As long as a small country can fight back, the big country will be afraid. If a small country
does not fight back, it will not be afraid of you. Look at Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. They
have no tanks or planes. They just use light weapons to fight and can shoot down planes.
In the past, tanks appeared at the end of World War I, and they were terrifying. Things are
different now. Tanks and air forces won't frighten the people. We are preparing now. If the
enemy wipes out our air force, we will rely on our infantry. If you occupy half of China, we
still have half. If you occupy our major transportation routes and major cities, we still have
our villages, medium-sized cities, and small cities. First, we're not fighting you; you're
fighting us. Second, this is a great way to train our people. We haven't fought a war in
twenty years. If you fight, I fight. The fighting I'm talking about is defensive warfare. We're
digging holes and tunnels everywhere.

[1] This is part of a conversation between Mao Zedong and a delegation of the Romanian
Grand National Assembly and Council of State led by Emil Podnarasi, a member of the
Central Executive Committee of the Romanian Communist Party and Vice Chairman of the
Council of State of the Romanian Socialist Republic.