
who intentionally wish to deceive or those without the least bit of
political experience, no one will believe his peace talk. The Chinese
Communist authorities said: All the changes have proved the accuracy of
our assessment. We have constantly pointed out to the people that the
Chiang Kai-shek government is nothing but a government of treachery, civil
war, and dictatorship. It wishes to smash the Chinese Communist Party and
all democratic forces by means of a civil war in order to attain its goal
of turning China into an American colony and preserving its dictatorial
control. Nevertheless, because of these reactionary policies it has lost
all its political prestige and strength. The power of the Chiang Kai-shek
government is merely temporary and superficial. Actually, it is a government with a powerful exterior and an empty interior. Regardless of the
area and the front, its attacks can be repelled. In the future it will
inevitably lose all its supporters and its entire army. All the changes
have proved, and will continue to prove, the accuracy of our assessments.
The Chinese Communist authorities said: The development of the changes
in China has been more rapid than anticipated. The speed of the victories
of the People's Liberation Army on the one hand and the progress of the
people's struggle in areas under Chiang's control on the other have been
very rapid. To realize a peaceful, democratic, and independent new China,
the Chinese people must prepare all the required conditions.

JEN-MIN JIH-PAO, 1 June 1947

CH'UN-CHUNG (Hong Kong), Vol 1, No 19, 5 June 1947

"Collection of Important Documents of the Chinese Communist Party Since
1947," New Democracy Publishing House (Hong Kong), February 1949

"The Current Situation and Our Tasks," Hsin-hua Bookstore, June 1949

"Reference Materials on the History of the Chinese Communist Party,"
Vol 5