Reply to Lin Biao[1]

(July 25, 1947)

The time is not yet ripe for establishing a democratic coalition government. This question may be considered in the second year of operations, after we have wiped out about another 100 enemy brigades, captured most of the Chinese Changchun Railway and the Beiping-Liaoning Railway, all of the Beiping-Suiyuan and Datong-Puzhou Railways, and extended our influence to the Yangtze River valley, and when the people throughout the country are more sympathetic to our Party.

[1] Main content of a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in reply to Lin Biao's telegram of July 10 suggesting the establishment of a democratic coalition government.