Turn the Enemy’s Fake Peace Movement into
the People’s True Peace Movement1
(July 18, 1948)
After the enemy’s peace movement goes public, it can be expected to produce
two types of results. It may temporarily confuse some people, but it will also
have the effect of causing wavering and disintegration in the Guomindang army
and its rear area. The latter reason is why the Guomindang still has great misgivings despite its current preparations to launch a peace conspiracy. In view
of these two possibilities, our Party’s nationwide efforts to expose the enemy’s
plot should proceed according to the enemy’s situation following the launch of
the peace movement. On the one hand, we must resolutely expose the deceptive nature of the enemy’s peace movement and protect the masses from being
tricked. On the other hand, we must appeal to the masses to rise up against fake
peace and demand true peace. Our concrete demands should be as follows: The
United States should stop supporting the Guomindang; the U.S. military and the
U.S. military delegation should withdraw from China; all treaties with the United
States that betray the country should be canceled; the Guomindang and its government should publicly acknowledge its mistake in launching the civil war; all
war criminals should be punished; the bogus constitution and the bogus National
Assembly should be abolished, and the reactionary government established in
accordance with the bogus constitution and the bogus National Assembly should
be abolished; a people’s congress should be convened; a democratic coalition
government devoid of reactionaries should be established; espionage agencies
should be abolished; freedom of speech and assembly should be implemented in
practice; hunger and persecution should be opposed; bureaucratic capital should
be expropriated and land reform should be carried out. In this way, the fake peace
movement of the American imperialists and the Guomindang can be transformed
into a movement of the people demanding true peace, and in coordination with
the offensive military operations of the People’s Liberation Army it can hasten
the disintegration and collapse of the reactionaries. When proposing the above
slogans in areas controlled by the Chiang regime, we must adjust our message in
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 109–10, where it is
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.
1.  Mao Zedong added this paragraph while reviewing the Central Committee’s directive on exposing the peace conspiracy of the Guomindang.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-135

accordance with the situation permitted by the popular mood and the environment
and put it forward in a deliberate and measured fashion. Our message must also
be suited to the urgent needs in the lives of the masses so as to further isolate the
American imperialists and the Guomindang and to avoid placing ourselves in an
isolated position.