Commemorate the Great Revolutionary Forerunner, Mr. Sun Zhongshan!

Commemorate him for, in the preparatory period of the Chinese democratic revolution, taking a clear Chinese revolutionary democrat stance and waging a sharp struggle against the Chinese reformists. In this struggle, he was the banner of the Chinese revolutionary democrats.

Commemorate his great achievements in leading the people to overthrow the imperial system and establish the republic during the Xinhai Revolution.

Commemorate his great achievements in developing the Old Three People's Principles into the New Three People's Principles during the first period of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation.

He left us many beneficial things in terms of his governing thought.

Modern Chinese people, except for a small handful of reactionaries, are all successors to Mr. Sun's revolutionary cause.

We have completed the democratic revolution that Mr. Sun did not complete, and have developed this revolution into a socialist revolution. We are in the process of completing this revolution.

Things are always developing. From the 1911 Revolution, that is, the Xinhai Revolution, to this year, it has only been forty-five years, and China's face has completely changed. In another forty-five years, it will be the year 2001, that is, when we enter the 21st century, China's face will change even more drastically. China will become a powerful socialist industrial country. China should be like this. Because China is a country with 9.6 million square kilometers of land and 600 million people, China should make greater contributions to mankind. And this contribution, in the past for a long period of time, has been too little. This makes us feel ashamed.

But we must be modest. Not only should we be like this now, but we should also be like this after forty-five years, and we should always be like this. In international exchanges, the Chinese people should resolutely, thoroughly, cleanly, and completely eliminate great-power chauvinism.

Mr. Sun was a modest person. I have heard him give many speeches and felt that he had a magnificent spirit. From his attention to studying China's historical situation and current social situation, and from his attention to studying foreign situations, including the Soviet Union, I know that he was very humble.

He devoted his whole life to transforming China with all his heart and soul, truly exhausting his energy and dying only after his task was done.

Like many great historical figures who stand on the positive side and guide the trend of the times, they all have their shortcomings, Mr. Sun also had his shortcomings. This must be explained from historical conditions to make people understand, and we cannot be overly critical of our predecessors.

(Xinhua Ban Yue Kan, No. 23, 1956)