Several Issues to Which Attention Should Be Paid in the Southern Guerrilla Areas[1]

(December 27, 1948)

To the Hong Kong Sub-Bureau:

(1) We approve the establishment of the three columns[2] in the three southern regions and the proposed list of responsible personnel for the three columns.

(2) Whether each column should operate in a dispersed or concentrated manner shall be flexibly determined according to whether the enemy situation is concentrated or dispersed; that is, when the enemy is dispersed and their forces are weak, we should concentrate our forces for operations, and when the enemy launches a concentrated offensive and the situation is grave, we should disperse our forces for operations.

(3) Judging from the materials you have provided, the problem of the guerrilla units in each region taking root among the local masses remains an extremely serious one. It is necessary to overcome erroneous tendencies, criticize both "Left" and Right policies, deeply develop mass work, and establish mass Party organizations both inside and outside the units. The purely military viewpoint of being divorced from the masses within the units must be strictly guarded against.

(4) In each large guerrilla area, after a number of democratic county governments have been established, an administrative office may be set up to exercise overall planning over administrative affairs throughout the area, so as to steadily consolidate and expand the base areas. However, the organization of the political power organs and the military rear-service organs should be suited to the environment of guerrilla warfare, striving to be streamlined and flexible, capable of moving at any time, and must resolutely avoid being overstaffed and bloated, or emphasizing form and empty reputation without regard for actual conditions.

(5) The year 1949 should be a year of extensive development for the southern guerrilla war and the guerrilla base areas.

[1] This is a telegram drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Hong Kong Sub-Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

[2] This refers to the Fujian-Guangdong-Jiangxi Border Column, the Guangdong-Jiangxi-Hunan Border Column, and the Guangxi-Yunnan-Guizhou Border Column. All three columns were formally established in January 1949.

All three regions should establish radio stations and establish contact with the Central Committee.

(6) You still very rarely report to us on the military policies, rural policies, and urban policies in the various guerrilla areas. You should attach great importance to these policy issues and report to us regularly.

The Central Committee

Haigan