CONFERENCE


June 15, 1949


Fellow Delegates,

Today we are holding the inaugural session of the Preparatory Meeting of
the New Political Consultative Conference. [1]
The task of this meeting is to complete all necessary preparations and speedily
convene the New Political Consultative Conference, which will form a democratic
coalition government in order to lead the people of the whole country in
eliminating the remnant forces of Kuomintang reaction and unifying all China
as swiftly as possible, and in carrying out, systematically and step by step,
country-wide construction in the political, economic and cultural fields
and in national defence. This is what the people of the whole country expect
us to do, and we must do it.

The convening of the New Political Consultative Conference was proposed to
the people of the whole country by the Communist Party of China on May 1,
1948.[2] The proposal obtained a quick response
from the democratic parties, people's organizations, democratic personages
in all walks of life throughout China, the country's minority nationalities
and the overseas Chinese. The Communist Party of China, the democratic parties,
people's organizations, democratic personages in all walks of life, minority
nationalities and overseas Chinese all hold that we must overthrow the rule
of imperialism, feudalism, bureaucrat-capitalism and the Kuomintang
reactionaries, convene a Political Consultative Conference of representatives
of all the democratic parties, people's organizations, democratic personages
in all walks of life, minority nationalities and overseas Chinese, proclaim
the founding of the People's Republic of China and elect a democratic coalition
government to represent it. Only thus can our great motherland free herself
from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal fate and take the road of independence,
freedom, peace, unity, strength and prosperity. This is a common political
basis. It is the common political basis for the united struggle of the Communist
Party of China, the democratic parties, people's organizations, democratic
personages in all walks of life, minority nationalities and overseas Chinese;
it is also the common political basis for the united struggle of the whole
people. So firm is this political basis that no serious-minded democratic
party, people's organization or democratic personage has expressed any
differences of opinion, and all hold that this is the only road which leads
in the right direction for solving all China's problems.

The people of the whole country supporting their own People's Liberation
Army have won the war. This great People's War of Liberation, begun in July
1946 has now lasted three years. The war was launched by the Kuomintang
reactionaries with the help they received from foreign imperialism. In unleashing
this civil war against the people the Kuomintang reactionaries perfidiously
and unscrupulously tore up the truce agreement and the resolutions of the
Political Consultative Conference of January 1946. But in three short years
they have been defeated by the heroic People's Liberation Army. Not long
ago, after the Kuomintang reactionaries' peace plot was exposed, the People's
Liberation Army bravely advanced and crossed the Yangtse River. Nanking,
the capital of the Kuomintang reactionaries, is now in our hands. Shanghai,
Hangchow, Nanchang, Wuhan and Sian have been liberated. At this very moment,
the field armies of the People's Liberation Army are conducting a great march
unprecedented in Chinese history into the southern and northwestern provinces.
In three years the People's Liberation Army has wiped out a total of 5,590,000
of the reactionary Kuomintang troops. Now the remnants of the Kuomintang
forces number only about 1,500,000, including regulars, irregulars and those
in the military establishments and academies in the rear. It will still take
some time to mop up these enemy remnants, but not long.

This is a victory for the people of all China, and also a victory for the
peoples of the whole world. The whole world, except the imperialists and
the reactionaries in various countries, is elated and inspired by this great
victory of the Chinese people. The struggle of the Chinese people against
their own enemies and the struggles of the peoples of the world against their
own enemies have the same meaning. The people of China and the peoples of
the world have all witnessed the fact that the imperialists have directed
the Chinese reactionaries ruthlessly to oppose the Chinese people by means
of a counter-revolutionary war and that the Chinese people have triumphantly
overthrown the reactionaries by means of a revolutionary war.

Here, I think it is necessary to call people's attention to the fact that
the imperialists and their running dogs, the Chinese reactionaries, will
not resign themselves to defeat in this land of China. They will continue
to gang up against the Chinese people in every possible way. For example,
they will smuggle their agents into China to sow dissension and make trouble.
That is certain; they will never neglect these activities. To take another
example, they will incite the Chinese reactionaries, and even throw in their
own forces, to blockade China's ports. They will do this as long as it is
possible. Furthermore, if they still hanker after adventures, they will send
some of their troops to invade and harass China's frontiers; this, too, is
not impossible. All this we must take fully into account. Just because we
have won victory, we must never relax our vigilance against the frenzied
plots for revenge by the imperialists and their running dogs. Whoever relaxes
vigilance will disarm himself politically and land himself in a passive position.
In view of these circumstances, the people all over the country must unite
to smash resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely every plot against
the Chinese people by the imperialists and their running dogs, the Chinese
reactionaries. China must be independent, China must be liberated, China's
affairs must be decided and run by the Chinese people themselves, and no
further interference, not even the slightest, will be tolerated from any
imperialist country.

The Chinese revolution is a revolution of the broad masses of the whole nation.
Everybody is our friend, except the imperialists, the feudalists and the
bureaucrat-capitalists, the Kuomintang reactionaries and their accomplices.
We have a broad and solid revolutionary united front. This united front is
so broad that it includes the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty
bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. This united front is so solid that
it possesses the resolute will and the inexhaustible capacity to defeat every
enemy and overcome every difficulty. The epoch we are living in is an epoch
in which the imperialist system is heading for total collapse, the imperialists
have fallen inextricably into crisis and, no matter how they continue to
oppose the Chinese people, the Chinese people will always have a way to win
final victory.

At the same time, we proclaim to the whole world that what we oppose is
exclusively the imperialist system and its plots against the Chinese people.
We are willing to discuss with any foreign government the establishment of
diplomatic relations on the basis of the principles of equality, mutual benefit
and mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, provided it
is willing to sever relations with the Chinese reactionaries, stops conspiring
with them or helping them and adopts an attitude of genuine, and not
hypocritical, friendship towards People's China. The Chinese people wish
to have friendly co-operation with the people of all countries and to resume
and expand international trade in order to develop production and promote
economic prosperity.

Fellow Delegates, all the conditions are ripe for us to convene the New Political
Consultative Conference and to form a democratic coalition government. The
people throughout the country are most eagerly expecting us to convene the
conference and form the government. I believe the work we have now begun
will fulfil this hope, and do so before long.

Upon the formation of China's democratic coalition government, its central
tasks will be: (1) to mop up the remnants of the reactionaries and suppress
their trouble-making; and (2) to do everything possible and make the utmost
effort to restore and develop the people's economy and, at the same time,
to restore and develop the people's culture and education.

The Chinese people will see that, once China's destiny is in the hands of
the people, China, like the sun rising in the east, will illuminate every
corner of the land with a brilliant flame, swiftly clean up the mire left
by the reactionary government, heal the wounds of war and build a new, powerful
and prosperous people's republic worthy of the name.

Long live the People's Republic of China!

Long live the democratic coalition government!

Long live the great unity of the people of the whole country!

NOTES


1. The meeting was held at Peiping from June 15 to 19,
1949. It was attended by 134 representatives from twenty-three organizations
and groups, including the Communist Party of China, the various democratic
parties, the people's organizations, democratic personages in all walks of
life, the minority nationalities of the country and the overseas Chinese.
It adopted the "Organic Rules of the Preparatory Committee of the New Political
Consultative Conference" and the "Provisions Regarding the Organizations
and Groups Participating in the New Political Consultative Conference and
the Size of Their Delegations" and elected a Standing Committee headed by
Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The Conference was called the New Political Consultative
Conference to distinguish it from the Political Consultative Conference which
had opened at Chungking on January 10, 1946. Its name was changed to the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at its first plenary session
on September 21, 1949.

2. See "On the September Meeting- Circular of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China", Note 4, p. 276 of this volume.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.