Communiqué of the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China[1]

(March 23, 1949)

[Xinhua News Agency dispatch from Shijiazhuang, dated the 23rd] The Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held near Shijiazhuang. The session lasted eight days and has now concluded successfully. Present at the session were 34 members and 19 alternate members of the Central Committee. Twenty members and alternate members of the Central Committee were absent. Chairman Mao Zedong delivered a work report to the session. The session approved the work of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee since the First Plenary Session in June 1945 and deemed the leadership of the Central Committee correct. The session approved the proposal initiated by the Communist Party of China, in coordination with all democratic parties, people’s organizations, and democratic personages, to convene a new Political Consultative Conference without the participation of reactionary elements and to establish a democratic coalition government. The session also approved Chairman Mao Zedong’s statement of January 14, 1949, and the eight terms set forth therein as the basis for peace negotiations with the Nanjing Kuomintang reactionary government and any other Kuomintang local governments or military groups.

The Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China emphatically discussed the shift of the Party’s focus of work from the countryside to the cities under the present circumstances. The session pointed out: From the failure of the Great Revolution in China in 1927 to the present, owing to the disparity in strength between the enemy and ourselves, the emphasis of the Chinese people’s revolutionary struggle has been in the countryside—gathering strength in the countryside, using the countryside to encircle the cities, and then seizing the cities. Under the leadership of Comrade Mao Zedong,

[1] On March 23, 1949, Mao Zedong rewrote the first paragraph and added the final section to the draft news release on the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China prepared by Hu Qiaomu. Significant revisions were also made to the middle sections. On the 24th, minor further changes were made on the proof copy. The text printed in Song typeface represents Mao Zedong’s additions and revisions. This news release was published in *Renmin Ribao* on March 25, 1949.

the Party united the broad laboring masses and carried out this policy of encircling the cities from the countryside; history has proven this policy to be entirely necessary, entirely correct, and entirely successful. However, the period of employing such a mode of work has now come to an end. From now on, a new period begins—the period of moving from the cities to the countryside and of the cities leading the countryside. Without doubt, both urban and rural areas must be taken into account; the cities and countryside, workers and peasants, industry and agriculture must be closely linked. The countryside must by no means be cast aside and only the cities attended to—such a notion would be utterly mistaken. Yet the focus of the Party’s work must be placed in the cities. The session pointed out: Our Party must exert tremendous efforts to learn how to lead the urban people in victorious struggles and to learn how to administer and build the cities. In leading the struggles of the urban people, the Party must rely on the working class, unite with other laboring masses, win over the intellectuals, and strive to bring as many petty-bourgeois and liberal-bourgeois elements and their representatives as possible—those capable of cooperating with the Communist Party—onto a common front, so as to wage resolute struggles against the imperialists, the Kuomintang reactionaries, and the bureaucratic bourgeoisie, and to defeat these enemies step by step. The session held that the central key to administering and building the cities lies in restoring and developing industrial production—first, production in publicly operated enterprises; second, production in privately operated enterprises; and third, handicraft production. All other urban work—such as Party organizational work, the building of government organs, trade union work and the work of various mass organizations, public security work, and cultural and educational work—should serve this central task of restoring and developing industrial production. The session called upon all comrades in the Party to devote their full efforts to learning the techniques and methods of industrial production and to studying commerce, banking, and other work closely linked to production. It also issued a warning: If our Party remains ignorant in production work, fails to learn production work quickly, cannot restore and develop production enterprises as rapidly as possible and achieve tangible results—first improving the livelihood of the workers and then improving the livelihood of the general populace—then the Party and the people will be unable to sustain political power, will fail to gain a firm footing, and will meet with defeat.

The Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out: The people’s democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat and based on the worker-peasant alliance requires the Communist Party of China to earnestly unite the entire working class, the entire peasantry,

and the broad masses of revolutionary intellectuals as the leading and foundational forces of this dictatorship; at the same time, it also requires the Communist Party of China to unite with as many representatives of the petty bourgeoisie and liberal bourgeoisie, their intellectuals, and their political factions as possible—those capable of cooperating with the Communist Party—so as to jointly overthrow the domestic counterrevolutionary forces and imperialist forces, rapidly restore and develop production, and thereby create conditions enabling China to steadily transform from an agricultural country into an industrial country and from a new-democratic state into a socialist state. The Second Plenary Session called upon the entire Party to establish, in thought and in work, a policy of long-term cooperation with democratic personages outside the Party. On this issue, it is necessary to oppose both the attitude of unprincipled accommodationism and the attitude of closed-doorism or perfunctoriness that hinders unity between the Party and democratic personages outside the Party.

In view of the imminent nationwide victory of the Chinese revolution, which holds great international significance, the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China specially warned all comrades in the Party against conceit and complacency and against being softened by unprincipled flattery from others. The session pointed out: The Chinese revolution is great, but seizing nationwide victory is only the first step in the work; the road ahead after the revolution is longer, the work greater and more arduous. The session called upon all comrades in the Party to continue to maintain the style of modesty, prudence, freedom from arrogance and impetuosity, and hard struggle, so that after overthrowing the counterrevolutionary forces, they may exert even greater efforts to build a new China. The session held that although China’s economic heritage is backward, the Chinese people are brave and industrious; with the victory of the Chinese people’s revolution and the establishment of the people’s democratic republic, with the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and with the assistance of the powerful worldwide anti-imperialist camp headed by the Soviet Union, the pace of China’s economic construction will not be very slow but may be fairly rapid, and China’s rise can be accomplished within a foreseeable period. There is no basis whatsoever for pessimistic arguments about China’s economic revival.

Manuscript of Mao Zedong’s revisions to the *Communiqué of the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China*.

Congratulating the Officers and Crew of the Cruiser *Chongqing* on Their Uprising

(March 24, 1949)

Captain Deng Zhaoxiang and all officers and crew:

Warmly celebrate your heroic uprising. Although the U.S. imperialists and the Kuomintang air force have bombed and destroyed the *Chongqing*, this can only add luster to your uprising and can only intensify the indignation of all patriotic people in China, patriotic naval personnel, and patriotic elements within the Kuomintang army and air force, making them understand even more clearly that the path you have taken is the only path that patriotic Kuomintang military personnel should take. Your uprising shows that the Kuomintang reactionaries and their masters, the U.S. imperialists, are at the end of their rope. They may bomb and destroy one *Chongqing*, but they cannot prevent more warships from following in your wake; more warships, aircraft, and army units will rise in revolt and stand on the side of the People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese people must build their own powerful national defense; in addition to the army, they must also build their own air force and navy, and you will be the vanguard in participating in the construction of the Chinese people’s navy.

We wish you success!

Mao Zedong

Zhu De

March 24, 1949

[1] The cruiser *Chongqing* was the largest cruiser in the Kuomintang navy. On February 25, 1949, its officers and crew staged an uprising at Wusongkou, Shanghai, and joined the Chinese people’s navy. On March 19 of the same year, the ship was bombed and sunk by the Kuomintang air force near Huludao.