Reply to Li Zongren’s Telegram
(April 8, 1949)
For the kind perusal of Mr. Li Delin in Nanjing:1
We received your telegram of April 7.2 See the statement of January 14th of
this year3 for the Chinese Communist Party’s views on the current political situation. Since you agree to take the eight conditions as the basis for negotiating, by
following the conditions it will not be difficult to arrive at a correct solution to
obtain concrete results. The problem of war criminals is the same. Our standard
is to regard whether something will be beneficial to furthering the task of the
liberation of the Chinese people and whether it will help us in our pursuit of
peaceful methods to resolve the country’s internal problems. We are prepared
to employ a magnanimous policy when this standard is met. We told Mr. Zhang
Wenbai4 about this policy when talking with him today. In order to liberate the
Chinese people, and to make them independent; in order to end the war early and
return to peace; in order to facilitate the great task of construction and production
throughout the country so that the country and the people steadily enter the realm
of prosperity, strength, health, and happiness; our two sides need to reach a peace
agreement as soon as possible. The Chinese Communist Party is willing to join
hands and cooperate with all patriots in the struggle for this great goal.
Mao Zedong


Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 276–77, where it is reproduced
from Renmin ribao, April 10, 1949.
1.  Li Zongren, style name Delin, became acting president of the Guomindang government on January 21, 1949, after Chiang Kaishek resigned from office.
2.  The telegram from Li Zongren stated that he accepted the Chinese Communist
Party’s eight conditions for peace negotiations, that he felt that cooperation between the
Guomindang and the Chinese Communist Party was especially urgent in an increasingly
treacherous world situation, and that he hoped to end the current hostilities and turn them
into friendship.
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.
4.  Zhang Wenbai, alias Zhang Zhizhong, was chief representative of the Guomindang
government at the peace negotiations.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-253