Page 15 - SELECTED WORKS OF MAO TSE-TUNG Volume II.indd

POLICIES, MEASURES AND PERSPECTIVES
FOR RESISTING
THE JAPANESE INVASION

July 23, 1937

I. TWO POLICIES

1
On July 8, the day after the Lukouchiao Incident, the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a manifesto to
the whole nation calling for a war of resistance. The manifesto reads
in part:
Fellow-countrymen! Peiping and Tientsin are in peril! Northern
China is in peril! The Chinese nation is in peril! A war of resistance
by the whole nation is the only way out. We demand immediate
and resolute resistance to the invading Japanese armies and im-
mediate preparations to meet all emergencies. From top to bottom
the whole nation must at once abandon any idea of being able to
live in submissive peace with the Japanese aggressors. Fellow-
countrymen! We should acclaim and support the heroic resistance
of Feng Chih-an’s troops. We should acclaim and support the
declaration of the local authorities of northern China that they
will defend the homeland to the death. We demand that General

On July 7, 1937, the Japanese imperialists staged the Lukouchiao Incident in
their attempt to annex the whole of China by armed force. The Chinese people
unanimously demanded war against Japan. Ten days elapsed before Chiang Kai-shek
tardily made a public statement at Lushan announcing armed resistance to Japan.
He did so under nation-wide popular pressure and as a result of the serious blow
the Japanese invasion had dealt to the interests both of the British and U.S. impe-
rialists in China and of the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie whom Chiang
Kai-shek directly represented. But at the same time the Chiang Kai-shek government
continued to parley with the Japanese aggressors and even accepted the so-called
peaceful settlements they concluded with local authorities. It was not until August
13, 1937, when the Japanese aggressors launched a major attack on Shanghai and

13