Statement on the Southern Anhui Incident

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Statement on the Southern Anhui Incident 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:

• Order and Statement on the Southern Anhui Incident, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 2, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Order and Statement of the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on the Southern Anhui Incident, First English Edition, Vol. 7, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 2005.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a statement drafted by Comrade Mao Zedong for the spokesperson of the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 22nd of January, 1941. It was first published in a documentary collection in 1942.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#STATEMENT ON THE SOUTHERN ANHUI INCIDENT

#STATEMENT BY THE SPOKESPERSON OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MILITARY COMMISSION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#22nd of January, 1941

#★

The recent anti-Communist Southern Anhui Incident had been brewing for a long time. Present developments are but the opening phase of a national emergency. Since the formation of their triple alliance¹ with Germany and Italy, the Japanese aggressors have redoubled their efforts to engineer changes within China, so as to find a quick solution to the Second Sino-Japanese War. Their purpose is to use the Chinese themselves to suppress the anti-Japanese movement and consolidate the rear for Japan's southward drive, so that it will be free to drive south in coordination with Hitler's offensive against Britain. A considerable number of ringleaders from the pro-Japanese clique have long entrenched themselves in the party, government, and army organizations of the Nationalist Party of China and have been carrying on agitation day and night. The preparations for their plot were completed by the end of last year. The attack on the New Fourth Army units in southern Anhui and the reactionary Order of the 17th of January² are only the first open signs of this plot. Incidents of the gravest nature will now be staged one after another. What are the details of the plot of the Japanese aggressors and the pro-Japanese clique? They are as follows:

• To publish the two telegrams of the 19th of October and 8th of December³ to Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Ye Ting, and Xiang Ying over the signatures of He Yingqin and Bai Chongxi, in order to create public opinion.
• To start a press campaign on the importance of observing military discipline and military orders in preparation for launching civil war.
• To wipe out the New Fourth Army units in southern Anhui.
• To declare that the New Fourth Army has «mutinied» and cancel its official designation. These four steps have already been taken.
• To appoint Tang Enbo, Li Pinxian, Wang Zhonglian, and Han Deqin as «Communist suppression» commanders of the various route armies in Central China, with Li Zongren as supreme commander, in order to attack the New Fourth Army units under Peng Xuefeng, Zhang Yunyi, and Li Xiannian, and, if this comes off, to make further attacks on the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army units in Shandong and northern Jiangsu, with the Japanese troops acting in close coordination. This step is now being taken.
• To find a pretext to declare that the Eighth Route Army has «mutinied», cancel its official designation, and order the arrest of Zhu De and Peng Dehuai. This move is now in preparation.
• To close down the liaison offices of the Eighth Route Army in Chongqing, Xi'an, and Guilin, and arrest Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, Dong Biwu, and Deng Yingchao. This move has begun with the closing down of the liaison office in Guilin.
• To close down the Xin Zhonghua Ribao [New China Daily].
• To launch attacks on the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and seize Yan'an.
• To make wholesale arrests of prominent people favouring resistance to Japan and suppress the anti-Japanese movement in Chongqing and in the provinces.
• To destroy Communist Party organizations in all provinces and make wholesale arrests of Communists.
• To proclaim «the recovery of lost territories» by the Nationalist government upon the withdrawal of Japanese troops from Central and South China, and, at the same time, to carry out propaganda on the necessity of concluding a so-called «peace with honour».
• Japan to launch most ferocious attacks on the Eighth Route Army by bringing up its troops from Central and South China as reinforcements to the north, and to cooperate with the Nationalist forces, in order to annihilate the whole Eighth Route and New Fourth Armies.
• The Nationalist Party to continue last year's state of ceasefire with Japan on all fronts in order to turn it into one of general truce and peace negotiations while ceaselessly attacking the Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army.
• The Nationalist government to sign a peace treaty with Japan and join the triple alliance. Active preparations are now being made for these moves.

Such, in general outline, is the treacherous plot of Japan and the pro-Japanese clique. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out in its Manifesto of the 7th of July, 1939: «Capitulation presents the greatest danger in the current situation, and anti-Communism is the preparatory step to capitulation.» Its Manifesto of the 7th of July, 1940 stated: «The danger of capitulation has never been so serious and the difficulties in the war have never been so great as they are today.»⁴ Zhu De, Peng Dehuai, Ye Ting, and Xiang Ying pointed this out even more concretely in their telegram of the 9th of November of last year:

Certain people at home are engineering a new anti-Communist onslaught in an attempt to clear the way for capitulation [...]. They want to put an end to the War of Resistance by what they call Sino-Japanese cooperation in «suppressing the Communists». They want to substitute civil war for the War of Resistance, capitulation for independence, a split for unity, and darkness for light. Their activities are sinister and their designs pernicious. People are telling each other the news and are horrified. Indeed, the situation has never been so critical as it is today.⁵

Thus, the Southern Anhui Incident and the Order of the 17th of January of the Military Council in Chongqing are merely the beginning of a series of incidents. The Order of the 17th of January in particular is full of grave political implications. The fact that those who issued this counter-revolutionary order dared to do so openly, risking universal condemnation, shows that they must have determined upon a complete split and out-and-out capitulation. For without their wire-pulling masters, the political representatives of the flabby class of big landlords and big bourgeoisie in China cannot move an inch, let alone embark on an undertaking such as this, which has shocked the whole world. In the present circumstances, it seems very difficult to make those who issued the order change their minds and it will probably be impossible to do so without emergency action by the whole nation and strong diplomatic pressure from abroad. Hence, the urgent task of the whole nation now is to watch developments with the utmost vigilance and prepare itself against any sinister eventuality that the reactionaries may precipitate; there must not be the slightest negligence. As for China's future, the matter is quite clear. Even if the Japanese aggressors and the pro-Japanese clique are able to succeed in their plots, we Chinese Communists and the people will never allow them to keep up their tyranny indefinitely; not only are we duty bound to step forward and take control of the situation, we are also confident of our ability to do so. However dark the situation, however thorny the road, and whatever the price that road exacts (the loss of the New Fourth Army units in southern Anhui is part of that price), the Japanese aggressors and the pro-Japanese clique are certainly doomed. The reasons are as follows:

• The Communist Party of China can no longer be easily deceived and crushed, as it was in 1927. It is now a major political party standing firmly on its own feet.
• Many members of other political parties and groups (including the Nationalist Party), who are apprehensive of the disaster of national subjugation, certainly have no wish to capitulate and fight a civil war. Some of them are hoodwinked for the moment, but they may come to their senses in due course.
• The same is true of the troops. Most of them oppose the Communist Party under compulsion.
• The vast majority of the Chinese people have no desire to be colonial slaves.
• The imperialist war is on the eve of a great change. However rampant they may be for the moment, the parasites who depend on imperialism will soon find out that their bosses are not reliable. The whole situation will change when the tree falls and the monkeys scatter.
• The outbreak of revolution in many countries is only a question of time, and it is certain that these revolutions and the Chinese revolution will support one another in the joint struggle for victory.
• The Council Union is the strongest force in the world and will definitely help China fight the War of Resistance to the very end.

For all these reasons, we hope that those who are playing with fire will not get too dizzy. We now serve them with this formal warning: Better be careful. This fire is not a plaything. Look out for your own skins! If you calm down and give the matter some thought, you will have to take the following steps promptly and in earnest:

• Rein in on the brink of the precipice and stop your provocations.
• Rescind the reactionary Order of the 17th of January and publicly admit that you have been completely wrong.
• Punish He Yingqin, Gu Zhutong, and Shangguan Yunxiang, the chief culprits in the Southern Anhui Incident.
• Release Ye Ting and reinstate him as Commander of the New Fourth Army.
• Return all the soldiers and arms captured in southern Anhui to the New Fourth Army.
• Compensate all the officers and soldiers of the New Fourth Army who were wounded and the families of those who were killed in southern Anhui.
• Withdraw the troops sent to Central China for «Communist suppression».
• Demolish the blockade line in the North-West.⁶
• Release all patriotic political prisoners.
• Abolish the one-party dictatorship and introduce democratic government.
• Carry out the «Three People's Principles» and observe Dr. Sun Yixian's Testament.
• Arrest the ringleaders of the pro-Japanese clique and bring them to trial in accordance with the law of the land.

There will, of course, be a return to normal if these 12 points are put into effect, and we Communists and the whole people will certainly not push matters to extremes. Otherwise, «Ji Sun's troubles, I am afraid, will not come from Chuanyu, but will arise at home»;⁷ in other words, the reactionaries will be lifting a rock only to drop it on their own toes, and then we will not be able to help them, even if we would like to. We value cooperation, but they ought to set store by it, too. To be frank, there is a limit to our concessions; the stage of concessions is over as far as we are concerned. They have inflicted the first gash, and a very deep one at that. If they still care for their own future, they should come forward of their own accord and dress the wound. «It is not too late to mend the fold even after some of the sheep have been lost.» It is a matter of life and death for them, and we feel obliged to give them this final piece of advice. But if they remain impenitent and keep up their wrongdoing, the people of China, having reached the end of their forbearance, will dump them on the muck heap, and then it will be too late for repentance. As for the New Fourth Army, the Revolutionary Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued an order on the 20th of January, appointing Chen Yi as Acting Commander, Zhang Yunyi as Deputy Commander, Liu Shaoqi as Political Commissar, Lai Chuanzhu as Chief of Staff, and Deng Zihui as Director of the Political Department. With more than 90'000 troops remaining in Central China and the southern part of Jiangsu, the New Fourth Army, though subjected to pincer attacks by the Japanese aggressors and the anti-Communist troops, will certainly fight on despite all hardships and will never cease to render loyal service to the nation. Meanwhile, the units of its sibling army, the Eighth Route Army, will not sit by and watch it suffer these pincer attacks, but will certainly take steps to give the necessary assistance — this I can say bluntly. As for the statement made by the spokesperson of the Military Council in Chongqing, the only possible comment is that it is self-contradictory. While the Chongqing Military Council stated in its Order that the New Fourth Army had «mutinied», the spokesperson said that its aim was to move into the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou triangle, in order to establish a base there. Now, suppose we accept what he says. Can a move into the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou triangle be regarded as a «mutiny»? That blockhead of a Chongqing spokesperson did not stop to think. Against whom would the New Fourth Army be mutinying in that area? Is it not an area under Japanese occupation? Then why should you prevent the New Fourth Army from moving into that area and try to wipe it out while it was still in southern Anhui? Ah, of course! After all, that is what loyal servants of Japanese imperialism would do. Otherwise, are they not afraid of offending their Japanese masters? Yes, it's true, if they did not eliminate the New Fourth Army in southern Anhui, their Japanese bosses would be angry and say: «My children, how useless you are. Just let me give you a few dozen lashes on your backsides.» Ouch! Is it not going to be rather painful? Better to carry out their order. Hence their plan to mass seven divisions in an annihilation campaign, hence their Order of the 17th of January, and hence their trial of Ye Ting. Hence this and hence that, and there will be a whole series of acts to be put on in the future. All right, so their backsides will be spared a beating, but do they want to be praised into the bargain? However, I still say that the Chongqing spokesperson is an idiot, for he spilled the beans on their fathers' plans. Without being pressed, he has let the cat out of the bag and revealed the plans of Japanese imperialism to the whole people.