Where Is the Nanjing Government Heading?

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Where Is the Nanjing Government Heading? 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:

• Whither the Nanking Government?, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 4, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1965.
• Whither the Nanjing Government?, in Mao's Road to Power, First English Edition, Vol. 10, Routledge, New York and London, 2023.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an editorial written by Comrade Mao Zedong for the New China News Agency in Beijing, China on the 4th of April, 1949. It was first published in the Renmin Ribao (5th of April, 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!

#WHERE IS THE NANJING GOVERNMENT HEADING?

#EDITORIAL OF THE NEW CHINA NEWS AGENCY

#Mao Zedong

#4th of April, 1949

#★

Two roads are open to the Nanjing Nationalist government and its military and administrative personnel. Either they cling to the Jiang Jieshi clique of war criminals and its master, US imperialism, that is, continue to be the enemy of the people and so perish together with the Jiang Jieshi clique of war criminals in the People's War of Liberation. Or they come over to the people, that is, break with the Jiang Jieshi clique of war criminals and US imperialism, perform meritorious service in the People's War of Liberation to atone for their crimes, and so obtain clemency and understanding from the people. There is no third road.

There are three different groups of people in the government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin at Nanjing.¹ One group stubbornly persist in following the first road. No matter how plausible they are in words, in deeds, they are continuing to prepare for war, to betray the nation and to oppress and massacre the people who are demanding genuine peace. They are Jiang Jieshi's followers even unto death. Another group want to follow the second road, but have not yet attained a leading position and are unable to take any decisive action. The third group are hesitating at the crossroads, and it is uncertain which way they will go. They want to act from both sides and also want to benefit from both sides. They do not want to offend Jiang Jieshi and the US government, yet they hope that they will be understood and admitted by the camp of people's democracy. But this is an illusion and is impossible. Reality demands that they take a clear standpoint — one or the other. They believe that their «Centrist» standpoint can elicit favourable opinions from the majority of people, but in reality, if they continue to maintain this fantasy, they will not be believed by anyone, and they will become bankrupt in the same way as the reactionaries, or they will become bankrupt even earlier.

The Nanjing government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin, including its Zhang Zhizhong delegation, is mainly a mixture of people from the first and third groups, with only a handful from the second. To this day, this government remains a tool of Jiang Jieshi and the US government. Some spokespersons for this government try to demand that the people trust their «sincere desire for peace», but those in power in this government make a greater effort to protect their reactionary influence, protect the interests of Jiang Jieshi's clique of war criminals, and protect the interests of the US invaders. The invertebrates inside the government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin who claim to demand peace not only do not want to, do not dare to, and cannot distinguish themselves from Jiang Jieshi and his sworn followers, but also in all respects depend on Jiang Jieshi and his sworn followers for survival; in all respects, they make known their devotion to Jiang Jieshi, and they make clear their cooperation with Jiang Jieshi's sworn followers. Such a reactionary standpoint certainly cannot fail to awaken the people's anger, loathing, and revilement. The military and political personnel in the reactionary, treasonous Nanjing Nationalist government, whoever they are, all have an opportunity to redeem themselves and repent for their crimes against the people, but they simply cannot count on relying on this reactionary standpoint to obtain the people's forgiveness. Only when they have already taken concrete actions, have declared that they have broken off relations with Jiang Jieshi, his sworn followers in Nanjing, Shanghai, Hankou, Xi'an, Chongqing, Guangzhou, and Taiwan, and his US imperialist masters in Nanjing, Shanghai, Tokyo, and Washington, and have taken concrete actions to implement the eight peace terms of Communist Party of China, will they truly begin to draw near to the people and have the opportunity to receive the people's forgiveness.

The massacre which occurred in Nanjing on the 1st of April² was no accident. It was the inevitable result of the government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin carrying out evil policies drawing near to Jiang Jieshi and John Leighton Stuart instead of drawing near to the people. It was the inevitable result of the actions taken by the government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin to protect Jiang Jieshi, his sworn followers, and the forces of US aggression. It was the result of the absurd trumpeting about «honourable peace on an equal footing» by the government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin and by the sworn followers of Jiang Jieshi, which had the purpose of countering the Communist Party of China's eight terms for peace, and particularly the punishment of war criminals. The Nanjing Massacre once again proves that the government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin, which carried out such reactionary policies, even within the city gates of Nanjing, still absolutely cannot control Jiang Jieshi and his sworn followers, and instead it is controlled by them. Now that the government of Li Zongren and He Yingqin has sent its delegation to Beijing to negotiate peace with the Communist Party of China and has indicated its willingness to accept the Communist Party's eight terms as the basis for negotiations, it should, if it has the slightest good faith, start by dealing with the Nanjing Massacre, arrest and severely punish the chief criminals, Jiang Jieshi, Tang Enbo, and Zhang Yaoming, arrest and severely punish the thugs of the secret police in Nanjing and Shanghai, and arrest and severely punish the chief counter-revolutionaries, who are obstinately opposing peace, actively disrupting the peace negotiations, and actively preparing by military and political, open and secret means to resist the advance of the People's Liberation Army to the south of the Yangzi River. «Until Qing Fu is done away with, the crisis in the State of Lu will not be over.»³ Until the war criminals are eliminated, there will be no peace in the country. Isn't this truth clear enough by now?

We should like to speak plainly to the Nanjing government. If you are unequal to this job, you should at least help the People's Liberation Army do it, as our army will soon cross the Yangzi River and advance south. At this late hour, you should not indulge in idle talk and had better do some real work to atone for your crimes. In that case, you will not have to flee for your lives, you will not have to submit to the bullying of Jiang Jieshi's sworn followers, and you will not be spurned forever by the people. This is your last chance. Don't lose it. The People's Liberation Army will soon advance south of the Yangzi River. We are not bluffing. The People's Liberation Army will advance, whether or not you sign the agreement accepting the eight terms. An agreement signed before our army advances, will be advantageous to many — to the people, to the People's Liberation Army, to all those in the Nationalist government who wish to atone for their crimes by performing meritorious service (such people are the vast majority in the Nationalist government system), and to the broad ranks of officers and soldiers in the Nationalist army; it will be disadvantageous only to Jiang Jieshi, his sworn followers, and the imperialists. If the agreement is not signed, the situation will be about the same; solutions can be achieved on a case-by-case basis and peacefully by local negotiations. There may yet be some fighting, but not much. Over the vast area and long front extending from Xinjiang to Taiwan, the Nationalist Party has only about 1'100'000 combat troops left, and so there will not be much fighting. Whether a general agreement is signed, or whether no such agreement is signed, but instead many local agreements are signed, it will be all the same for Jiang Jieshi, for his sworn followers, and for US imperialism, in a word, for all those reactionaries who will not change even unto death; they are irrevocably doomed. But for the other people — the Chinese people, the People's Liberation Army, most Nationalist officers and soldiers, and all people in the Nationalist government who wish to atone for their sins — this will be beneficial or relatively beneficial. Perhaps it will be slightly more advantageous to Nanjing, as well as to ourselves, to sign rather than not to sign a general agreement, and that is why we are still striving to conclude it. But if a general agreement is to be signed, we must be prepared as a consequence to deal with many messy matters. It would be very much neater for us not to sign a general agreement, but instead to sign many local agreements. Nevertheless, we are still ready to sign a general agreement. If the Nanjing government and its delegation are also willing to do so, they must make up their minds in the next few days; all illusions and all empty talk should be discarded. We are not forcing you to make up your minds. The Nanjing government and its delegation are free to make up their minds or not to. That is to say, you may either listen to Jiang Jieshi and Leighton Stuart and side with them irrevocably, or listen to us and side with us; you are free to choose. But there is not much time for you to make your choice. The People's Liberation Army will soon start its march, and there is no opportunity left for hesitation.