Chapter 61 Explanation of "On Coalition Government"[1]

(March 31, 1945) one This time, China has the possibility of becoming an independent, free, democratic, unified, prosperous and strong China, which has only existed in the past hundred years, since the May Fourth Movement, and since the establishment of the Party.We should put forward an appropriate program at this time and mobilize the people of the whole country to strive for its realization, that is, to unite the whole party and the whole people to defeat Japanese imperialism and build a new China.Most of this program existed in the past, but it is now being synthesized and developed.

In order to achieve the goal of building a new China, our principle is to mobilize the masses freely.This has been our consistent line since the Anti-Japanese War, and the other line is to restrain the masses.Chiang Kai-shek meant to restrain the masses. He talked about the so-called spiritual conquest at the Liuzhou Conference[2].We are sincere to our comrades and the people, and we do not care about spiritual conquest, but we conquer our enemies by force.This report of mine does not talk too much about the anti-Japanese war, and some comrades have some opinions on it, because their thinking is not very clear. "On New Democracy" talked about resistance to Japan even less.Back in 1937, I proposed that only democracy could save China. At that time, some comrades disagreed. They did not know that the issue of resisting Japan had already been settled, and the issue at that time was how to resist Japan.I said that some comrades did not understand their thinking this time, but it is different from the erroneous tendencies of the period from December 1937 [3] to the Sixth Plenary Session [4], which advocated relying on the Kuomintang, not democracy, People's livelihood, not the Three People's Principles.The Three People's Principles is a matter of principle and must be adhered to.The opinions of comrades are very good, and I have adopted more than 90% of them.

Is it "Left" when we propose to mobilize the masses freely? I have considered for half a year how to word the Kuomintang.Is adopting a gentleman's tone the same as entertaining journalists? At that time our reputation was very good, but Stein and Foreman [5] were not satisfied with my conversation. That kind of tone has a big disadvantage, that is, it cannot explain the problem clearly , cannot expose Chiang Kai-shek.Or is it like the attitude of the Soviet Union? This is not appropriate, because we are not legal, unlike the Soviet Union, and Chiang Kai-shek is not Roosevelt or Churchill[6].Then, is it like the "Liberation Daily"? It's not good either. The "Liberation Daily" can say that, but it doesn't say it every day, and our responsible person is not suitable for saying that.In this report, I criticized him with nine points. The criticism is very sharp, but there is room for hope, although only one point is not enough.This is necessary, and it would be a mistake not to leave this room.I didn't say much about the achievements of the Kuomintang in the war of resistance. From a scientific point of view, it should be said that the Kuomintang was semi-fascist.What I say to them varies from place to place. The basic spirit is that our independence has become stronger, but there is still room for Chiang Kai-shek.

We adopt a united attitude towards all the objects to be united, but we also make a slight difference and criticize it slightly.This is also very important, no difference is not good.For the bourgeoisie, I say it is mostly connected with the land.Some elements in the democratic movement in the rear area were also criticized for being unresolute, referring to Sun Ke[7] and the like.Some people became flustered again after seeing Chiang Kai-shek's speech on March 1 and our sharp rebuttals; they were happy again when they heard that Hurley[8] said in a telegram back to us that no final conclusions should be made.The centrists are vacillating, and China's political power is hard at both ends and soft at the middle.If there is a Peasant Party in China, we have to distinguish it from it.This is what we Communist Party members need to figure out. Only by distinguishing can we lead.

The Kuomintang reactionaries are also wavering and are double-faced.While resisting the Japanese, they surrendered; while uniting with the Communist Party, they opposed the Communist Party;We have exposed Chiang Kai-shek's deceit, and foreigners suppressed it.Hurley came to Yan'an, and the US military observation team[9] was stationed in Yan'an. This had a great impact, and the Kuomintang secret service was also affected.People like Ai Jinsheng and Gao Guizi [10] said that the world belongs to us, and cultural signatures Xie Bingxin and Gu Jiegang [11] all participated.We didn't say anything like that in this report, but with this air, we're going to be ready for victory.

After reading this report, Chiang Kai-shek was the most unhappy, and the centrists were both happy and unhappy after reading it.The centrists have a future, and foreigners will support them when Chiang Kai-shek fails, and their growth is harmless to us now.But they are vacillating, and they will support Chiang Kai-shek if he makes concessions.On March 1, when Chiang Kai-shek delivered a speech, Luo Longji[12] wrote an article to welcome "returning the government to the people"; on the second day we broadcast a reporter from Xinhua News Agency commenting on Chiang Kai-shek's speech, and on the 10th, the Democratic League published a speech against the KMT's arrangement of the people General Assembly.Therefore, they can listen to us, but they need our strong leadership.I talked about the issue of leadership in my report. Apart from peasants and petty bourgeois intellectuals, it also includes other democrats.

For foreign countries, the main goal is to unite with the Soviet Union, and for Britain, the United States and other anti-fascist countries, but there are also hints of caution, hoping that they will respect the opinions of the Chinese people. Have you talked too much about Sun Yat-sen? Not much.We must be good at citing him. There is no harm in this, only benefits. Lenin also wanted us to use him [13].In his will, the two basic strategies are to arouse the people and unite the peoples of the world who treat us equally. He talked about democracy best, and it should be shared by ordinary people.The Communist Party of the United States now regards Washington and Lincoln[14] as its banners. We have Sun Yat-sen, and we have a relationship with him, and we have cooperated with him.He can’t blame us if he didn’t talk about it during the civil war, because we were knocked down to the ground at that time, and we couldn’t stand up unless we threw Sun Yat-sen away, just like knocking down the Confucian family shop during the May Fourth period.It's different now.Some people in the party have feelings of disrespect for Sun Yat-sen, and they should be persuaded.

In the report, where communism was mentioned, I deleted it once and then restored it.Regarding the party name, many people outside the party advocated that we change it, but it would be bad if we changed it, as it would ruin our image, so the report simply emphasized the infinite beauty of communism.Peasants love communism, and communism is democracy.After mentioning communism in the report, it still focuses on explaining the democratic revolution, pointing out that socialism can only be reached through democracy, which is a matter of course in Marxism.This distinguishes us from populism, which has a vast influence in China and within our party.This report is different from "On New Democracy" in that it identified the need for the extensive development of capitalism and put anti-authoritarianism first.Anti-old democracy was also mentioned, the nationalization of the army was their slogan, but they did not focus on opposing old democracy, because Chiang Kai-shek was not old democracy but despotism.The extensive development of capitalism is harmless and beneficial under the new democratic regime, and the report also shows that there are three economic components.State capitalism also existed in the Soviet Union for several years. After the October Revolution, Lenin wanted to have a state capitalist development but failed. The rich peasants existed longer.

The difference between the general program and the specific program has not been pointed out before. In fact, the general program during the period of the Great Revolution, the Civil War, and the Anti-Japanese War has not changed, and it can be used for several years in the future.The democratic dictatorship of workers and peasants is the essence of new democracy.The specific program is different at each stage.The coalition government is a specific program, and it is a specific form of the United Front regime.It has been a long time since I came up with this slogan, which shows that it is not easy to find a slogan and a form.This slogan came from three points: the KMT's military retreat, the establishment of a coalition government in some European countries, and the KMT's claim that our democracy is far-fetched.As soon as this slogan was put forward, the comrades in Chongqing felt like a treasure, and the people supported it so widely, I did not expect it.

If everyone agrees with these basic points of the report, it will be revised and sent to all representatives, and various revisions can still be proposed at the congress. two A few comrades just mentioned the question of whether the spirit of the Congress counts as old scores.Clearing up old accounts is of course not a slogan, and summing up experience can also be said to be settling accounts, but our settlement of accounts should not imply that we want to bring down anyone.Comrades who participated in the Seventh Plenary Session should use good reasons and attitudes to persuade the representatives of the Seventh National Congress to have this kind of consciousness. It is better to entrust the past historical issues to the Seventh Plenary Session to solve them, so that they can concentrate their efforts on solving the tasks of the War of Resistance and the founding of the country.The historical mistakes in the past were mainly a social phenomenon. Because the Party was politically immature, the comrades who made mistakes were unconscious and thought they were right, so they overthrew everything inside and outside the Party.Now everyone is enlightened, and the main idea is the same.Comrade Wang Ming[15] wrote to me recently, also agreeing with the two points of opposing the Kuomintang reactionaries and uniting the whole party. This is very good.If historical issues are discussed at the General Assembly, it will inevitably take two to three weeks, shifting the central topic, and the result will still not exceed the current draft resolution.It is even more unclear when it comes to military history, North China history, various mountain tops, etc.The draft resolution does not say 100 percent, quality, illegality, or sect. Failure to say these things will at most become a defect, and if it is wrong, it will become a mistake.The Zunyi Conference[16] and the Sixth Plenary Session both adopted this policy.

In the political report, there is one more thing to explain about the military aspect, that is, the issue of jointly building the people's army.During the Anti-Japanese War, the internal situation of our army has changed a lot, and some military leaders are not members of the Communist Party.It is impossible for the army to be entirely Communist Party members. Even during the civil war, party members in the Red Army accounted for only one-third.If some troops cooperate with us and then stop cooperating in the future, we should let them go at this time, leave room for them, and not hurt their feelings. Even if they become enemies again, it will be the same as before the cooperation.Shandong has done a good job in external cooperation with other armies. We are still "left" in many places, and we need to be patiently persuaded. There are three possibilities for a coalition government: one is the bad possibility that we don't want, that is, we need to hand over the army to serve as officials.Of course we don’t hand over to the army, but the government is still a dictatorship. Why don’t we be officials? We don’t want to promote it, and we don’t want to refuse it. We must be prepared for this possibility.The downside is being an official in a dictatorial government, but this can be explained to the masses (in order to compromise, and we do not agree with this government), but it also has advantages, and can do propaganda work.The second possibility, also led by Chiang Kai-shek, is democracy in form and recognition of the liberated areas, but in essence it is still Chiang Kai-shek's dictatorship.The third possibility is to put us at the center. When we have 1.5 million troops and 150 million people, and when Chiang Kai-shek's forces are further reduced and weakened, and there is no possibility of unity, we must do so. It is the basic trend and law of China's political development, and the country we want to build is such a country.This question is not written on the report.In addition, the policy of the Seventh National Congress is to only solve mature problems, so the historical problems will not be mature until the Seventh Plenary Session, and there is no need to rush to solve the historical problems in various places now, because they are immature. Published based on the transcript of the speech kept by the Central Archives. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. [2] Refers to the military conference convened by Chiang Kai-shek in Liuzhou from February 23rd to 25th, 1940. [3] The December meeting refers to the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held in Yan'an from December 9 to 14, 1937.At the meeting, Wang Ming wrote "How to Continue the National War of Resistance and Win the War of Resistance?" " report put forward the slogan of "everything goes through the united front" and denied the principle of the Communist Party's independence in the united front and the policy of launching guerrilla warfare adopted at the Luochuan Conference.Due to the resistance of Mao Zedong and others, Wang Ming's erroneous opinions did not form a resolution and did not occupy a dominant position in the entire party. [4] The Sixth Plenary Session, see note [4] on page 143 of this volume. [5] Stein, Associated Press, British "Manchester Guardian", American "Christian Science Monitor" correspondent in Chongqing.Foreman (1898-1978), a reporter in Chongqing for the United Press and The Times of London.In June 1944, they participated in a Northwest tour group of Chinese and foreign journalists to visit Yan'an, and Mao Zedong had talks with them respectively. [6] Roosevelt, then President of the United States.Churchill (1874-1965), then Prime Minister of the British Cabinet. [7] Sun Ke, then President of the Legislative Yuan of the Kuomintang government. [8] Hurley, then the US ambassador to China. [9] U.S. military observation team, see note [7] on page 226 of this volume. [10] Ai Jinsheng, now translated as Atkinson (1894—?), a reporter in Chongqing for the New York Times of the United States. In 1944, he served as the chairman of the Chongqing Foreign Correspondents Club. He went to Yan'an in September and October of the same year visit visit.Gao Guizi (1891-1959), a native of Dingbian, Shaanxi, was the commander of the 17th Army of the Kuomintang Army at that time. [11] Xie Bingxin, born in 1900, from Changle, Fujian, writer.Gu Jiegang (1893-1980), a native of Suzhou, Jiangsu, is a historian.They participated in the signing of "Suggestions on the Current Situation" published by the Chongqing cultural circle on February 22, 1945. [12] Luo Longji (1898-1965), a native of Anfu, Jiangxi.At that time, he was the executive member of the Central Committee of the China Democratic League. [13] Lenin pointed out in the article "Democracy and Populism in China" that as the Chinese proletariat grows day by day, "a Chinese Social Democratic Labor Party of one kind or another will inevitably be established, and this party is criticizing Sun Yat-sen's petty bourgeoisie. Utopian and reactionary views, he must carefully identify, preserve and develop the revolutionary-democratic core of his political program and agrarian program". (Volume 2 of "Selected Works of Lenin", People's Publishing House, 1972 edition, p. 428) [14] Washington (1732-1799), the founder and first president of the United States of America.Commander in Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.In 1787, he presided over the Philadelphia Convention and formulated the Federal Constitution.Elected president in 1789.Lincoln (1809-1865), served as President of the United States from 1861 to 1865, advocated maintaining federal unity and abolishing slavery.After the outbreak of the Civil War, the "Homestead Act" and "Declaration for the Emancipation of Black Slaves" were promulgated to ensure the victory of the war. [15] Wang Ming, see note [11] on page 76 of this volume. [16] Zunyi Conference, see note [14] on page 102 of this volume.