Chapter 13 US imperialism is a paper tiger[1]

(July 14, 1956) The United States is playing the sign of anti-communism everywhere, in order to achieve the goal of aggression against others. America owes money everywhere.Debts owed to Central and South American countries, Asian and African countries, and debts owed to countries in Europe and Oceania. The whole world, including the United Kingdom, does not like the United States.The majority of the people do not like America.Japan doesn't like America because America oppresses Japan.There is not a single country in the East that has not been invaded by the United States.The United States invades the Chinese province of Taiwan.Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Pakistan have all been invaded by the United States, and some of them are allies of the United States.The people are not happy, and neither are the authorities in some countries.

All oppressed nations must be independent. Everything changes.The great, decaying forces give way to the small, newborn ones.Those with small powers should become big ones, because most people want to change.The power of U.S. imperialism is likely to shrink, because the American people are also displeased with their own government. I have experienced this change all my life.Some of us here were born in the Qing Dynasty and some were born in the Republic of China. The Qing Dynasty was overthrown long ago.Who pushed it? The party led by Sun Yat-sen pushed it together with the people.Sun Yat-sen had little power, and officials in the Qing Dynasty looked down on him.His many uprisings always failed.In the end, it was Sun Yat-sen who overthrew the Qing Dynasty.Big, not scary.The big will be overthrown by the small.The small will become large.After overthrowing the Qing Dynasty, Sun Yat-sen failed.Because he did not meet the demands of the people, such as the demands of the people for land and anti-imperialism.He also didn't know about suppressing counter-revolutionaries, who were running everywhere at that time.Later, he was defeated by Yuan Shikai[2], the leader of the Beiyang warlords.Yuan Shikai's power is greater than Sun Yat-sen's.But it still follows this rule: those with small power, who are connected with the people, are strong; those with great power, who are against the people, are weak.Afterwards, Sun Yat-sen's bourgeois democratic revolutionaries cooperated with our Communist Party and defeated the warlord system left by Yuan Shikai.

Chiang Kai-shek ruled China and was recognized by governments all over the world. He ruled for 22 years and was the most powerful.Our strength is small, originally there were more than 50,000 party members, but after the counter-revolutionary suppression, only more than 10,000 party members remained.Enemies are making trouble everywhere.But still follow this rule: a strong defeat is because it is separated from the people; a weak victory is because it is connected with the people and works for the people.As a result, that's it. During the Anti-Japanese War, Japan was very strong, and the Kuomintang troops were driven to remote areas. The armed forces led by the Communist Party could only carry out guerrilla warfare in the countryside behind the enemy lines.Japan occupied the big Chinese cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Guangzhou.However, Japanese militarism, as well as German Hitler[3], also followed this pattern and fell from power within a few years.

We have gone through many difficulties, being driven from the south to the north, from hundreds of thousands of people to only tens of thousands of people left.After a long march of 25,000 miles, 25,000 people remained. In the history of our party, there have been many mistakes in the line of "Left" deviation and Right deviation.The most serious of these are Chen Duxiu's right deviation [4] and Wang Ming's "left" deviation [5].In addition, there are right-leaning mistakes made by Zhang Guotao, Gao Gang and others[6]. There are benefits to making mistakes, it can educate the people and educate the party.We have many negative teachers, such as Japan, the United States, Chiang Kai-shek, Chen Duxiu, Li Lisan[7], Wang Ming, Zhang Guotao, and Gao Gang.Learning from these negative teachers has paid a high price.Britain has fought us many wars in history.The United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Tsarist Russia, and the Netherlands all like our place very much.They are our negative teachers, and we are their students.

After the war of resistance against Japan, our army has grown to 900,000.Then came the War of Liberation.Our guns are not as good as the Kuomintang.The Kuomintang army had 4 million troops. After fighting for three years, we wiped out 8 million people in total.The Kuomintang with the help of U.S. imperialism cannot defeat us.The strong cannot win, but the weak always win. Now U.S. imperialism is very strong, but not really strong.It's politically weak because it's disconnected from the masses, and everyone doesn't like it, and the American people don't like it either.The appearance is strong, but in fact it is not scary, a paper tiger.It looks like a tiger on the outside, but it is made of paper and cannot withstand wind and rain.I see America as a paper tiger.

The whole history proves this point, and the history of thousands of years of human class society proves this point: the strong will give way to the weak.So is America. There will be peace only when imperialism is eliminated.One day, the paper tiger will be wiped out.But it will not disappear by itself, it needs wind and rain. When we say that U.S. imperialism is a paper tiger, we mean it strategically.On the whole, take it lightly.From every part, pay attention to it.It has claws and teeth.To solve it, you have to come one by one.For example, it has ten teeth, if one is knocked out for the first time, it still has nine teeth, and if one is knocked out again, it still has eight teeth.After the teeth are knocked out, it still has claws.Do it step by step carefully, and you will always succeed in the end.

Strategically, ignore it completely.Tactically, take it seriously.To fight against it, one battle after another, one piece at a time, we must pay attention to it.Now the United States is strong, but from a broad perspective, from the perspective of the whole, and from a long-term perspective, it is unpopular, its policies are disliked by others, and it oppresses and exploits the people.Because of this, the tiger must die.So it's not scary, it can be taken lightly.However, the United States still has the power to produce more than 100 million tons of steel every year and beat people everywhere.So we have to fight against it, we have to fight hard, fighting for each position.This takes time.

It seems that American countries, Asian and African countries can only continue to quarrel with the United States until the wind blows and the rain breaks the paper tiger. In order to oppose U.S. imperialism, European immigrants in Central and South American countries should unite with native Indians.Can the white people who immigrated from Europe be divided into two parts, one part is the ruler and the other is the ruled.In this way, this part of the oppressed Caucasians can easily get close to the local people, because they are in the same status. We are in the same position as our friends in Latin America, Asia and Africa, and we are doing the same work, doing something for the people and reducing the oppression of the people by imperialism.If done well, imperialist oppression can be abolished fundamentally.At this point, we are comrades.

In opposing imperialist oppression, we are the same as you in nature, only in different regions, nationalities, and languages.We are qualitatively different from imperialism, and we feel uncomfortable when we see imperialism. Why do you want imperialism? The Chinese people don't want imperialism, and the people of the world don't want imperialism either.There is no need for imperialism to exist. Published based on the transcript of the conversation kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is the main part of the conversation between Mao Zedong and former President Arbenz of Guatemala.

[2] Yuan Shikai (1859-1916), a native of Xiangcheng, Henan.At the end of the Qing Dynasty, he served as governor of Shandong, governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang, and became the leader of Beiyang warlords.During the Revolution of 1911, he served as the Prime Minister of the Qing government cabinet.In 1912, with the support of imperialist countries such as Britain, the United States, and Japan, he stole the post of interim president of the Republic of China and organized the first Beiyang warlord government representing the big landlords and big compradors. [3] Hitler (1889-1945), the leader of German fascism and the leader of the Nazi Party.In 1933, he became prime minister with the support of the German monopoly capitalist class. After the death of President Hindenburg the following year, he claimed to be the head of state, implemented fascist rule, and actively expanded the army and prepared for war.In September 1939, German troops were sent to invade Poland, provoking World War II; in June 1941, they aggressively attacked the Soviet Union.In April 1945, when the Soviet army liberated Berlin, he committed suicide.

[4] For Chen Duxiu’s right leaning, see note [3] on page 56 of this volume. [5] For Wang Ming’s “Left” leaning, see note [18] on page 47 of this volume. [6] For Zhang Guotao’s right-leaning mistakes, see Note [12] on page 58 of this volume.For Gao Gang’s right-leaning mistakes, see note [7] on page 45 of this volume. [7] Li Lisan (1899-1967), a native of Liling, Hunan.He joined the Communist Party of China in 1921 and is one of the main leaders of the Chinese labor movement.Since 1929, he has been a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and head of the Central Propaganda Department.During his leadership of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, from June to September 1930, he committed the mistake of "Left" adventurism.Later, he accepted the party's criticism of his mistakes, recognized and corrected them.