Chapter 52 Conversation with Hurley[1]

(November 8, 1944) We welcome General Hurley to Yenan and thank General Hurley for his enthusiasm in helping China unite in the war of resistance.China's affairs are difficult to handle. Colonel Bao [2], who has lived in China for many years and has been in Yan'an for some time, knows this very well, and many American friends also know it.China has abundant manpower and material resources, and what we need is unity.But to unite, there must be democracy, that is to say, we need to unite the national anti-Japanese forces on the basis of democracy.Now the whole world is fighting the anti-fascist war very well, only China is fighting badly on the frontal battlefield, this is because China lacks democracy.Now that General Hurley is here to help the Chinese people and promote China's democratic unity, we welcome it very much.Especially today, the Japanese aggressors are attacking the southwest of China, and the U.S. military needs China's cooperation to reach the Philippines. However, the frontal battlefield that the Kuomintang authorities are in charge of is losing every day.The Chinese people and friends from allied countries are very anxious, and hope that through the efforts of General Hurley, the situation in China will have a turning point, that is, from the direction of undermining unity, undermining combat effectiveness, undermining democracy, and poor relations with the allies[3]. To the direction of strengthening unity, strengthening combat effectiveness, strengthening democracy, and improving relations with the allies.With the help of General Hurley, this can be done, and the whole Chinese people will be grateful.

This morning General Hurley said to have a free, open, and frank talk, and now I will talk according to the method you mentioned. Until now, the Kuomintang is still a big political party, with a huge army. This army fought relatively well in the first two years of the War of Resistance, and now it is still fighting Japan. The Kuomintang authorities have not finally broken the national unity. The good side of the party and the government.Therefore, we have always been willing to cooperate with Mr. Jiang to fight Japan, and we have never given up on this one.However, we should also see another aspect, that is, China's difficulties, shortcomings and serious crises.If you don't see this aspect, you can't solve the problem.The current policy of the Chinese government (it is still the same until now, and I hope to change it) is not conducive to the unity of the entire Chinese people, and prevents the people of the whole country from rising to fight Japan.

China is now divided into three regions: the enemy-occupied areas, the liberated areas led by Chinese Communists and non-Party people, and the areas directly ruled by the Kuomintang. The Kuomintang authorities don't care about the first type of area, that is, the enemy-occupied area; they also don't care about how to organize underground troops in this area in order to cooperate with the Allied forces in landing operations. As for the second type of areas, the liberated areas, the Kuomintang authorities are doing their best to obstruct, restrict, shrink, and eliminate them, but the liberated areas are still growing every day.You can see why the Liberated Areas are so vast. This is the result of the hard work of the people over the past eight years.They were going to attack Japan in front of them, and at the same time, the Kuomintang was sabotaging them in the rear. They were in a very difficult environment where they were attacked from both front and back.Regarding how the Kuomintang encircled, attacked, and dispatched spies to play tricks on the Liberated Areas, it can be said that it has tried every means, and it is difficult to describe in one word.

In the third area, that is, the area under the direct rule of the Kuomintang, there are serious crises, especially military crises.Since April of this year, in the face of the Japanese invasion, the Kuomintang troops have been reduced from 2 to 3 million to 1.95 million.Most of the Kuomintang troops were incapable of fighting and would collapse at the first touch.In the rear area, the people are living in dire straits and bandits are rampant. People's trust in the government has never been lower than it is today. People from all walks of life, including university professors, students, members of small parties and members of the Kuomintang, are dissatisfied and resentful towards the authorities.

The above is an overview of the three regions in China. I hope that friends from allied countries can understand the truth. Now that the Japanese invaders are attacking southwest China, and the U.S. military is in the Philippines, China urgently needs China’s cooperation. How can we quickly solve the problem, unite all forces in China, and cooperate with the allies to quickly defeat Japan and establish a free and democratic China? General Hurley said in the morning that the United States We Chinese people are very happy to add a little strength to help solve this problem. Regarding how to solve the problem, General Hurley had put forward several points [4] hoping to form the basis for an agreement.We feel that there are still some issues, although they have not yet been formulated, they are worth raising and discussing.

The majority of the Chinese people, including us Communists, first of all hope that the policy and organization of the national government will be changed quickly, which is the minimum point to solve the problem.Without this change, there may be some agreement, but these agreements have no basis.Therefore, it is necessary to reorganize the current national government and establish a coalition government that includes all anti-Japanese parties and people without party affiliation.At the same time, the present government's old policy, which is not suitable for uniting the whole Chinese people in fighting Japan, must be changed and replaced by a policy suitable for uniting the whole Chinese people in fighting Japan.

The reason why this reform is necessary is first of all to save the serious crisis in military, political, financial and economic aspects of the areas directly ruled by the Kuomintang.Although the liberated areas are very difficult, there is no crisis.If the current national government is not reorganized, the morale of the army in the rear cannot be boosted, and the serious crisis in the area ruled by the Kuomintang cannot be saved.The Kuomintang always complains that the allies don't have enough arms, but if the government doesn't reorganize and the old policies don't change, even though there are a lot of new weapons such as tanks and planes, it won't help.The various institutions ruled by the Kuomintang have reached extreme levels of corruption, and the reorganization of the government is first of all to save the crisis in the areas ruled by the Kuomintang.If the Kuomintang thinks it has great power and refuses to change, what can they do? But its own crisis will be irreversible.

Regarding the point of "government democratic procedures", I feel that the national government should be reorganized first, a coalition government should be established, and policies should be changed.However, what Mr. Jiang has expressed all the time is that he wants to delay this matter until within a year after the end of the war. When someone proposes to him to reorganize the government and form a coalition government, he slaps him back.If this continues, the crisis will only be protracted and expanded, putting the national government in danger of collapse.Not only we Communists, but also foreign friends, such as many foreign journalists, feel this danger.

Therefore, the source of the KMT-ruled regional crisis lies in the KMT's wrong policies and corrupt institutions, not the existence of the Chinese Communist Party. Now look at how we Communists work. In the enemy-occupied areas, we organized an underground army, ready to cooperate with the Allied forces. In the Liberated Areas, we carried out public work, organized the people, practiced democracy, and persevered in the War of Resistance.We never hindered the Kuomintang, but the Kuomintang came to hinder our anti-Japanese democratic activities. Out of the 1.95 million Kuomintang troops, 775,000 were used to surround us, and some of them were attacking us.Under such circumstances, we still use all our strength to fight against Japan.

In the Kuomintang areas, the authorities caught or killed Communists when they saw them.From 1939 onwards, our party there was forced to become an underground party.Only in Chongqing, a small number of Communists in the Eighth Route Army Office and Xinhua Daily were allowed to work openly, and only a small number of Communists in Xi'an were allowed to work openly; in other places in the rear, our party was forced to work underground.Even so, we do not go on strike, do not go on strike, do not go on strike, and do not go on strike, and we still support the national government in fighting Japan.

Therefore, I would like to say it again: the source of the crisis in the Kuomintang-ruled region lies in the erroneous policies and corrupt institutions of the Kuomintang, not the existence of the Communist Party. On the contrary, our 630,000 troops and 90 million people fighting in the enemy's rear have held back the "ox tail" of the Japanese invaders and thus protected the rear; The Kuomintang was defeated by the Japanese invaders long ago.In June of this year, the Kuomintang authorities put forward a plan[5] to abolish 80 percent of our army and the democratically elected governments in the liberated areas. It can only harm the Kuomintang itself. Among the main points made by General Hurley this morning is the reorganization of our army. After the reorganization, our officers and soldiers will receive the same salaries and allowances as those of the Kuomintang army.This article is probably mainly written by Mr. Jiang himself.I thought it was the troops that lost their combat effectiveness, disobedient to orders, corrupted, and would disperse as soon as they were beaten, such as the troops of Tang Enbo and Hu Zongnan[6], rather than the heroic Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army that should be reorganized.Now the U.S. military observation team [7] is visiting the anti-Japanese base areas such as the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, Northwest Shanxi, and Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei.We have dozens of base areas behind enemy lines, seventeen of which are large.We would like you to organize an observation team of several hundred people to go to various base areas to see and draw conclusions as to what kind of army should be reorganized.The general will of the Chinese people is that whichever army is corrupt should be reorganized.Regarding salary and treatment, the soldiers of the Kuomintang army were so hungry and cold that they couldn't even walk. The monthly salary of soldiers was 50 yuan, which was only enough to buy a pack of cigarettes.Our troops are well fed, warmly clothed, and can walk quite vigorously.Now that we are required to receive the same salaries as the Kuomintang army, doesn’t that mean that our army also has to be hungry, clothed, and unable to walk like them? How can this be done? That's probably our opinion.We in Yan'an are deeply grateful for General Hurley's devotion to traveling long distances to help China.Regarding the real situation in the three regions of China, we feel the need to tell you. On the basis of not destroying the anti-Japanese forces in the liberated areas and not hindering democracy, we are willing to reach a compromise with Mr. Chiang Kai-shek, even if the problems are solved less and more slowly, we do not demand to solve all the problems at once.However, it is not acceptable to destroy the anti-Japanese forces in the liberated areas and hinder democracy. I am very willing to meet Mr. Chiang Kai-shek. In the past, there were difficulties and no opportunities. Today, with the help of General Hurley, I am willing to meet Mr. Chiang when the time is right. Published from the transcript of the conversation kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Hurley (1883-1963), Major General of the US Army.In September 1944, he came to China as the personal representative of the President of the United States to "mediate" the relationship between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.On November 7 of the same year, he flew to Yan'an with the document entitled "Basis of the Agreement" revised and approved by Chiang Kai-shek. After three days of talks with the leaders of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, and Zhou Enlai, he expressed his agreement with the Chinese Communist Party's proposal to abolish the The Kuomintang advocated one-party dictatorship and the establishment of a coalition government. The two parties jointly drafted the "Agreement between the Chinese National Government, the Chinese Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China (Draft)".However, Chiang Kai-shek rejected this "agreement", and Hurley immediately changed his mind, supported Chiang Kai-shek's opinion, and broke his promise in Yan'an.Later, Hurley served as the U.S. ambassador to China. During the many contacts and negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, he always tried to exert pressure to force the CCP to accept the unreasonable demands made by the Kuomintang. On April 2, 1945, he A statement was issued, declaring that the U.S. government only cooperates with the Kuomintang and not the Communist Party.This article is the main part of the second conversation between Mao Zedong and Hurley. [2] Bao, referring to Bao Ruide (1892-1970), a colonel in the US Army.At that time, he was the military attache of the US embassy in China and the leader of the US military observation team. [3] Allies refer to China, the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, France and other countries that jointly fought against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II. [4] The main content of the "Basis of the Agreement" brought by Hurley is: 1. The Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party will work together to unify all military forces in China.2. The Chinese Communist Army will obey and implement the orders of the Central Government and its Military Commission.3. The Chinese government and the Chinese Communist Party will uphold the principles of Sun Yat-sen's Three People's Principles, and both parties will abide by the policy of promoting progress and the development of democratic procedures in government.4. There will be only one national government and one army in China. When all officers and soldiers of the Communist army are reorganized by the central government, they will receive the same salary and allowances according to their positions in the national army. All components of the Communist army will be Receive equal treatment in the distribution of armaments and equipment.5. The Chinese government recognizes the status of the Chinese Communist Party as a political party, and will recognize the legal status of the Chinese Communist Party as a political party, and all political parties in China will gain legal status. [5] See note [7] on page 135 of this volume. [6] Tang Enbo, once served as the deputy commander-in-chief of the first theater of the Kuomintang army and the commander-in-chief of the Lusu-Yuan-Anhui border area, was demoted to the commander-in-chief of the Kuomintang army's Guizhou-Guizhou-Hunan border area because of his defeat in the Henan battle.Hu Zongnan was then the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the First Theater of the Kuomintang Army and Commander-in-Chief of the Thirty-fourth Group Army. [7] The U.S. Army Observation Team is an investigation team sent by US President Roosevelt to Yan'an to understand the political, economic and military situation of the Chinese Communist Party. Arrive in Yan'an.