The Jiang Jieshi Government Is Besieged by the Whole People

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of The Jiang Jieshi Government Is Besieged by the Whole People 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:

• The Chiang Kai-shek Government Is Besieged by the Whole People, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• An Authoritative Person of the Chinese Communist Party Discusses the Current Situation, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 9, Routledge, New York and London, 2023.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a comment written by Comrade Mao Zedong for the New China News Agency in Wangjiawan, Jingbian, Shaanxi, China. It was first published on the 30th of May, 1947.

The comment pointed out that the march of events in China was faster than people had expected and called upon the people to prepare speedily all necessary conditions for the countrywide victory of the Chinese revolution. This prediction was soon confirmed.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#THE JIANG JIESHI GOVERNMENT IS BESIEGED BY THE WHOLE PEOPLE

#Mao Zedong

#Before the 30th of May, 1947

#★

The Jiang Jieshi government, hostile to the whole people, now finds itself besieged by the whole people. On both the military and political fronts, it has met defeats, is now besieged by the forces it has declared to be its enemies, and can find no way of escape.

The traitorous Jiang Jieshi clique and its master, US imperialism, have wrongly appraised the situation. They overestimated their own strength and underestimated the strength of the people. They regarded China and the world after the Second World War as being the same as in the past; they would permit nothing to change nor anyone to go against their will. After Japan's surrender, they were determined to restore the old order in China. And having gained time by such deceptions as political consultation and military mediation, the traitorous Jiang Jieshi government mustered 2'000'000 troops and launched an all-out offensive.

There are now two battle fronts in China. The war between Jiang Jieshi's invading troops and the People's Liberation Army constitutes the first front. Now, a second front has emerged, that is, the sharp struggle between the great and righteous student movement and the reactionary Jiang Jieshi government.¹ The slogan of the student movement is «Food, Peace, Freedom» or «Against Hunger, Against Civil War, Against Persecution». Jiang Jieshi has promulgated the «Provisional Measures for the Maintenance of Public Order».² Everywhere, his army, police, gendarmes and secret agents are clashing with the student masses. Jiang Jieshi is using brute force against unarmed students, subjecting them to arrest, imprisonment, beating, and slaughter; as a result, the student movement is daily growing in strength. Public sympathy is all on the side of the students, Jiang Jieshi and his lackeys are completely isolated, and his ferocious features have been completely unmasked. The student movement is part of the whole people's movement; it is also the organizer of the whole people's movement. The upsurge of the student movement will inevitably promote an upsurge of the whole people's movement. This is borne out by the historical experience of the 4th of May Movement of 1919³ and the 9th of December Movement of 1935.

Since US imperialism and its lackey Jiang Jieshi have taken the place of Japanese imperialism and its lackey Wang Jingwei and adopted the policies of turning China into a US colony, launching a civil war, and strengthening the fascist dictatorship, they have declared themselves to be enemies of the entire Chinese people and driven all strata of the people to the brink of starvation and death. This has compelled all strata of the people to unite in a life-and-death struggle against the reactionary Jiang Jieshi government and brought about the speedy development of that struggle. For the people, there is no other way out. The strata of the Chinese people oppressed by the reactionary policies of the Jiang Jieshi government and united for their own salvation include the workers, peasants, urban small bourgeoisie, national bourgeoisie, enlightened gentry, other patriotic elements, the minority nationalities, and the overseas Chinese. This is a very broad national united front.

The extremely reactionary financial and economic policies long pursued by the Jiang Jieshi government have now been aggravated by the Sino-US Treaty of Commerce, the most treasonous treaty ever known. On the basis of this treaty, US monopoly capital and Jiang Jieshi's bureaucrat-comprador capital have become tightly intertwined and control the economic life of the whole country. The results are unbridled inflation, unparalleled soaring prices, ever-spreading bankruptcy of the industry and commerce of the national bourgeoisie, and daily deterioration in the livelihood of the working masses, government employees, and teachers. In these circumstances, all strata of the people cannot but unite and fight for their very survival.

Military suppression and political deception have been the two main instruments by which Jiang Jieshi maintains his reactionary rule. People are now witnessing the rapid collapse of both these instruments.

On every battlefield, Jiang Jieshi's army has met with defeat. About 90 brigades of his regular troops alone have been wiped out in the 11 months since last July. His troops no longer display the overweening pride of last year, when they occupied Changchun, Chengde, Zhangjiakou, Heze, Huaiyin, and Andong, or even of this year, when they occupied Linyi and Yan'an. Jiang Jieshi and Chen Cheng made a wrong appraisal of the strength and fighting methods of the People's Liberation Army. Mistaking our retreats for cowardice and our abandonment of a number of cities for defeats, they had fondly hoped to finish us off south of the Great Wall in three months or at most six, and then proceed to finish us off in the North-East. But after ten months, all Jiang Jieshi's invading troops are in desperate straits; they are completely besieged by the people of the Liberated Areas and the People's Liberation Army and find it very difficult to escape.

As more and more news of the defeats of Jiang Jieshi's troops at the front reaches his rear areas, the broad masses of the people there, suffocating under the oppression of his reactionary government, see more and more hope of ending their sufferings and winning their emancipation. At this very time, all Jiang Jieshi's political tricks are failing as fast as he plays them. Everything has gone against the expectations of the reactionaries. Such steps as convening a «National Assembly» to adopt a «Constitution», reorganizing the one-party government into a «multi-party government», and what not, were originally aimed at isolating the Communist Party and other democratic forces. They have produced the opposite result; it is not the Communist Party or any other democratic forces that are isolated, but the reactionaries themselves. After this, the Chinese people know from their own experience what Jiang Jieshi's «National Assembly», «Constitution», and «multi-party government» really are. Previously, many Chinese people, mainly those of the middle strata, had illusions to a greater or lesser extent about these manoeuvres of Jiang Jieshi's. It is the same with his «peace negotiations». Now that Jiang Jieshi has torn several solemn truce agreements to shreds and used bayonets against the student masses demanding peace and opposing civil war, nobody will any longer believe in his so-called peace negotiations except those bent on deceiving people or those absolutely inexperienced politically.

All events have proved our appraisal to be correct. We have repeatedly pointed out that the Jiang Jieshi government is nothing but a government of treason, civil war, and dictatorship. It seeks to wipe out the Communist Party of China and all other democratic forces by civil war in order to turn China into a US colony and maintain its own dictatorial rule. Because it has adopted these reactionary policies, this government has lost all prestige and strength politically. The power of the Jiang Jieshi government is only temporary and superficial; in fact, it is a government outwardly strong, but inwardly weak. Its offensives can be smashed no matter where or on what fronts they are launched. Its inevitable end will be rebellion by the masses, desertion by its followers and the total destruction of its army. All events have borne out and will continue to bear out the correctness of this appraisal.

The march of events in China is faster than people expected. On the one hand, there are the victories of the People's Liberation Army; on the other, there is the advance of the people's struggle in the areas under Jiang Jieshi's control; both are moving at high speed. The Chinese people should quickly prepare all the necessary conditions for the establishment of a peaceful, democratic, and independent New China.