The Strategy We Should Adopt toward
Centrist Movements in Order to Overthrow
Chiang
(August 1, 1948)
To the Shanghai Bureau and the Hong Kong Sub-bureau, and for the information
of [Wu] Kejian and [Pan] Hannian:1
According to the telegram Kejian sent on July 17, Li Jishen and Feng Yuxiang2
want to use the U.S. State Department and John Leighton Stuart3 to hasten
Chiang Kaishek’s fall from power. Li and Feng would assume power, order the
Guomindang army to immediately end hostilities, and use armed force to finish off
anyone who did not obey. It is said that Li feared that our personnel in Hong Kong
are too naïve to be informed of the truth, so he instead sent someone to tell Kejian
to transmit this information to the Central Committee. Kejian expressed the view
that our personnel in Hong Kong are very good, that we should all cooperate, and
so forth. It is also reported that Feng will return to China and arrive in Hong Kong.
We have heard that Li sent Peng Zexiang4 to see Stuart to request the overthrow
of Chiang, but Stuart did not agree to it. The policy of the U.S. State Department
is still mainly to support Chiang’s fight against communism; at the same time, the
United States is frustrated with Chiang’s incompetence and continual losses on the battlefield. To force Chiang to yield more power and to be able to unite various groups in the reactionary leadership as well as a portion of the middle class
to join in opposition against the Communist Party if Chiang’s army crumbles further, the United States is conducting all kinds of conspiratorial activities, including probing the possibility of peace talks with our Party. When Chiang Kaishek
is truly unable to continue ruling, the U.S. plans to replace Chiang Kaishek with
Li Zongren, He Yingqin,5 and others. At this time, it wishes to cease fighting and
negotiate peace with our Party to buy a little breathing room and to reorganize its
forces so it can stage a comeback and destroy the revolutionary forces. As far as
the idea of preparing to replace Chiang with Li and He, Chiang and his diehard
followers are certain to resist, as manifested in the peace rumors that have been
spreading in Beiping, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Nanjing in recent days, as well as by
Weng Wenhao’s6 anti-Communist speech. We should expose these plots perpetrated by the American imperialists, but we must take advantage of the divisions
within the reactionary leadership as well as the movement to overthrow Chiang
to effect even greater divisions. We should not simplistically and categorically
oppose activities aimed at overthrowing Chiang carried out by centrist figures
such as Li Jishen and Feng Yuxiang; instead, we should tell them that the U.S.
imperialists and the reactionary clique of Li Zongren, He Yingqin, and others
are not reliable. We approve of the movement to overthrow Chiang because the
overthrow of Chiang will benefit the development of the War of Liberation, not
because we still hold illusions regarding the U.S. imperialists or Li Zongren, He
Yingqin, and the others. On the contrary, we must always expose the plots of the
U.S. imperialists and the reactionaries to prevent the people from being duped.
We hope that you will internalize the above strategy and maintain close contact
with Li Jishen, Feng Yuxiang, Zhang Bojun, Tan Pingshan,7 and other centrists
who oppose Chiang. You should show them respect and do more to provide them
with sincere explanations; win them over and prevent them from falling into the
trap set by the American imperialists. This is extremely important.
The Central Committee

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 116–18, where it is reproduced
from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.

--- Notes

1.  This telegram was drafted by Zhou Enlai and revised by Mao Zedong on behalf of
the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Wu Kejian (1900–1986, born in
Pingjiang, Hunan) was in charge of the Chinese Communist Party’s united front and intelligence work in Shanghai, while Pan Hannian was in charge of this same work in Hong
Kong.

2.  Li Jishen was president of the Central Executive Committee of the Guomindang
Revolutionary Committee. Feng Yuxiang was a member of the Central Executive Committee of the Guomindang Revolutionary Committee and president of its Central Political
Committee. Feng set off from the United States to China at the end of July to take part
in the new Political Consultative Conference, but he died en route, in the Black Sea near
Odessa, because of a shipboard fire on September 1.

3.  John Leighton Stuart (known in Chinese as Situ Leideng, 1876–1962) was an American born to missionary parents in China. He was the U.S. ambassador to China at this time.

4.  Peng Zexiang (1899–1997, born in Yueyang, Hunan) at the time was working for
Li Jishen.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-138

5.  Li Zongren was vice-president of the Nationalist government. He Yingqin was Minister of Defense for the Nationalist government.

6.  Weng Wenhao (1889–1971, native of Zhejiang) was director of the Executive Yuan
of the Nationalist government.

7.  Zhang Bojun was chairman of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese
Peasants and Workers Democratic Party and a member of the Standing Committee of the
China Democratic League’s Central Committee. Tan Pingshan was a member of the Central
Executive Committee of the Guomindang Revolutionary Committee and a member of the
Association of Comrades of the Three People’s Principles.