August 28, 1949


We have criticized the U.S. White Paper and Acheson's Letter of Transmittal
in three articles ("A Confession of Helplessness",
[1] "Cast Away Illusions, Prepare for Struggle"
and "Farewell, Leighton Stuart!"). Our criticism has aroused widespread attention
and discussion in all democratic parties, people's organizations, the press,
universities and schools, and among democratic personages in all walks of
life throughout the country; they have issued many correct and useful
declarations, statements and comments. Forums on the White Paper are being
held and the entire discussion is still developing. The discussion covers
Sino-U.S. relations, Sino-Soviet relations, China's foreign relations in
the past hundred years, the mutual relation between the Chinese revolution
and the revolutionary forces of the world, the relation between the Kuomintang
reactionaries and the Chinese people, the proper attitude to be adopted by
the democratic parties, people's organizations and democratic personages
in all walks of life in the struggle against imperialism, the proper attitude
to be adopted by liberals or so-called democratic individualists on the country's
internal and external relations as a whole, the ways of dealing with new
imperialist intrigues, and so on. All this is very good and is of great
educational value.

The whole world is now discussing the Chinese revolution and the U.S. White
Paper. This is no accident, this shows the great significance of the Chinese
revolution in world history. As for us Chinese, though we have basically
won victory in our revolution, we have had no opportunity for a long time
to discuss thoroughly the interrelations of this revolution and various forces
at home and abroad. Such a discussion is necessary, and now an opportunity
has been found in the discussion of the U.S. White Paper. We had no opportunity
for this kind of discussion before because we had not won basic victory in
the revolution, because Chinese and foreign reactionaries had cut off the
big cities from the People's Liberated Areas and because some aspects of
the contradictions had not yet been fully revealed by the development of
the revolution. Now the situation is different. The greater part of China
has been liberated, all aspects of the internal and external contradictions
have been fully revealed, and just at this moment the United States has published
the White Paper. Thus the opportunity for the discussion has been found.

The White Paper is a counter-revolutionary document which openly demonstrates
U.S. imperialist intervention in China. In this respect, imperialism has
departed from its normal practice. The great, victorious Chinese revolution
has compelled one section or faction of the U.S. imperialist clique to reply
to attacks from another by publishing certain authentic data on its own actions
against the Chinese people and drawing reactionary conclusions from the data,
because otherwise it could not get by. The fact that public revelation has
replaced concealment is a sign that imperialism has departed from its normal
practice. Until a few weeks ago, before the publication of the White Paper,
the governments of the imperialist countries, though they engaged in
counter-revolutionary activities every day, had never told the truth in their
statements or official documents but had filled or at least flavoured them
with professions of humanity, justice and virtue. This is still true of British
imperialism, an old hand at trickery and deception, as well as of several
other smaller imperialist countries. Opposed by the people on the one hand
and by another faction in their own camp on the other, the newly arrived,
upstart and neurotic U.S. imperialist group -- Truman, Marshall, Acheson,
Leighton Stuart and others -- have considered it necessary and practicable
to reveal publicly some (but not all) of their counter-revolutionary doings
in order to argue with opponents in their own camp as to which kind of
counter-revolutionary tactics is the more clever. In this way they have tried
to convince their opponents so that they can go on applying what they regard
as the cleverer counter-revolutionary tactics. Two factions of
counter-revolutionaries have been competing with each other. One said, "Ours
is the best method." The other said, "Ours is the best." When the dispute
was at its hottest, one faction suddenly laid its cards on the table and
revealed many of its treasured tricks of the past -- and there you have the
White Paper.

And so the White Paper has become material for the education of the Chinese
people. For many years, a number of Chinese (at one time a great number)
only half-believed what we Communists said on many questions, mainly on the
nature of imperialism and of socialism, and thought, "It may not be so."
This situation has undergone a change since August 5, 1949. For Acheson gave
them a lesson and he spoke in his capacity as U.S. Secretary of State. In
the case of certain data and conclusions, what he said coincides with what
we Communists and other progressives have been saying. Once this happened,
people could not but believe us, and many had their eyes opened -- "So that's
the way things really were!"

Acheson begins his Letter of Transmittal to Truman with the story of how
he compiled the White Paper. His White Paper, he says, is different from
all others, it is very objective and very frank:

  This is a frank record of an extremely complicated and most unhappy period
  in the life of a great country to which the United States has long been attached
  by ties of closest friendship. No available item has been omitted because
  it contains statements critical of our policy or might be the basis of future
  criticism. The inherent strength of our system is the responsiveness of the
  Government to an informed and critical public opinion. It is precisely this
  informed and critical public opinion which totalitarian governments, whether
  Rightist or Communist, cannot endure and do not tolerate.


Certain ties do exist between the Chinese people and the American people.
Through their joint efforts, these ties may develop in the future to the
point of the "closest friendship". But the obstacles placed by the Chinese
and U.S. reactionaries were and still are a great hindrance to these ties.
Moreover, because the reactionaries of both countries have told many lies
to their peoples and played many filthy tricks, that is, spread much bad
propaganda and done many bad deeds, the ties between the two peoples are
far from close. What Acheson calls "ties of closest friendship" are those
between the reactionaries of the two countries, not between the peoples.
Here Acheson is neither objective nor frank, he confuses the relations between
the two peoples with those between the reactionaries. For the peoples of
the two countries the victory of the Chinese revolution and the defeat of
the Chinese and U.S. reactionaries are the most joyful events that have ever
happened, and the present period is the happiest of their lives. Conversely,
it is only for Truman, Marshall, Acheson, Leighton Stuart and other U.S.
reactionaries and for Chiang Kai-shek, H. H. Kung, T. V. Soong, Chen Li-fu,
Li Tsung-jen, Pai Chung-hsi and other Chinese reactionaries that it is truly
"an extremely complicated and most unhappy period" in their lives.

In considering public opinion, the Achesons have mixed up the public opinion
of the reactionaries with that of the people. Towards the public opinion
of the people, the Achesons have no "responsiveness" whatsoever and are blind
and deaf. For years they have turned a deaf ear to the opposition voiced
by the people of the United States, China and the rest of the world to the
reactionary foreign policy of the U.S. government. What does Acheson mean
by "informed and critical public opinion"? Nothing but the numerous instruments
of propaganda, such as the newspapers, news agencies, periodicals and
broadcasting stations which are controlled by the two reactionary parties
in the United States, the Republicans and the Democrats, and which specialize
in the manufacture of lies and in threats against the people. Of these things
Acheson says rightly that the Communists "cannot endure and do not tolerate"
them (nor do the people). That is why we have closed down the imperialist
offices of information, stopped the imperialist news agencies from distributing
their dispatches to the Chinese press and forbidden them the freedom to go
on poisoning the souls of the Chinese people on Chinese soil.

To say that a government led by the Communist Party is a "totalitarian
government" is also half true. It is a government that exercises dictatorship
over domestic and foreign reactionaries and does not give any of them any
freedom to carry on their counter-revolutionary activities. Becoming angry,
the reactionaries rail: "Totalitarian government!" Indeed, this is absolutely
true so far as the power of the people's government to suppress the reactionaries
is concerned. This power is now written into our programme; it will also
be written into our constitution. Like food and clothing, this power is something
a victorious people cannot do without even for a moment. It is an excellent
thing, a protective talisman, an heirloom, which should under no circumstances
be discarded before the thorough and total abolition of imperialism abroad
and of classes within the country. The more the reactionaries rail "totalitarian
government", the more obviously is it a treasure. But Acheson's remark is
also half false. For the masses of the people, a government of the people's
democratic dictatorship led by the Communist Party is not dictatorial or
autocratic but democratic. It is the people's own government. The working
personnel of this government must respectfully heed the voice of the people.
At the same time, they are teachers of the people, teaching the people by
the method of self-education or self-criticism.

As to what Acheson calls a "Rightist totalitarian government", the U.S.
government has ranked first in the world among such governments since the
downfall of the fascist governments of Germany, Italy and Japan. All bourgeois
governments, including the governments of the German, Italian and Japanese
reactionaries which are being shielded by imperialism, are governments of
this type. The Tito government of Yugoslavia has now become an accomplice
of this gang. The U.S. and British governments belong to the type in which
the bourgeoisie, and this class alone, exercises dictatorship over the people.
Contrary in all respects to the people's government, this type of government
practices so-called democracy for the bourgeoisie but is dictatorial towards
the people. The governments of Hitler, Mussolini, Tojo, Franco and Chiang
Kai-shek discarded the veil of democracy for the bourgeoisie or never used
it because the class struggle in their countries was extremely intense and
they found it advantageous to discard, or not to use, this veil lest the
people too should make use of it. The U.S. government still has a veil of
democracy, but it has been cut down to a tiny patch by the U.S. reactionaries
and become very faded, and is not what it used to be in the days of Washington,
Jefferson and Lincoln.[2] The reason is that the class
struggle has become more intense. When the class struggle becomes still more
intense, the veil of U.S. democracy will inevitably be flung to the four
winds.

As everybody can see, Acheson makes a great many mistakes the moment he opens
his mouth. This is inevitable because he is a reactionary. As to how much
of a "frank record" the White Paper is, we think it is frank and not frank
at the same time. The Achesons are frank where they imagine that frankness
will benefit their party or faction. Otherwise, they are not. To feign frankness
is a ruse of war.

NOTES


1. A commentary by the editorial department of the Hsinhua
News Agency published on August 12, 1949.

2. George Washington (1732-99), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
and Abraham Lincoln (1809-65) were well-known bourgeois statesmen in the
early days of the United States. Washington was the commander-in-chief of
the revolutionary army of the colonies during the American War of Independence
(1775-83) and the first president of the United States. Jefferson drafted
the American Declaration of Independence and became president of the United
States. Lincoln advocated the abolition of Negro slavery in the United States
and during his presidency led the war against the slave-owners of the southern
states (1861-65); he issued the "Emancipation Proclamation" in 1862.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.