October 23, 1951

[Opening address at the Third Session of the First National Committee of
the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.]


Fellow Committee Members and Comrades,

The Third Session of the First National Committee of our People's Political
Consultative Conference is now open. Besides members of the National Committee,
there are present at this session specially invited representatives of the
Chinese People's Volunteers and the People's Liberation Army, model workers
in industry and agriculture, delegates from the old base areas, workers in
education, literature and art, industrialists and businessmen, experts in
various fields, representatives of religious circles, minority nationalities,
overseas Chinese, women and youth, representatives from provincial and municipal
consultative committees, etc., as well as many government personnel. The
members attending this session and those invited to sit in include many publicly
acclaimed combat heroes and model workers in industry, agriculture and other
fields. The size and scope of this session amply indicate that the People's
Republic of China has registered tremendous achievements and progress on
every front.

Since last year we have unfolded three large-scale movements in the country,
the movement to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea, the agrarian reform
movement and the movement to suppress counter-revolutionaries, and we have
won great victories. By and large, the remnant counter-revolutionaries on
the mainland will soon be eliminated. Agrarian reform will be completed in
1952, except in some areas inhabited by minority nationalities. In the movement
to resist U.S aggression and aid Korea, the Chinese people are more broadly
united than ever before and are waging a determined struggle against the
U.S. imperialist forces of aggression. Embodying the mighty will of the Chinese
people, the Chinese People's Volunteers have joined forces with the Korean
People's Army in smashing U.S. imperialism's mad scheme to overrun and occupy
the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and then to invade China's mainland;
thus the peace-loving people of Korea, China, Asia and the world have been
inspired and made more confident in their defence of peace and resistance
to aggression. We should extend our congratulations and pay tribute to the
heroic Chinese People's Volunteers and Korean People's Army!

Thanks to victories in these three mass movements and to the joint efforts
of the people's governments at all levels and of every section of the population,
our country has achieved unprecedented unity. The question of Tibet has been
solved by peaceful means. Our national defence has been strengthened. The
people's democratic dictatorship has been consolidated. Our currency and
commodity prices have remained stable, and our work of rehabilitation and
development in the spheres of economic construction, culture and education
has also taken a big stride forward.

On the industrial and agricultural fronts the growing patriotic movement
to increase production is a new phenomenon in our country which calls for
rejoicing. The agrarian reform in the countryside and the democratic reform
in factories and other enterprises enable our workers and peasants both to
display tremendous enthusiasm in their patriotic efforts to increase production
and to improve their material and cultural life. If we are good at uniting
with the workers and peasants, educating and relying on them, there is bound
to be a nation-wide upsurge in the patriotic movement to increase production.

On our cultural and educational front and among all types of intellectuals,
a movement for self-education and self-remoulding is unfolding on a broad
scale in accordance with the principles laid down by the Central People's
Government, and this too is a new phenomenon in our country which calls for
rejoicing. At the close of the Second Session of the National Committee I
suggested the use of criticism and self-criticism in self-education and
self-remoulding. This suggestion is being steadily translated into action.
Ideological remoulding, primarily that of all types of intellectuals, is
an important condition for the completion of democratic reforms in all fields
and the gradual industrialization of our country. We therefore wish still
greater successes to the movement for self-education and self-remoulding
as it goes steadily forward.

All facts prove that this system of ours, the people's democratic dictatorship,
is vastly superior to the political systems of the capitalist countries.
Under this system, the people of our country are able to tap their inexhaustible
strength. And such strength is invincible before any enemy.

The great struggle to resist U.S. aggression and aid Korea is going on and
must go on until the U.S. government is willing to come to a peaceful settlement.
We have no intention of encroaching on any country; it is aggression against
our country by the imperialists that we oppose. As everyone knows, the Chinese
people would not be fighting the U.S. forces if they had not occupied our
Taiwan, invaded the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and pushed on to
our northeastern borders. But since the U.S. aggressors have launched their
attack against us, we cannot but raise the banner of resistance to aggression.
This is absolutely necessary and perfectly just, and the whole nation understands
that it is so. To press on with this struggle, which is as necessary as it
is just, we must continue to stiffen our efforts in resisting U.S. aggression
and aiding Korea and must increase production and practice economy to support
the Chinese People's Volunteers. This is the central task of the Chinese
people today and accordingly the central task of our present session.

We have long been on record as maintaining that the Korean question should
be settled by peaceful means, and this is still our position. If the U.S.
government is willing to settle the question on a fair and reasonable basis
instead of undermining and obstructing the progress of the negotiations in
various underhand ways as it has done in the past, it will be possible for
the Korean armistice negotiations to be concluded successfully; otherwise
it will be impossible.

In the two years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we
have won great victories in all fields of work. We have won these victories
by relying on all the forces that can be united. Within the country, we have
relied on the firm unity of all the nationalities, democratic classes, democratic
parties, people's organizations and patriotic democrats under the leadership
of the working class and the Communist Party. Internationally, we have relied
on the firm unity of the camp of peace and democracy headed by the Soviet
Union and on the profound sympathy of the peace loving people throughout
the world. Hence our great victories in all spheres of work, which was not
what our enemies had expected. Our enemies thought that since the new-born
People's Republic of China was faced with a lot of difficulties and since
on top of that they were launching a war of aggression against us, we would
not be able to overcome our difficulties or deal counter-blows to the aggressors.
Contrary to their expectation, we have proved able to overcome our difficulties,
deal counter-blows to the aggressors and win great victories. Our enemies
are short-sighted, they fail to realize that our great domestic and international
unity is strong and that the founding of the People's Republic of China has
once and for all put an end to the days when the Chinese people could be
bullied by foreign imperialists. Nor do they realize that the birth of the
socialist Soviet Union, the People's Republic of China and the People's
Democracies, the firm unity between the two great countries of China and
the Soviet Union anchored in the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual
Assistance, the firm unity of the entire camp of peace and democracy and
the profound sympathy of the peace-loving people of the world for this great
camp have ended for good the era in which imperialism could dominate the
world. Our enemies fail to see all this and still want to bully the People's
Republic of China and dominate the world. But, comrades, I can say with
confidence that their design is futile, crazy, impossible of achievement.
Contrary to their thinking, the People's Republic of China will brook no
bullying, the great peace camp headed by the Soviet Union will brook no
encroachment, and the peace-loving people of the world will not be deceived.
Comrades, the victory of the great October Socialist Revolution has made
it certain that the people of the world will win victory, and today this
prospect becomes nearer and more certain with the birth of the People's Republic
of China and the People's Democracies. It is true that, in the historical
period following World War I and the October Revolution in Russia, three
imperialist states -- Germany, Italy and Japan -- made attempts to dominate
the world; this happened before the founding of the People's Republic of
China and the People's Democracies. But what came of it? Didn't the attempts
of the three imperialist states prove to be futile and crazy? Didn't the results
turn out to be just the opposite of what they wanted? Didn't the imperialists
who aimed at domination get struck down themselves? Today things are entirely
different; the great People's Republic of China has been founded, the People's
Democracies have been established, the level of political consciousness of
the people of the world has been raised, the struggle for national liberation
has been surging ahead all over Asia and in North Africa, the strength of
the imperialist bloc as a whole has been profoundly weakened and, what is
of vital importance, the strength of the Soviet Union, our closest ally,
has been greatly enhanced. In these circumstances, isn't the outcome quite
predictable if any imperialist country tries to follow in the footsteps of
the three aggressors, Germany, Italy and Japan? In a word, the world from
now on must be a world that belongs to the people, with the people of each
country governing themselves, and definitely not a world where imperialism
and its lackeys can continue to ride roughshod. I hope that the people of
our country will closely unite, that they will closely unite with our ally
the Soviet Union, with all the People's Democracies and with all nations
and peoples of the world that sympathize with us, and march forward to victory
in the struggle against aggression, to victory in building our great country,
to victory in the defence of a lasting world peace. Comrades, I am confident
that, so long as we do all this, victory will decidedly be ours.