Mao Zedong Calls for Unity to Build a
People’s Capital1
(August 13, 1949)
(Xinhua News Agency, Beiping, August 13) At a meeting of the Beiping
Representative Congress this afternoon, Chairman Mao Zedong of the Chinese
Communist Party delivered a brief speech. In his speech, Chairman Mao celebrated the success of the representative congress, and hoped:
…that representative congresses of this kind can be swiftly convened in all cities throughout the country, strengthening contacts between the government and
the people, assisting the government to carry out its various items of constructive
work, overcome difficulties, and in that way prepare the conditions to convene a
generally elected people’s congress.
Chairman Mao said,
When conditions are mature, the current method of representative congresses
can execute the power of a people’s congress and become the city’s most powerful organ, electing the municipal government. Based on the situation in Beiping,
this should be possible after a few months or so. There are many benefits to doing
this, and I hope the representatives will step up their preparations.
Chairman Mao appealed to
… all of the people of Beiping, apart from the remnants of the Guomindang
reactionaries and their covert secret agent elements, to unite as one to overcome
difficulties and fight to build a people’s capital.
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong ji, Vol. 10, pp. 315–16, where it is reproduced
from Renmin ribao, August 14, 1949.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-304