THE TASKS OF THE CHINESE COMMUNIST PARTY
IN THE PERIOD OF RESISTANCE TO JAPAN
May 3, 1937
[Comrade Mao Tse-tung delivered this report at
the National Conference of the Communist Party of China, held in Yenan in May
1937.]
THE PRESENT STAGE OF DEVELOPMENT OF CHINA'S EXTERNAL AND
INTERNAL CONTRADICTIONS
1. As the contradiction between China and Japan has become the
principal one and China's internal contradictions have dropped into a secondary
and subordinate place, changes have occurred in China's international relations
and internal class relations, giving rise to a new stage of development in the
current situation.
2. China has long been in the grip of two acute and basic
contradictions, the contradiction between China and imperialism and the
contradiction between feudalism and the masses of the people. In 1927 the
bourgeoisie, represented by the Kuomintang, betrayed the revolution and sold
China's national interests to imperialism, thus creating a situation in which
the state power of the workers and peasants stood in sharp antagonism to that
of the Kuomintang, and, of necessity, the task of the national and democratic
revolution devolved upon the Chinese Communist Party alone.
3. Since the Incident of September 18, 1931 and especially since
the Northern China Incident of 1935, [1] the following changes have taken place in these contradictions:
(1) The contradiction between China and imperialism in general has
given way to the particularly salient and sharp contradiction between China and
Japanese imperialism. Japanese imperialism is carrying out a policy of total
conquest of China. Consequently, the contradictions between China and certain
other imperialist powers have been relegated to a secondary position, while the
rift between these powers and Japan has been widened. Consequently also, the
Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people are faced with the task of
linking China's anti-Japanese national united front with the world peace front.
This means that China should not only unite with the Soviet Union, which has
been the consistently good friend of the Chinese people, but as far as possible
should work for joint opposition to Japanese imperialism with those imperialist
countries which, at the present time, are willing to maintain peace and are
against new wars of aggression. The aim of our united front must be resistance
to Japan, and not simultaneous opposition to all the imperialist powers.
(2) The contradiction between China and Japan has changed internal
class relations within China and has confronted the bourgeoisie and even the
warlords with the question of survival, so that they and their political
parties have been undergoing a gradual change in their political attitude. This
has placed the task of establishing an anti-Japanese national united front
before the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese people. Our united front
should include the bourgeoisie and all who agree to the defence of the
motherland, it should represent national solidarity against the foreign foe.
This task not only must, but can, be fulfilled.
(3) The contradiction between China and Japan has changed matters
for the masses throughout the country (the proletariat, the peasantry and the
urban petty bourgeoisie) and for the Communist Party, and it has changed the
Party's policy. More and more people have risen to fight for national
salvation. The policy proclaimed by the Communist Party after the September
18th Incident was to conclude agreements with those sections of the Kuomintang
which were willing to co-operate with us for resistance, subject to three
conditions (stop attacking the revolutionary base areas, guarantee the freedoms
and rights of the people, arm the people), and it has developed into a policy
of establishing an anti-Japanese united front of the whole nation. This is the
reason for the following steps taken by our Party: in 1935, the August
declaration [2] and the December resolution; [3] in 1936, the abandonment of the "anti-Chiang Kai-shek"
slogan in May, [4] the letter to the Kuomintang in August, [5] the resolution on the democratic republic in September, [6] and the insistence on a peaceful settlement of the Sian Incident
in December; and in 1937, the February telegram to the Third Plenary Session of
the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang. [7]
(4) Because of the contradiction between China and Japan, a change
has also occurred in the Chinese warlord regimes and the civil wars among them,
which are the product of the imperialist policy of spheres of influence and of
China's semi-colonial economic conditions. Japanese imperialism fosters such
separate regimes and civil wars for the purpose of facilitating exclusive
Japanese domination of China. Certain other imperialist powers are temporarily
in favour of unity and peace in China in their own interests. The Chinese Communist
Party and the Chinese people on their part are exerting their utmost efforts
against civil wars and splits and for peace and unity.
(5) In terms of relative political importance the development of
the national contradiction between China and Japan has demoted the domestic
contradictions between classes and between political groupings to a secondary
and subordinate place. But they still exist and have by no means diminished or
disappeared. The same is true of the contradictions between China and the imperialist
powers other than Japan. Therefore, the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese
people are faced with the following task--to make the appropriate adjustments
with regard to those internal and external contradictions which can and must be
adjusted at present so as to fit in with the general task of unity against
Japan. This is the reason for the Chinese Communist Party's policies of peace
and unity, democracy, bettering the life of the people and negotiations with
foreign countries that are opposed to Japan.
4. The first stage of the new period in the Chinese revolution
began on December 9, 1935 and ended when the Kuomintang's Central Executive
Committee held its Third Plenary Session in February 1937. The major events in
this stage were the movements for national salvation among the students and
cultural and press circles; the Red Army's entry into the Northwest; the
Communist Party's work of propaganda and organization for its anti-Japanese
national united front policy; the anti-Japanese strikes in Shanghai and
Tsingtao; [8] the relative stiffening of British policy towards Japan; [9] the Kwangtung-Kwangsi Incident ; [10] the resistance in Suiyuan and the movement in its support; [11] Nanking's somewhat firmer attitude in the Sino-Japanese
negotiations; [12] the Sian Incident; and finally, the Third Plenary Session of the
Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang in Nanking. [13] These events all centred on the basic contradiction, which is
the antagonism between China and Japan; they all centred directly on the
historical need for an anti-Japanese national united front.
The basic task of the revolution at this stage was to struggle for
internal peace and stop the internal armed conflicts, so that there could be
unity against Japan. During this stage the Communist Party issued its call,
"Stop the civil war and unite against Japan", a call which in the
main has been put into effect, and thereby created the primary prerequisite for
the actual establishment of an anti-Japanese national united front.
5. Owing to the presence of the pro-Japanese group inside the
Kuomintang, it made no definite or thoroughgoing change in its policy at the
Third Plenary Session of its Central Executive Committee and did not concretely
solve any problem. However, owing to the pressure of the people and to
developments in its own ranks, the Kuomintang had to begin to change its wrong
policy of the previous ten years, that is, it had to turn away from the policy
of civil war, dictatorship and non-resistance to Japan and to move in the
direction of peace, democracy and resistance to Japan, and it had to begin
accepting the policy of an anti-Japanese national united front; this initial
change revealed itself at the Third Plenary Session of its Central Executive
Committee. From now on the demand must be for a thorough change in Kuomintang
policy. In order to attain this goal our Party and the people throughout the
country must develop the movement for resistance to Japan and for democracy
still more extensively, must go a step further in criticizing the Kuomintang,
pushing it into action and keeping up the pressure, must unite with all those
within the Kuomintang who stand for peace, democracy and resistance to Japan,
and must help the hesitant waverers forward and throw out the pro-Japanese
elements.
6. The present stage is the second one in the new period. Both the
previous and present stages are stages of transition towards nationwide armed
resistance to Japan. If in the previous stage the principal task was the fight
for peace, then in the present stage the principal task is the fight for democracy.
It must be understood that just as a genuine and solid anti-Japanese national
united front cannot be established without internal peace, so it cannot be
established without internal democracy. Hence at the present stage of
development the fight for democracy is the central link in the revolutionary
task. If we fail to see the importance of democracy clearly and slacken our
fight for it, we shall be unable to establish a genuine and solid anti-Japanese
national united front.
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