(July 1958)
By leveraging our country’s favorable terrain, particularly its scattered islands, it would be possible to annihilate the enemy’s main forces at the coast and on the sea, preventing them from penetrating deep into our territory. Moreover, we should strike at the very bases from which the enemy launches its attacks. In this way, we will not only successfully defend our motherland but, after destroying the bulk of the invading forces, adopt a pursuit strategy to disarm the enemy’s aggressive armed forces at their originating strongholds, thereby eradicating the root cause of future aggression and simultaneously liberating the oppressed peoples of the aggressor nation.
[I] This is a revision made by Mao Zedong to a passage in the third section, “Strategic Guidelines and National Defense Construction Work,” of Peng Dehuai’s concluding speech at the expanded meeting of the CPC Central Military Commission on July 19, 1958. The words printed in Song typeface represent text added or rewritten by Mao Zedong.

Archival photo
From July 31 to August 3, 1958, Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee, paid a visit to China. The photograph shows Mao Zedong greeting Khrushchev at the airport.