The Liberation of Peiping
(January 31, 1949)
[Radio Yenan, January 31] Peiping, a world-renowned ancient cultural capital with a population of over two million, today declared its liberation. The liberation of Peiping is one of the most important military and political developments in the great Chinese people’s revolutionary movement. The enemy troops and military organs of the Kuomintang reactionaries, numbering some 200,000 men, who were holding Peiping, have set the first example of peacefully concluding a war under the Eight Peace Terms proclaimed by Chairman Mao Tse-tung of the Chinese Communist Party. This event has come about as a result of the great and invincible strength of the People’s Liberation Army, the demoralization and unwillingness of the mass of officers and men in the Kuomintang reactionary forces to go on with a hopeless resistance, and the firm support of the broad masses in Peiping for genuine democracy and peace.

The main forces of the Kuomintang in Peiping have now moved outside the city to designated areas, and the People’s Liberation Army is set to begin entering the city to take over its defence today. For a long time, the people of Peiping have been yearning for the People’s Liberation Army as for their own flesh and blood. Upon learning that the People’s Liberation Army would soon enter Peiping, the workers, students and townspeople lost no time in making bustling and enthusiastic preparations for a grand welcoming ceremony. They grew impatient because of the repeated delays in the Kuomintang troops’ evacuation from the city. The news that the People’s Liberation Army would soon enter Peiping peacefully suddenly restored this ancient city’s youthful vitality. Starting from January 23, commodity prices dropped sharply, and the streets once again became bustling with joyful pedestrians. Everywhere, people were inquiring about the exact date of the PLA’s entry into the city and asking about and passing on the contents of the leaflets distributed by the PLA and the Communist Party.

The peace negotiations for Peiping went on for a very long time. In fact, initial contact was made on the very day of the Peiping encirclement by the People’s Liberation Army in December last year, but General Fu Tso-yi was still unwilling to accept the terms of the People’s Liberation Army right up to the eve of the liberation of Tientsin, and therefore the negotiations yielded no results. In the initial period, General Fu Tso-yi still dreamed of making a hopeless resistance, and later he dreamed of escaping with his troops to Suiyuan, or Taiyuan, or Tsingtao and Shanghai, and exchanged incessant couriers and messages with Chiang Kai-shek, adopting a perfunctory attitude towards the peace negotiations with the People’s Liberation Army.

The annihilation of Fu Tso-yi’s main forces under his direct command at Hsinpao’an and Kalgan, as well as the hopelessness of the entire military and political situation of the Kuomintang, shook his original plan. On January 14, Chairman Mao Tse-tung of the Chinese Communist Party proclaimed the Eight Peace Terms; on the 15th, Tientsin was swiftly liberated; and on the 16th, General Lin Piao, Commander of the PLA Peiping-Tientsin Front, and General Lo Jung-huan, Political Commissar, sent a letter to General Fu Tso-yi concerning measures for the peaceful solution of the Peiping question. These events prompted General Fu Tso-yi to decide to accept the PLA’s proposals, and the negotiations then made progress.

The negotiations between the two sides decided: to facilitate transfer and take-over, a provisional joint committee of seven members shall be established during the transition period, with four members from the People’s Liberation Army and three from General Fu Tso-yi’s side, with General Yeh Chien-ying serving as its chairman. This committee is to work under the leadership of the PLA Peiping-Tientsin Front Headquarters. The two sides agreed that all the troops under General Fu Tso-yi which have moved outside the city shall begin to be reorganized into the People’s Liberation Army after about one month. The two sides also agreed that during the transition period, the various administrative organs, enterprises, banks, warehouses, postal and telegraph offices, newspapers, schools, cultural institutions, etc., within the city of Peiping shall all maintain the status quo for the time being, shall not be damaged, and shall await proper disposition.

The liberation of Peiping has basically concluded the war in northern China. Among the five provinces of Hopei, Chahar, Shantung, Shansi and Suiyuan in north China, and a part of Honan Province, only a small number of places, such as Taiyuan, Tatung, Kweisui, Paotow, Wuyuan, Linho, Tsingtao, Anyang and Hsinhsiang, have not yet been liberated. If the Kuomintang reactionary forces in these places are unwilling to follow the example set by Peiping, they will have no alternative but to follow the example of Tientsin. Tientsin was liberated after a battle lasting twenty-nine hours; the defending Kuomintang reactionary forces were completely mopped up, and all their high-ranking officers were captured. The arch-criminals who refused peaceful settlement, stubbornly resisted to the very end and severely disrupted the lives and property of the people will be tried and punished.

The liberation of Peiping has also pointed out an example for the liberation of the areas south of the Yangtse River and other places. The people throughout the country demand that all the reactionary armies commanded by the war criminals in pursuance of the bogus order for “suppressing the rebellion and suppressing the bandits” and in massacre of the Chinese people accept, as General Fu Tso-yi and his troops have done, the terms of the People’s Liberation Army. This will prove that they have indeed the sincerity to realize genuine peace. During the past two and a half years, General Fu Tso-yi has been an active executor of the bogus order for “suppressing the rebellion and suppressing the bandits” and has thus become one of the war criminals. However, people now believe that since he has accepted the People’s Liberation Army’s peace terms and led his troops out of the city to await reorganization, then, provided he continues to advance in a direction beneficial to the people’s cause, he will have the hope of winning the people’s forgiveness and of being allowed to atone for his crimes by good service.