Telegram to Jiang Jieshi (13th of August, 1945)
#PUBLICATION NOTE
This edition of Telegram to Jiang Jieshi 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:
- Two Telegrams From the Commander-in-Chief of the 18th Group to Chiang Kai-shek, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
- Telegram From Commander-in-Chief Zhu [De] and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Peng [Dehuai] Resolutely Rejects Chiang Kaishek's Erroneous Order, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 9, Routledge, New York and London, 2023.
#INTRODUCTION NOTE
This is a telegram to Jiang Jieshi drafted by Comrade Mao Zedong for Comrade Zhu De and for Peng Dehuai in Yan'an, Shaanxi, China on the 13th of August, 1945. It was first published by the New China News Agency on the 14th of August, 1945.
At the time, when the Japanese aggressors had announced their surrender, but had not yet actually surrendered, the Jiang Jieshi government, with the armed assistance of US imperialism, monopolized the right to accept the Japanese surrender and was actively preparing a counter-revolutionary civil war by sending large forces to advance on the Liberated Areas on the pretext of accepting the Japanese surrender. Comrade Mao Zedong's purpose in writing the first telegram was to unmask the counter-revolutionary face of Jiang Jieshi and teach the whole people to be on guard against his civil war plot. The second telegram further exposed the plot of the Jiang Jieshi clique for preparing civil war and put forward the six-point proposal of the Communist Party of China for preventing civil war. For the same purpose, Comrade Mao Zedong wrote for the New China News Agency two comments, Jiang Jieshi Is Provoking Civil War and On a Statement by Jiang Jieshi's Spokesperson. Owing to the firm, determined standpoint of the Communist Party of China in refusing to be cowed by Jiang Jieshi's reactionary bluster, both the Liberated Areas and the Liberation Army expanded quickly; and, under strong political pressure from the forces at home and abroad opposed to civil war in China, Jiang Jieshi had to change his tactics, assume a posture of peace, and invite Comrade Mao Zedong to Chongqing for peace negotiations.
#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!
#TELEGRAM TO JIANG JIESHI
#Mao Zedong
#13th of August, 1945
#★
For the perusal of the honourable President Jiang Jieshi:
We have received through the Chongqing radio two Central News Agency dispatches, one carrying the order you sent us and the other your order to the officers and soldiers in various war zones. Your order to us reads:
All units of the 18th Army Group should stay where they are, pending further orders.
In addition, it talks about such things as forbidding us to take over the enemy's arms. Your order to the officers and soldiers in various war zones was reported as follows in the Central News Agency dispatch from Chongqing, dated the 11th of August:
The Supreme Command today sent telegrams to the officers and soldiers in various war zones, ordering them to step up the war effort and in accordance with existing military plans and orders actively to push forward without the slightest relaxation.
We hold that these two orders contradict each other. According to the first, our units should «stay where they are, pending further orders» and should no longer attack or fight. Why do you tell us not to fight at this moment, when the Japanese aggressors have not yet actually surrendered, when every hour and every minute they are killing Chinese people and fighting Chinese troops as well as Soviet, US, and British troops, and when, in their turn, the Soviet, US, and British troops are fighting the Japanese aggressors every hour and every minute? As to the second order, we consider it very good. «Step up the war effort and actively push forward without the slightest relaxation» — that's more like it! But what a pity you have given this order only to your own troops, and not to us, and that you have given us something quite different. Zhu De issued an order on the 10th of August to all anti-Japanese armed forces in China's Liberated Areas precisely to the effect that they should «step up the war effort». His order said further that, while stepping up their war effort, they must order the Japanese aggressors to surrender to them and must take over the arms and other equipment of the enemy and puppet troops. Isn't this very good? Undoubtedly, it is very good; undoubtedly, it is in the interest of the Chinese nation. But to «stay where they are, pending further orders», is definitely not in the national interest. We hold that you have given a wrong order, an order so wrong that we have to inform you we firmly reject it. For your order to us is not only unjust, but also runs counter to China's national interest and benefits only the Japanese aggressors and the traitors to the homeland.