Chinese People’s Liberation Army General
Headquarters Announces Eight-Point
Provisional Constitution1
(April 25, 1949)
(Xinhua News Agency, Beiping Broadcast, on the 25th) Following the People’s
Liberation Army’s march toward the southern and northwestern provinces, the
People’s Liberation Army General Headquarters today issued an announcement.
The full text is as follows:
Chinese People’s Liberation Army announcement: The reactionary faction of
the Nationalist Party has already refused to accept the conditions of peace and
persists in its evil position on war that opposes the nation and opposes the people. The people of the whole nation hope that the People’s Liberation Army will
swiftly eradicate the reactionary faction of the Nationalist Party. We have already
commanded the People’s Liberation Army to advance with courage, to eliminate
all the Nationalist Party reactionary troops that dare to resist, arrest all evil and
unrepentant war criminals, liberate the people of the whole nation, safeguard the
independence and integrity of China’s territorial sovereignty, bring about the genuine peace and democratic unification yearned for by all the people in the nation.
Wherever the People’s Liberation Army goes, we earnestly hope that people from
all walks of life will lend their cooperation. I hope that the people will join me in
abiding by the following eight temporary provisions announced here:
	(1)	 Protect the lives and property of all the people. People of all walks of life,
irrespective of class, belief, or occupation, are all expected to maintain order
and adopt an attitude of cooperation with the People’s Liberation Army, just
as the People’s Liberation Army must adopt an attitude of cooperation with
the people of all walks of life. If there are counterrevolutionary elements or
other saboteurs who seize the opportunity to create disturbances or to loot or
cause damage, they will be punished severely.
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 10, pp. 273–76, where it is reproduced
from Renmin ribao, April 26, 1949.
	(2)	 Protect the nation’s industry, agriculture, and animal husbandry. All privately run factories, shops, banks, warehouses, ships, docks, farms, pastures,
and so forth will be protected and will not be infringed upon. We expect
workers in all industries to engage in production as usual and every shop to
engage in business as usual.
	(3)	 Confiscate bureaucratic capital. All factories, shops, banks, warehouses,
ships, docks, railroads, post offices, telegraphs, electric lights, telephones,
running water, farms, pastures, and so forth operated by the reactionary government of the Nationalist Party and the major bureaucratic capitalists will
be taken over by the people’s government. Among these, if there are those
in national industry, commerce, farming and animal husbandry who have
private capital but who have undergone investigation and have been verified,
they all will have recognized ownership. All personnel who hold positions in
bureaucratic capitalist enterprises, before the people’s government assumes
control, must remain in their positions as before and take responsibility for
protecting the assets, machinery, diagrams, account books, documents, and
so forth, and await the making of inventories and the transfer of control to the
people’s government. Those who perform meritorious services in protecting
industry shall be rewarded; those who slack off in their work or engage in
destruction will be punished. All those who wish to continue their service
after the people’s government takes over control will be given work suited to
their abilities and they will not be rendered destitute and homeless.
	(4)	 Protect all public and private schools, hospitals, cultural and educational
institutions, sports facilities, and other institutions of public welfare. All
personnel who are employed in these institutions shall work as usual; the
People’s Liberation Army will protect all of them and they will not be
infringed upon.
	(5)	 Apart from evil and unrepentant war criminals and counterrevolutionary
elements guilty of terrible crimes, all high and low-level officials of the
Nationalist Party government, at the central, provincial, city, county, and
every level, National Assembly2 representatives, legislative and supervisory
committee members, senators, police officers, district, township, and village
baojia personnel, who do not take up arms to resist and do not conspire to
destroy, the People’s Liberation Army and the people’s government will not
take them captive, will not arrest them, and will not humiliate them. All of
the aforementioned personnel are charged with peacefully maintaining their
posts, obeying the commands of the People’s Liberation Army and the people’s government, and are responsible for protecting the assets, documents,
and so forth of each institution and to await processing. Among these personnel, all of those who have skills in specialized areas and have not engaged
in serious counterrevolutionary behavior or serious misdeeds will be granted
employment by the people’s government. If there are those who seize the
opportunity to destroy, steal, engage in fraud, abscond with public funds,
public property, or public documents, or refuse to hand things over, they will
be punished.
	(6)	 In order to ensure public order in the urban and rural areas and stable social
order, all stragglers and disbanded soldiers shall surrender and report to that
area’s People’s Liberation Army or people’s government. All those who surrender and report of their own accord, and hand over all weapons, will generally not be investigated. But if there are those who resist and do not report
or those who conceal weapons, they will be apprehended and investigated.
Those who harbor those who do not report also will be subject to equivalent
disciplinary action.
	(7)	 The feudal land ownership system in the countryside is unreasonable and
should be abolished. But abolishing this type of system must be done gradually and with preparation. In general, you should first reduce rent and interest,
then distribute the land; only after the People’s Liberation Army has arrived
and worked there for a fairly long time can you discuss truly resolving the
land problem. The peasant masses should organize and cooperate with the
People’s Liberation Army to carry out preliminary revolutionary tasks; at the
same time, they should strive to raise crops and maintain the current level of
agricultural production. Afterwards, the level of agricultural production should
be progressively raised in order to improve the peasants’ lives and to provide
commodities and foodstuffs for the urban residents. The issues of urban land
and housing cannot be handled in the same way as the rural land issue.
	(8)	 Protect the life and property of foreign nationals. We expect that all foreign
nationals will be content with their occupations and will maintain order. All
foreign nationals must comply with the laws and decrees of the People’s
Liberation Army and the people’s government, must not engage in espionage activities, must not engage in behavior that is in opposition to the cause
of the Chinese nation’s independence and the cause of the people’s liberation, and must not harbor Chinese war criminals, counterrevolutionary elements, or other criminals; otherwise, they will receive legal sanctions by the
People’s Liberation Army and the people’s government.
The People’s Liberation Army is highly disciplined, buying and selling at fair
prices, and it is not allowed to take a single needle or piece of thread from the
people without permission. We hope that all of our people will live in peace and
contentment; by no means should you readily believe in rumors or frighten one
another. This is hereby solemnly proclaimed.
Chinese People’s Revolutionary Military Affairs Commission
Chairman Mao Zedong
Chinese People’s Liberation Army Commander-in-Chief Zhu De

--- Notes

1.  Chinese People’s Liberation Army ~ Eight-Point Provisional Constitution → Chinese People’s Liberation Army Proclamation
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-260


2.  National Assembly → “National Assembly”