Spokesperson for the Chinese Communist
Party Delivers a Speech on the Question of
Peace Negotiations1
(January 25, 1949)
(Xinhua News Agency dispatch, Northern Shaanxi, January 25)
According to a January 22 report from the Central News Agency of the
Guomindang reactionary government in Nanjing, the Executive Yuan of that
reactionary government on the 22nd overturned its own ridiculous decision from
the 19th that it would not be willing to negotiate if [the Chinese Communists] did
not first stop fighting. It has reached a new decision to dispatch five delegates to
carry out negotiations with the Chinese Communist Party. These five delegates
are Shao Lizi, Zhang Zhizhong, Huang Shaohong, Peng Zhaoxian, and Zhong
Tianxin.2 The spokesperson for the Chinese Communist Party said that we will
be willing to negotiate with the Nanjing reactionary government on the question
of a peaceful resolution based on Chairman Mao Zedong’s January 14 statement
regarding the current political situation.3 The Nanjing reactionary government
should take complete responsibility for launching the counterrevolutionary civil
war. The Chinese people lost all confidence in this government long ago, and
this government has long been disqualified from representing the Chinese people.
The only government qualified to represent the Chinese people will be the democratic coalition government that emerges from the soon-to-be-held meeting of the
new Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, in which no reactionary
elements will take part. We therefore allow the reactionary Nanjing government
to dispatch delegates to carry out negotiations with us, not as acknowledgment
that this government is still qualified to represent the Chinese people but rather
because this government still controls part of the remaining reactionary military
forces. If this government feels that it has already completely lost the confidence
of the people and that the remaining reactionary military forces under its control
have no way to resist the powerful People’s Liberation Army, and if it is willing to
accept the Chinese Communist Party’s eight conditions for peace,4 then resolving
problems through negotiation and reducing the suffering of the people is obviously the best approach and will benefit the undertaking of the people’s liberation.
The recent peaceful resolution of the Beiping question offers a concrete example
of this. However, at present no one knows whether the reactionary government in
Nanjing is willing to accept the eight conditions put forward by the Communist
Party that reflect the public will of the whole country. All we know for now is
that the reactionary government in Nanjing has released some false and pretentious talk of peace in an attempt to dupe the people. This is to achieve its goal of
preserving reactionary power, gaining some breathing room, and then staging a
comeback to stamp out the revolutionary forces. The people of the whole country
should remain clear-headed and must not be misled by this hypocritical prattle.
Only after Beiping has been completely liberated will the location of the negotiations be determined; they will probably be held in Beiping. Peng Zhaoxian is one
of the key cadres of the Guomindang’s CC Clique5 which most strongly supports
fighting, and people consider him a war criminal. The Chinese Communist Party
cannot receive this kind of delegate. Regarding the issue of the list of war criminals, the Chinese Communist Party spokesperson said that we have not yet issued
a complete list of war criminals. The list issued by Xinhua News Agency on
December 25 of last year was only the first batch of names. Those persons among
the Guomindang reactionary clique who bear main responsibility for launching
the civil war and for massacring the people are certainly not limited to forty-three
names.
4.  These eight conditions are laid out in “Statement on the Current Situation by Mao
Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party,” January
14, 1949, in this volume.
5.  The CC Clique refers to a clique within the Guomindang, led by Chen Guofu and
Chen Lifu, that supported Chiang Kaishek.


--- Notes

Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 243–45, where it is reproduced
from the original document preserved in the Central Archives.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this news item on behalf of Xinhua News Agency. It was published in Renmin ribao on January 26, 1949.
2.  Shao Lizi was a member of the Guomindang government’s Policy Advisory Committee. General Zhang Zhizhong was director of the Guomindang army’s Northwest Field
Headquarters and chairman of the government of Xinjiang. Huang Shaohong (1895–1966,
native of Guangxi) was a member of the Guomindang government’s Legislative Yuan. Peng
Zhaoxian (1897–1979, born in Muping, Shandong) was formerly Minister of the Interior
for the Guomindang government. Zhong Tianxin (1902–1987, native of Guangdong) was
Minister of Water Conservancy for the Guomindang government.
3.  See “Statement on the Current Situation by Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central
Committee of the Chinese Communist Party,” January 14, 1949, in this volume.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-231