February 1, 1940
[This was an open telegram drafted by Comrade Mao Tse-tung on behalf of the Yenan mass rally denouncing Wang Ching-wei.]
This mass rally against Wang Ching-wei, held in Yenan on February 1, unanimously resolves, in righteous indignation, to denounce his treason and capitulation and to wage the War of Resistance Against Japan to the very end. To overcome the present crisis and ensure victory in the War of Resistance, we hereby submit ten major points for saving the country, in the hope that the National Government, all political parties and groups, all officers and men fighting in the War of Resistance and all our fellow-countrymen will accept them and act upon them.
1. Let the whole nation denounce the Wang Ching-weis. Now that the traitor Wang Ching-wei has gathered his gang together, betrayed his country, attached himself to the enemy and signed traitorous secret pacts, playing the jackal to the tiger, all our countrymen demand his death. But this only takes care of the open Wang Ching-weis and leaves out the undercover ones. The latter are either craftily seizing key posts and swaggering about, or working obscurely and worming their way into all walks of life. In effect, the corrupt officials are part of the Wang Ching-wei gang and all the friction-mongers are its underlings. Unless there is a national campaign to denounce the Wang Ching-weis, a campaign in town and country and from top to bottom in which everyone is mobilized, including all political parties, government organs, armed forces, civilian bodies, the press and the educational institutions, the Wang Ching-wei gang will never be eradicated but will persist in its nefarious activities, doing incalculable damage by opening the door to the enemy from without and by subversion from within. The government should issue a decree calling on the whole people to repudiate the Wang Ching-weis. Wherever the decree is not carried out, the officials should be called to account. The Wang Ching-wei gang must be extirpated. This is the first point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
2. Strengthen unity. Nowadays some people talk not of unity but of unification, and the implication is that unification means nothing short of liquidating the Communist Party, disbanding the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies, abolishing the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region and demolishing the anti-Japanese forces everywhere. What this kind of talk ignores is the fact that the Communist Party, the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies and the Shensi-Kansu-Ningsia Border Region are the staunchest advocates of unification in all China. Was it not they who recommended the peaceful settlement of the Sian Incident? Is it not they who have initiated the Anti-Japanese National United Front, proposed a unified democratic republic and worked really hard for both? Is it not they who are standing at the forefront of the nation's defences, resisting seventeen enemy divisions, shielding the Central Plains and the Northwest and defending northern China and the regions south of the lower Yangtse, and resolutely applying the Three People's Principles and the Programme of Armed Resistance and National Reconstruction? Yet the moment Wang Ching-wei openly came out against the Communists and sided with the Japanese, sorcerers like Chang Chun-mai and Yeh Ching chimed in with tendentious articles, and the anti-Communist and die-hard cliques joined in by stirring up "friction". Autocratic rule has been imposed in the name of unification. The principle of unity has been discarded and the thin end of the wedge of disruption driven in. This Szuma Chao trick is obvious to every man in the street.[1] The Communist Party, the Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies and the Border Region stand firmly for genuine and against sham unification, for rational and against irrational unification, and for unification in substance and against unification in form. They advocate unification for resistance and not for capitulation, for unity and not for division, for progress and not for retrogression. Unification on the basis of these three--resistance, unity and progress--is genuine, rational and real unification. To seek unification on any other basis, whatever intrigues or tricks are used, is like "going south by driving the chariot north"; with that we beg to disagree. All the local anti-Japanese forces should be looked after equally well, without discriminating against some and favouring others; all of them should be trusted, provisioned, supported, and encouraged with rewards. There should be sincerity and not hypocrisy, large-mindedness and not pettiness, in dealing with people. If things are really done in this way, all except those with ulterior motives will unite and take the road of national unification. It is an unalterable truth that unification must be based on unity and unity in its turn must be based on progress, and that only progress can bring unity and only unity can bring unification. This is the second point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
3. Put constitutional government into effect.. The long years of "political tutelage" have yielded nothing. "A thing turns into its opposite if pushed too far"; hence constitutional government is now on the order of the day. There is still no freedom of speech, the ban on political parties has not been lifted, and constitutionalism is violated everywhere. If the constitution is drawn up on these lines, it will be a mere scrap of official paper. Such constitutionalism will be no different from one-party dictatorship. Now that there is a profound national crisis, with the Japanese and Wang Ching-wei harassing us from without and the traitors disrupting us from within, our existence as a nation and people will be placed in jeopardy unless there is a change of policy. The government should immediately lift the ban on the political parties and encourage freedom of opinion to show that it sincerely intends to put constitutionalism into practice. Nothing is more urgent for winning the full confidence of the people and shaping the destiny of the nation anew. This is the third point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
4. Put an end to the "friction". Since the "Measures for Restricting the Activities of Alien Parties" were introduced in March last year, the clamour for "restricting", "corroding" and "combating" the Communist Party has reverberated throughout the country, there has been one tragic incident after another, and blood has flown freely. As if this were not enough, the additional "Measures for Dealing with the Alien Party Problem" were introduced in October last year. Then there are the "Directives for Dealing with the Alien Party Problem" in northwestern, northern and central China. People have been saying, and quite justifiably, that "political restriction" of the Communist Party has been succeeded by "military restriction". In fact, restricting Communism equals anti-communism. And anti-communism is the cunning and pernicious scheme used by the Japanese and Wang Ching-wei for subjugating China. That is why the people are suspicious and shocked and are telling one another about it, and are afraid that the bitter tragedy of a decade ago is being re-enacted. Matters have gone far enough, with the Pingkiang Massacre in Hunan, the Chuehshan Massacre in Honan, the attack on the Eighth Route Army by Chang Yin-wu in Hopei, the attack on the guerrillas by Chin Chi-jung in Shantung, the ruthless slaughter of between five and six hundred Communists by Cheng Ju-huai in eastern Hupeh, the large-scale assaults on the garrison forces of the Eighth Route Army by the Central Army in eastern Kansu and, more recently, the tragedy in Shansi where the old army attacked the new army and invaded positions held by the Eighth Route Army. If such incidents are not immediately prohibited, both sides will be doomed, and what hope will there be then of victory over Japan? For the sake of unity in the War of Resistance, the government should order the punishment of all the perpetrators of these massacres and announce to the whole nation that no such incident will be allowed to recur. This is the fourth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
5. Protect the youth. Concentration camps have recently been set up near Sian, and people have been horrified to learn that more than seven hundred progressive young people from the northwestern and central provinces have already been interned there, subjected to mental and physical bondage and treated like convicts. What crime have they committed to deserve such cruelty? Young people are the cream of the nation, and the progressive ones in particular are our most precious asset in the War of Resistance. Everyone should enjoy freedom of belief; ideas can never be suppressed by force of arms. The crime of the ten years of "cultural suppression" is known to everyone; why should anyone desire to repeat it today? The government should immediately issue a nation-wide order for the protection of youth, for the abolition of the concentration camps near Sian and for the strict prohibition of the outrageous attacks on young people in various places. This is the fifth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
6. Support the front. Troops who are fighting in the very front line and with fine records of service, such as the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and certain other units, are receiving the worst treatment; they are thinly clad, badly fed and kept short of ammunition and medicines. Yet unscrupulous traitors are allowed to slander them. There is a deafening din of countless absurd slanders against them. Merit goes unrewarded and distinguished service uncited, while false charges and malicious plots become more and more brazen. This fantastic state of affairs dampens the ardour of our officers and men and wins applause only from the enemy; on no account must it be allowed to continue. To lift up the hearts of the troops and so help the war, the government should adequately provision the front-line troops who have good service records and at the same time strictly prohibit the treacherous slanders and accusations against them. This is the sixth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
7. Proscribe the secret service. People are comparing the secret service agents to Chou Hsing and Lai Chun-chen [2] of the Tang Dynasty and Wei Chung-hsien and Liu Chin [3] of the Ming Dynasty because of their lawlessness and violence. Ignoring the enemy and concentrating on our own countrymen, they are committing innumerable murders and insatiably taking bribes; in fact the secret service is the headquarters of the rumour-mongers and a breeding ground of treason and evil. Ordinary people everywhere recoil and turn away in fear from these fiendish brutes of agents. To preserve its own prestige, the government should immediately proscribe these activities of the secret service and reorganize it, defining its duties as exclusively directed against the enemy and the traitors, so that the people's confidence may be restored and the foundations of the state strengthened. This is the seventh point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
8. Dismiss corrupt officials. Since the beginning of the War of Resistance, there have been cases of officials netting up to 100 million yuan out of the national crisis and taking as many as eight or nine concubines. Conscription, government bonds, economic controls, famine relief and war relief, all without exception have become money-making opportunities for corrupt officials. With such a pack of wolves running wild, no wonder the country's affairs are in chaos. The people are seething with discontent and anger, yet none dare expose the ruthlessness of these officials. To save the country from collapse, drastic and effective steps should immediately be taken to clear out all corrupt officials. This is the eighth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
9. Put the Testament of Dr. Sun Yat-sen into effect. The Testament says:
For forty years I have devoted myself to the cause of the national revolution with the aim of winning freedom and equality for China. My experiences during these forty years have firmly convinced me that to achieve this aim we must arouse the masses of the people....
A most remarkable statement indeed, and we the 450 million people of China are all familiar with it. But the Testament is more often chanted than carried out. Desecrators of the Testament are rewarded while those who honour it in their acts are punished. What could be more preposterous? The government should decree that anyone who dares to violate the Testament and who tramples on the masses of the people instead of arousing them will be punished for profaning Dr. Sun Yat-sen's memory. This is the ninth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
10. Put the Three People's Principles into effect. The Three People's Principles are the platform of the Kuomintang. Yet many people, making anti-communism their first duty, are giving up the war effort and doing everything possible to suppress and hold back the people as they rise to resist Japan, which is tantamount to abandoning the Principle of Nationalism; officials are depriving the people of all democratic rights, which is tantamount to abandoning the Principle of Democracy; they are ignoring the people's sufferings, which is tantamount to abandoning the Principle of the People's Livelihood. Such persons pay only lip-service to the Three People's Principles and either ridicule those who seriously try to put them into effect as busy-bodies or severely punish them. Thus, all sorts of fantastic abuses have sprung up and the government's prestige has reached rock bottom. An unequivocal order should immediately be issued for the strict carrying out of the Three People's Principles throughout the country. Those who violate the order should be severely punished and all who carry it out amply encouraged. It is only in this way that the Three People's Principles can at long last be put into effect and the foundations laid for victory in the war. This is the tenth point which we urge you to accept and act upon.
These ten proposals are essential measures for saving the nation and winning the war. Now that the enemy is stepping up his aggression against China and traitor Wang Ching-wei is running wild, we dare not remain silent on what we feel to be crucial issues. Please accept and act upon these proposals, and great advantage will ensue to the War of Resistance and the cause of national liberation. It is with a keen sense of urgency that we state our views, and we await your considered opinion.
NOTES
1. Szuma Chao was a prime minister of the state of Wei (220-265) who nursed a secret ambition to ascend the throne. The emperor once remarked: "Szuma Chao's intention is obvious to every man in the street."
2. Chou Hsing and Lai Chun-chen were notoriously cruel inquisitors in the Tang Dynasty. They organized a network of spies who wantonly arrested people they disliked and subjected these people to all kinds of torture.
3. Liu Chin and Wei Chung-hsien were eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty. The first was a favourite of Emperor Wu Tsung (in the 16th century), and the second of Emperor Hsi Tsung (in the 17th century). They made use of large secret services to persecute and murder those who opposed them.