On the War Criminal's Suing for Peace

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of On the War Criminal's Suing for Peace has been prepared and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

• On the War Criminal's Suing for Peace, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Xinhua News Agency Reporter Publishes Commentary Exposing the Plot of War Criminal Chiang Kaishek to Sue for Peace, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 10, Routledge, New York and London, 2023.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a comment written by Comrade Mao Zedong for the New China News Agency in Xibaipo, Pingshan, Hebei, China. It was first published on the 3rd of January, 1949.

This is part of a series of comments written by Comrade Mao Zedong for the New China News Agency to expose the use of peace negotiations by the Nationalist Party of China in order to preserve the counter-revolutionary forces.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#ON THE WAR CRIMINAL'S SUING FOR PEACE

#Mao Zedong

#Before the 3rd of January, 1949

#★

In order to preserve the forces of Chinese reaction and US aggression in China, Jiang Jieshi, China's No. 1 war criminal and chieftain of the Nationalist bandit gang, issued a statement on New Year's Day suing for peace. The war criminal Jiang Jieshi says:

I have no desire of my own other than that the peace negotiations should not impair the country's independence and integrity, but instead should help the rehabilitation of the people; that the sacred constitution should not be violated by my action and that democratic constitutionalism should not be thereby undermined; that the form of government of the Republic of China should be guaranteed and the legally constituted authority of the Republic of China should not be interrupted; that the armed forces should be definitely preserved and that the people should be allowed to continue their free way of life and maintain their present minimum standard of living. [...] If only peace can be realized, I certainly do not care whether I remain in office or retire, but will abide by the common will of the people.

People should not think that there is something ridiculous about a war criminal suing for peace, nor should they think that such a bid for peace is really disgusting. It should be understood that for the No. 1 war criminal and chieftain of the Nationalist bandit gang to sue personally for peace and issue such a statement is obviously of some benefit to the Chinese people, because it enables them to see through the plots of the Nationalist bandit gang and the US imperialists. For the Chinese people can tell from this that the «peace», about which there has lately been so much clamour, is exactly what this Jiang Jieshi gang of murderers and their US master urgently need.

Jiang Jieshi has confessed the gang's whole plot. The main points of this plot are as follows:

«The peace negotiations should not impair the country's independence and integrity» — this is first in importance. «Peace» is all right, but «peace» is a million times wrong if it impairs the «independence and integrity» of the State of the «Four Big Families» and the comprador and landlord classes. «Peace» is absolutely all wrong if it impairs such wonderful treaties as the Sino-US Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation, the Sino-US Air Transport Agreement,¹ and the Sino-US bilateral agreement,² or if it impairs such prerogatives enjoyed by the United States in China as the stationing of ground, naval, and air forces, the building of military bases, the exploitation of mines, and the monopoly of trade, or if it interferes with China's becoming a US colony — in short, if it impairs any such measures as protect the «independence and integrity» of Jiang Jieshi's reactionary State.

«Help the rehabilitation of the people» — that is, «peace» must help the rehabilitation of the Chinese reactionaries, who have been defeated, but not yet wiped out, so that, once rehabilitated, they can stage a comeback and extinguish the revolution. This is exactly what «peace» is for. The war has been going on for two and a half years, «the running dog can no longer run», and the Americans are angry; a rest-cure, however brief, is better than none.

«The sacred constitution should not be violated by my action and democratic constitutionalism should not be thereby undermined; the form of government of the Republic of China should be guaranteed and the legally constituted authority of the Republic of China should not be interrupted» — all this means guaranteeing the ruling position of China's reactionary classes and reactionary government and guaranteeing that the «legally constituted authority» of these classes and their government will not be «interrupted». This «legally constituted authority» certainly must not be «interrupted», for to «interrupt» it would be very dangerous — it would mean the finish of the whole of the comprador and landlord classes, the end of the Nationalist gang of bandits, and the arrest and punishment of all the war criminals, big, middle, and small.

«The armed forces should be definitely preserved» — they are the lifeline of the comprador and landlord classes, and although several millions have been wiped out by the detested People's Liberation Army, there still remain more than 1'000'000 troops which must be «preserved», and «definitely» so. If they were «preserved», but not «definitely», the comprador and landlord classes would lose their capital, their «legally constituted authority» would still be «interrupted», the Nationalist bandit gang would still be finished, all the war criminals, big, middle, and small, would still be arrested and punished. Just as the life of Jia Baoyu of the Grand View Garden depended upon a piece of jade in his necklace,² the life of the Nationalist Party depends upon its army, so how can one say that its army should not be «preserved», or should only be «preserved», but not «definitely» so?

«The people should be allowed to continue their free way of life and maintain their present minimum standard of living» — this means the Chinese comprador and landlord classes must preserve their freedom to oppress and exploit the people of the whole country and their freedom to maintain their present standard of lordly, luxurious, loose, and idle living, while the Chinese working people must preserve their freedom to be oppressed and exploited and maintain their present standard of living, a life of cold and hunger. That is the ultimate aim of the war criminals in suing for peace. What is the use of peace, if the war criminals and the classes to which they belong cannot preserve their freedom to oppress and exploit and cannot maintain their standard of lordly, luxurious, loose, and idle living? To preserve all this, it is of course necessary for the workers, peasants, intellectuals, government employees, and teachers to maintain their present «free way of life and minimum standard of living», a life of cold and hunger. Once our beloved President Jiang puts forward this condition, the tens of millions of workers, handicraftspeople, and professionals, the hundreds of millions of peasants, and the millions of intellectuals, government employees, and teachers can only clap their hands in unison, prostrate themselves and shout: «Long live the President!» If the Communist Party still refuses peace, so that this wonderful way of life and standard of living cannot be maintained, then it will be guilty of a crime for which it deserves to die ten thousand deaths, and «the Communist Party will be held responsible for all the consequences».

In saying all this, however, we have not exhausted the whole treasury of wonderful ideas in the war criminal's statement of the 1st of January suing for peace. Here is another gem — what Jiang Jieshi in his New Year message calls «a decisive battle in the Nanjing-Shanghai sector». Where is the strength for such a «decisive battle»? Jiang Jieshi says: «It must be understood that, today, the strength of the government in the military, political, economic, or any other field is several times or even tens of times greater than that of the Communist Party.» Oh! Ho! How can people not be scared to death by such immense strength? Leaving political and economic strength aside and taking only military strength, one sees that the People's Liberation Army now has over 3'000'000 troops, that two times «greater» than this number is over 6'000'000, and that ten times «greater» is over 30'000'000. And how many will «tens of times» be? All right, let's take 20 times, which gives over 60'000'000 troops; no wonder President Jiang says he has «full confidence in winning the decisive battle». Why, then, should he beg for peace? Certainly not because he can no longer fight. For if he were to bring the pressure of over 60'000'000 troops to bear, could there be any chance of survival for the Communist Party or any other party in the world? All of course would be crushed to powder. It is clear then that when he begs for peace, it is certainly for no other reason than «to plead for the life of the people».

But is everything going well, without any hitch? There is a hitch, it is said. What is the hitch? President Jiang says:

It is regrettable that there are people in our government who have come under the influence of malicious Communist propaganda and are consequently in a wavering state of mind, having almost lost their self-confidence. Spiritually menaced by the Communists, they see only the enemy's strength, but not our own huge strength, which is tens of times greater than the enemy's.

Well, every year brings its crop of news, but this year's is something very special. Isn't it an extra-special piece of news that members of the Nationalist Party, with their 60'000'000-odd officers and soldiers, see only the People's Liberation Army of 3'000'000-odd troops, but not their own army of over 60'000'000?

One may ask: «Is there a market for such news?» «Is it worth even a glance?» According to information received from inside the city of Beijing: «On New Year's Day prices dropped slightly in the morning but recovered in the afternoon.» And a foreign news agency reports: «Shanghai's response to Jiang Jieshi's New Year message is cold.» This answers the question as to whether the war criminal Jiang Jieshi has any market. As we said long ago, Jiang Jieshi has lost his soul, is merely a corpse, and no one believes him anymore.