Chapter 22 Current Situation and Policy[1]

(November 1, 1937) Comrades: You asked me to talk about the current situation, so I will take advantage of the opportunity when you start school to talk about this issue.This issue is closely related to you, because people who study and educate are all for one purpose, which is to save the national and social crisis. The current situation is very tense.Shanghai's second line of defense fell.The enemy in the east of Jin has already broken through Niangziguan, and they must cooperate with the enemy in the north of Jin to advance to Taiyuan.At present, there are two questions before us, namely: (1) to fight again or not to fight? (2) how to fight?

The current war situation is obviously not smooth for China.This is because the war of resistance in the past was only one-sided, not comprehensive.Now many people outside say that it is now a full-scale war of resistance, which is wrong.Because it is comprehensive in terms of geography, but only one-sided in terms of composition, and the broad masses of the people did not mobilize in the war of resistance, only the army and the government did it, so they suffered many defeats.Under such circumstances, a new danger is growing. Traitors and pro-Japanese factions take the opportunity to rise up, and the "war must be defeated" and "the theory of only weapons" will definitely follow suit.Their conclusion is: China cannot be defeated, only surrender.National capitulationism is the new danger now.

We must realize that the war of resistance in the past had indelible achievements. What were these achievements? (1) China's war of resistance was unprecedented in a century, and its nature was revolutionary. (2) During the War of Resistance, China became relatively united. (3) Although they suffered many military defeats, they dealt quite severe blows to the Japanese aggressors. (4) Gained international sympathy. (5) The most important thing is that we have learned profound lessons during the war, that one-sided war of resistance cannot win victory. We must not be pessimistic because of the current situation. We fully agree with Mr. Chiang Kai-shek's speech on October 9, resolutely fight to the end, and fight until the last person has a gun. "A drop of blood" [2] means the fundamental policy for the current situation.

We must fight again, but how? In the military, we must learn the fighting style of the Eighth Route Army, that is, fight alive, not dead.In the past, we were just beaten by the enemy, so we had to change our style of play.When we go to fight the enemy, the most important thing is to implement the ten major programs of resisting Japan and saving the nation put forward by the Communist Party[3], mobilizing 450 million Chinese people to participate in the war of resistance, organizing them, and arming them.This is the greatest power, and only with this power can China win the war.The whole country must learn from the Eighth Route Army, truly achieve the unity of the army and the people, the unity of the officers and soldiers, and achieve the goal by transforming the spirit of the army and strengthening the political work in the army. Only in this way can the current serious situation be restored.This is the correct way to carry out the re-strike policy.

With the above two aspects of policy and method, we will certainly be able to defeat Japanese imperialism. We must train a large number of national revolutionary cadres, who have revolutionary theory, are full of the spirit of sacrifice, and are the vanguard of the revolution.Only by relying on tens of thousands of good cadres can the revolutionary policy and methods be implemented, a comprehensive revolutionary war for the whole nation can emerge in China, and the enemy can finally be defeated. According to the "New China News" published on November 4, 1937. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------

note [1] This is Mao Zedong's speech at the opening ceremony of Yan'an Shanbei Public School. [2] This sentence was originally "to shed the last drop of blood to defend the country!", see "The Chinese Communist Party Powered the Japanese Army to Attack the Marco Polo Bridge" issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on July 8, 1937. [3] The Ten Programs of Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation, see note [3] on page 30 of this volume.