1. Today is the election for the alternate members of the Central Committee. Comrades, do not think that we can be less careful because this is an election of alternate committee members. This election is still highly significant because we will elect thirty-four members, which is not a small number, and they will be participating in the work of the Central Committee as well as attending meetings. They will have the right to free speech, and they may make suggestions, and when there are vacancies in the formal Central Committee they will fill them. And if the Eighth Party Congress is postponed, the alternate Central Committee members will play an even larger role. We therefore hope that everyone will take this election seriously.
After the election of the formal Central Committee members yesterday, a comrade wrote a letter to the Presidium expressing the hope that we would be careful in this election to elect those comrades to the Central Committee who are able to carry out the line of this congress. The Presidium has already stated this general policy, and I represented the Presidium in issuing a report here, which every delegation considered and discussed for several days. You followed this policy when you elected the formal Central Committee yesterday. So why did this comrade need to bring up this issue again after the election yesterday? What he meant was that some candidates may not be well known or might even have shortcomings in some areas or have made mistakes, but that in the long run they have shown themselves to be capable of carrying out the line of the congress. We should not refuse to elect someone like this simply because he is not well known or has a few shortcomings or has made a few mistakes. I think that this comrade’s opinion is very good and that it represents the opinion of the majority.
2. In yesterday’s election, Comrade Wang Jiaxiang2 received 204 votes, which was not a majority, so he was not elected. I would like to say a few words about this.
Comrade Wang Jiaxiang has made mistakes. He made mistakes of line around the time of the Fourth Plenum,3 and afterward he made a few more mistakes. But he has also made contributions. His contributions consist mainly of the following:
To begin with, after the Fourth Plenum the Central Committee sent a delegation to the central soviet area. The delegation consisted of three people: Comrades Ren Bishi,4 Wang Jiaxiang, and Gu Zuolin.5 They arrived after the end of the first anti–“encirclement and suppression” campaign. Comrade Wang Jiaxiang participated in the second, third, and fourth battles against “encircling and suppression.” At that time, we felt that if it had not been for the help of that delegation, especially the help of Comrades Ren Bishi and Wang Jiaxiang, our campaign against “peeling radishes” would not have gone as smoothly. “Radish-peeling” refers to a policy of advocating not fighting and marching around until bumping into a “small radish” and then peeling it. At that time, we upheld the idea of fighting the enemy, of sneaking in among the enemy and finding their weak points and then attacking. Those who upheld “radish peeling” opposed us, saying that our way was just hair splitting and went nowhere. If it had not been for the support and trust of the delegation, especially Comrade Wang Jiaxiang, I and the commander-in-chief [i.e., Zhu De] would have had problems. Even though Comrade Wang Jiaxiang made errors at two later meetings in the soviet area—the central soviet area party congress and the first soviet congress—still, what I have just said is his contribution. Comrade Wang Jiaxiang was injured at the end of the fourth anti–“encirclement and suppression” movement.
Second, everyone who has studied Party history and the Party line knows that in the history of the Chinese Communist Party, there have been two crucial meetings. One was the Zunyi Conference6 of January 1935, and the second was the Sixth Plenum in 1938. The Zunyi Conference was crucial, and its influence on the Chinese Revolution has been enormous. But everyone should know that if it had not been for Comrades Luo Fu7 and Wang Jiaxiang splitting from the third “Leftist” line, the Zunyi Conference could not have succeeded. You comrades have given me credit, but we should not forget these two men. Of course, many others participated in the Zunyi Conference, and it also was a long time in the making. Without the participation and support of these other comrades, of course having only the two would not have been enough, but these two broke away from the third “Leftist” line and thus played a large role in the conference. Ever since the Long March, Comrade Wang Jiaxiang has opposed the third “Leftist” line.
Since the Zunyi Conference, the leadership line of the Central Committee has been correct, but it has suffered setbacks along the way. The December Conference at the start of the War of Resistance was one of them. What would have happened if the situation at the December Conference8 had continued? Someone said he was told by the Communist International [Comintern] to return to China because the situation here was not good and we needed a new policy. This so-called new policy was primarily based on two issues: that of the United Front and that of the war. On the question of the United Front, the issue was whether we wanted to maintain an independent initiative or to weaken or lose it; on the question of the war, the issue was whether it was a mobile war or a war fought by guerrillas with an independent initiative. The Sixth Plenum decided China’s fate. Though there were some writings before the Sixth Plenum, such as “On Protracted War,”9 nevertheless, if not for the directive of the Comintern, the Sixth Plenum would have had a difficult time resolving these questions. And it was Comrade Wang Jiaxiang who brought back the directive from the Comintern when he returned from the Soviet Union after he had recovered from his illness there. Comrade Wang Jiaxiang transmitted this directive.
Third, ever since then, Comrade Wang Jiaxiang has worked at the Central Committee. Although he has shortcomings in his work—for example, there are large shortcomings in his political work—he has also done many good things. For example, he drafted the 1939 resolution on solidifying the Party, the 1941 resolution on strengthening Party spirit, and, in 1942, the resolution on unifying Party leadership, the directive on attitudes toward the cadres of the Fourth Front Army, and the fourth directive on army building. He and Comrade Wang Ruofei10 cooperated in drafting the resolution on strengthening Party spirit under his, Wang Jiaxiang’s, leadership, and he also led Comrade Ye Jianying in the drafting of the fourth directive on army building.
As for the fact that he has some shortcomings, for example, in his relations with other cadres, this is something that everyone knows. But what I have just told you are things that not everyone knows, since they are internal affairs of the Central Committee, and so I needed to say a few words about them today.
Although he has made Party line mistakes and has shortcomings, he also has made contributions. He is ill right now, and his illness is related to the wounds that he received during the fourth anti–“encirclement and suppression” campaign. We have already copied and distributed a letter that he wrote to me so that everyone may read it.11 Some comrades say he wrote too simplistically, but he did indeed think for a long time before deciding to write.
I believe that he will be able to carry out the line of this congress. And this is proved by looking at the past, at the time when the third “Leftist” line reached its peak after the Fourth Plenum, during the Zunyi Conference, and during the Sixth Plenum.
He was not elected in the election of formal Central Committee members yesterday, so the Presidium has made him the first among the candidates for the alternate committee. We hope that everyone will vote for him.
3. On the question of the Northeast, in my opinion we should elect comrades from the Northeast in this election. The Northeast is very important; from the point of view of our Party and of the immediate future of the Chinese Revolution, the Northeast is uniquely important. If we were to lose all our present base areas, so long as we had the Northeast, the Chinese Revolution would still have a solid foundation. Of course, if no base areas are lost, and we also have the Northwest, the foundation for the Chinese Revolution will be even more solid. Right now our foundation is not solid and we do not think it is. Why isn’t it? Because, in terms of the economy, our base areas rely on handicrafts; we do not yet have large-scale industry or heavy industry. Also, in terms of geography, our base areas are not all connected. Therefore, I think we should elect comrades from the Northeast in this election. Of course, this is only a suggestion, which I ask you comrades to consider.
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 423–26, where it is reproduced from a transcript of the speech preserved in the Central Archives.
1. This is a report that Mao Zedong delivered at the Seventh Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
2. On Wang Jiaxiang, see above, note to the text of February 21, 1942.
3. On the Fourth Plenum (1931), see above, note to the text of October 14, 1943.
4. On Ren Bishi, see above, note to the text of January 23, 1942.
5. Gu Zuolin (1907–1934) went to the Jiangxi Base Area as a member of the delegation of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in the spring of 1938 and was then a member of the Central Bureau of the central soviet region.
6. On the Zunyi Conference, see above, note to the text of March 5, 1944.
7. Luo Fu, pseudonym for Zhang Wentian. He went to the Central Revolutionary Base Area in January 1931 and was elected to the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the Provisional Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in September 1931. He became a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee in January 1934 and chairman of the People’s Committee of the Central Government of the Soviet Republic. He supported Mao Zedong at the Zunyi Conference and drafted the conference resolution. After the conference, he took the place of Bo Gu as head of the Central Committee.
8. On the December Conference (1937), see above, note 4 to the text of March 31, 1945.
9. Mao’s essay from May 26, 1938, see Vol. VI, pp. 319–89.
10. Wang Ruofei was at this time head of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and head of the Center for Party Affairs Research; see also, above, note to the text of February 12, 1945.
11. The editors of Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 427–28, n13, provide the context and some quotations from Wang Jiaxiang’s two letters to Mao.