April 4, 1949


Two roads are open to the Nanking Kuomintang government and its military
and administrative personnel. Either they cling to the Chiang Kai-shek clique
of war criminals and its master, U.S. imperialism, that is, continue to be
the enemy of the people and so perish together with the Chiang Kai-shek clique
of war criminals in the People's War of Liberation. Or they come over to
the people, that is, break with the Chiang Kai-shek clique of war criminals
and U.S. imperialism, perform meritorious service in the People's War of
Liberation to atone for their crimes and so obtain clemency and understanding
from the people. There is no third road.

There are three different groups of people in the government of Li Tsung-jen
and Ho Ying-chin at Nanking.[1] One group stubbornly
persist in following the first road. No matter how plausible they are in
words, in deeds they are continuing to prepare for war, to betray the nation
and to oppress and massacre the people who are demanding genuine peace. They
are Chiang Kai-shek's followers even unto death. Another group want to follow
the second road but have not yet been able to take any decisive action. The
third group are hesitating at the crossroads, and it is uncertain which way
they will go. They do not want to offend Chiang Kai-shek and the U.S. government,
yet they hope that they will be understood and admitted by the camp of people's
democracy. But this is an illusion and is impossible.

The Nanking government of Li Tsung-jen and Ho Ying-chin is mainly a mixture
of people from the first and third groups, with only a handful from the second.
To this day, this government remains a tool of Chiang Kai-shek and the U.S.
government.

The massacre which occurred in Nanking on April
1,[2] was no accident. It was the inevitable result
of the actions taken by the government of Li Tsung-jen and Ho Ying-chin to
protect Chiang Kai-shek, his sworn followers and the forces of U.S. aggression.
It was the result of the absurd trumpeting about "honourable peace on an
equal footing" by the government of Li Tsung-jen and Ho Ying-chin and by
the sworn followers of Chiang Kai-shek, which had the purpose of countering
the Chinese Communist Party's eight terms for peace, and particularly the
punishment of war criminals. Now that the government of Li Tsung-jen and
Ho Ying-chin has sent its delegation to Peiping to negotiate peace with the
Communist Party of China and has indicated its willingness to accept the
Communist Party's eight terms as the basis for negotiations, it should, if
it has the slightest good faith, start by dealing with the Nanking Massacre,
arrest and severely punish the chief criminals, Chiang Kai-shek, Tang En-po
and Chang Yao-ming, arrest and severely punish the thugs of the secret police
in Nanking and Shanghai and arrest and severely punish the chief
counter-revolutionaries, who are obstinately opposing peace, actively disrupting
the peace negotiations and actively preparing to resist the advance of the
People's Liberation Army to the south of the Yangtse River. "Until Ching
Fu is done away with, the crisis in the state of Lu will not be
over."[3] Until the war criminals are eliminated,
there will be no peace in the country. Isn't this truth clear enough by now?

We should like to speak plainly to the Nanking government. If you are unequal
to this job, you should at least help the People's Liberation Army do it,
as our army will soon cross the Yangtse River and advance south. At this
late hour, you should not indulge in idle talk and had better do some real
work to atone for your crimes. In that case you will not have to flee for
your lives, you will not have to submit to the bullying of Chiang Kai-shek's
sworn followers, and you will not be spurned for ever by the people. This
is your last chance. Don't lose it. The People's Liberation Army will soon
advance south of the Yangtse River. We are not bluffing. The People's Liberation
Army will advance, whether or not you sign the agreement accepting the eight
terms. An agreement signed before our army advances, will be advantageous
to many -- to the people, to the People's Liberation Army, to all those in
the Kuomintang government who wish to atone for their crimes by performing
meritorious service, and to the broad ranks of officers and men in the Kuomintang
army; it will be disadvantageous only to Chiang Kai-shek, his sworn followers
and the imperialists. If the agreement is not signed, the situation will
be about the same; solutions can be achieved by local negotiations. There
may yet be some fighting, but not much. Over the vast area and long front
extending from Sinkiang to Taiwan, the Kuomintang has only about 1,100,000
combat troops left, and so there will not be much fighting. Whether a general
agreement is signed, or whether no such agreement is signed but instead many
local agreements are signed, it will be all the same for Chiang Kai-shek,
for his sworn followers and for U.S. imperialism, in a word, for all those
reactionaries who will not change even unto death; they are irrevocably doomed.
Perhaps it will be slightly more advantageous to Nanking, as well as to
ourselves, to sign rather than not to sign a general agreement, and that
is why we are still striving to conclude it. But if a general agreement is
to be signed, we must be prepared as a consequence to deal with many messy
matters. It would be very much neater for us not to sign a general agreement
but instead to sign many local agreements. Nevertheless, we are still ready
to sign a general agreement. If the Nanking government and its delegation
are also willing to do so, they must make up their minds in the next few
days; all illusions and all empty talk should be discarded. We are not forcing
you to make up your minds. The Nanking government and its delegation are
free to make up their minds or not to. That is to say, you may either listen
to Chiang Kai-shek and Leighton Stuart and side with them irrevocably, or
listen to us and side with us; you are free to choose. But there is not much
time for you to make your choice. The People's Liberation Army will soon
start its march, and there is no opportunity left for hesitation.

NOTES


1. After Sun Fo's resignation, Li Tsung-jen appointed Ho
Ying-chin to succeed him as president of the bogus Executive Yuan on March
12, 1949.

2. On April l, 1949, over six thousand students from eleven
colleges and universities in Nanking demonstrated, demanding that the reactionary
Kuomintang government should accept the eight peace terms of the Chinese
Communist Party. On the instructions of Chiang Kai-shek, Chang Yao-ming,
commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang garrison forces at Nanking, ordered
soldiers, policemen and secret agents to beat the students brutally; two
were killed and more than a hundred wounded.

3. According to Tso Chuan, an ancient Chinese
historical work dealing with the important events of the Spring and Autumn
Era (770-475 B.C.), Ching Fu, a noble in the state of Lu, repeatedly stirred
up internal strife and murdered two reigning princes of that state. The saying
in the text was then current among the people of Lu, and Ching Fu's name
has since become a byword for those who stir up internal strife.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.