Chapter 80 Spokesperson of the Communist Party of China made a statement on the issue of peace talks[1]

(January 25, 1949) [Xinhua News Agency, Northern Shaanxi, 25th] According to a report from the Central News Agency of the reactionary Kuomintang government in Nanjing on the 22nd, the Executive Yuan of this reactionary government had on the 22nd overturned its own decision on the 19th, unless a ceasefire The absurd resolution that they were unwilling to negotiate, and re-decided to send five representatives to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party.These five representatives are Shao Lizi, Zhang Zhizhong, Huang Shaohong, Peng Zhaoxian, and Zhong Tianxin[2].The CCP spokesperson said: We are willing to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Nanjing reactionary government on the basis of Chairman Mao Zedong's statement on the current situation on January 14.The Nanjing reactionary government should bear full responsibility for launching the counter-revolutionary civil war. The people of the whole country have completely lost trust in this government, and this government has long since lost the qualification to represent the Chinese people.The government that is qualified to represent the Chinese people can only be a democratic coalition government that will emerge from the forthcoming new Political Consultative Conference without the participation of reactionaries.Therefore, we allow the Nanjing reactionary government to send representatives to negotiate with us, not because this government still has the qualifications to represent the Chinese people, but because this government still has some reactionary remnant military forces in its hands.If the government feels that it has completely lost the trust of the people and that the remaining reactionary military forces in its hands are no longer able to resist the powerful People's Liberation Army, and is willing to accept the CCP's eight peace conditions[3], then, by means of negotiations It is of course better and beneficial to the cause of people's liberation to solve problems by means of methods so that the people suffer less.The recent peaceful settlement of the Peking question is an example.However, no one knows whether the reactionary Nanjing government is willing to accept the eight conditions proposed by the CCP that reflect the general will of the people of the whole country.What we know now is that the reactionary government in Nanjing released a lot of hypocritical posturing and a peaceful atmosphere in an attempt to deceive the people in order to achieve its goal of preserving the reactionary forces, gaining a respite, and then making a comeback to wipe out the revolutionary forces.The people of the whole country should have a clear mind and must not be fooled by those hypocritical empty talk.The venue for the negotiations will not be determined until Peking is completely liberated, and it will probably be in Peking.Peng Zhaoxian is one of the main cadres of the CC faction[4] of the Kuomintang, which is the most active in the war. People consider him a war criminal, and the CCP cannot receive such a representative.Regarding the list of war criminals, the spokesperson of the CCP said that we have not published the entire list of war criminals. The Xinhua News Agency published on December 25 last year was only the first batch of lists. Not just forty-three.

Printed from originals kept at the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is a press release drafted by Mao Zedong for Xinhua News Agency.Published in "People's Daily" on January 26, 1949. [2] Shao Lizi (1882-1967), a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, was a member of the KMT Government Policy Advisory Committee at that time.Zhang Zhizhong (1890-1969), a native of Chaoxian County, Anhui Province, was the chief of the Northwest Military and Political Chief Office of the Kuomintang Army and the chairman of the Xinjiang Provincial Government at that time.Huang Shaohong (1895-1966), a native of Rong County, Guangxi, was a member of the Legislative Council of the Kuomintang government at that time.Peng Zhaoxian (1897—?), born in Muping, Shandong, served as Minister of the Interior of the Kuomintang government.Zhong Tianxin (1902-1987), a native of Changle (now Wuhua), Guangdong, was the Minister of Water Resources of the Kuomintang government at that time.

[3] On January 14, 1949, Mao Zedong, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, issued the "Statement on the Current Situation". In response to Chiang Kai-shek's so-called "peace talks" proposal in the New Year's announcement, he put forward eight conditions for peace talks, namely: punish the war Criminals; abolish the pseudo-constitution; abolish the pseudo-legal system; reorganize all reactionary armies based on democratic principles; confiscate bureaucratic capital; reform the land system; and all the powers of all levels of government to which it belongs.

[4] The CC faction refers to the pro-Chiang clique headed by Chen Guofu and Chen Lifu within the Kuomintang.