September 30, 1949

[The First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference entrusted Comrade Mao Tsetung with the drafting of this declaration.
On the proposal of the delegates the phrase "under the leadership of Chairman
Mao Tsetung, the leader of our people" was inserted in the declaration at
the time of its adoption.]


Fellow-Countrymen,

The First Plenary Session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative
Conference has successfully fulfilled its tasks.

This session has been attended by delegates from all the democratic parties
and people's organizations of China, the People's Liberation Army, the various
regions and nationalities of the country, the overseas Chinese and other
patriotic democrats; it represents the will of the people of the whole country
and demonstrates their unprecedented great unity.

This great unity of the whole people has been achieved only after long years
of heroic struggle, only after the Chinese people and the People's Liberation
Army, led by the Communist Party of China, defeated Chiang Kai-shek's reactionary
Kuomintang government backed by U.S. imperialism. For over a century, the
pioneers of the Chinese people, including such outstanding men as the great
revolutionary Dr. Sun Yat-sen who led the Revolution of 1911, have guided
the masses in their unceasing struggles to overthrow oppression by the
imperialists and reactionary Chinese regimes; this goal has now been finally
attained through their dauntless and persistent efforts. We are holding this
session at a time when the Chinese people have triumphed over their enemies,
changed the face of their country and founded the People's Republic of China.
We the 475 million Chinese people have now stood up and the future of our
nation is infinitely bright.

Under the leadership of Chairman Mao Tsetung, the leader of our people, our
session, working with one mind and in accordance with the principle of New
Democracy, has enacted the Organic Law of the Chinese People's Political
Consultative Conference, the Organic Law of the Central People's Government
of the People's Republic of China and the Common Programme of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference; decided on Peking as the capital
of the People's Republic of China; adopted a flag with five stars on a field
of red as the national flag of the People's Republic of China and the March
of the Volunteers as the present national anthem; adopted the Christian
era as the chronological system of the People's Republic of China; and elected
the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference
and the Central People's Government Council of the People's Republic of China.
Thus begins a new era in the history of China.

Fellow-countrymen, the founding of the People's Republic of China is proclaimed,
and the Chinese people now have their own Central Government. In accordance
with the Common Programme, the government will exercise the people's democratic
dictatorship over the length and breadth of China. It will direct the People's
Liberation Army to carry the revolutionary war through to the end, wipe out
the remnant enemy troops and liberate the entire territory of the country
to fulfil the great task of unifying China. It will lead the people of the
whole country in surmounting all difficulties and undertaking large-scale
construction in the economic and cultural spheres to eliminate the poverty
and ignorance inherited from the old China and improve the material and cultural
life of the people step by step. It will protect the interests of the people
and stamp out all the conspiracies of counter-revolutionaries. It will strengthen
the people's army, navy and air force, consolidate national defence, safeguard
our territorial integrity and sovereignty and oppose aggression by any
imperialist country. It will unite and ally itself with all peace-loving
and freedom-loving countries, nations and peoples, and first of all with
the Soviet Union and the New Democracies, and together with them fight against
imperialist plots to provoke war and so strive for lasting world peace.

Fellow-countrymen, we should get ourselves better organized. We should organize
the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people in political, military, economic,
cultural and other organizations and put an end to the disorganized state
characterizing the old China, so that the great collective strength of the
masses may be tapped both to support the People's Government and the People's
Liberation Army and to build a new China, independent, democratic, peaceful,
unified, prosperous and strong.

The heroes of the people who laid down their lives in the People's War of
Liberation and the people's revolution shall live for ever in our memory!

Long live the great unity of the Chinese people!

Long live the People's Republic of China!

Long live the Central People's Government!

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.