The Concept of Daring to Fight and Daring to Win

Mao Zedong's concept which he developed during the transitional period (1945-1947) from the victory of the Anti-Japanese War to the outbreak of the all-round civil war. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the ruling KMT clique attempted to seize the fruits of the people's victory in the Anti-Japanese War, and the danger of an all-round civil war was very serious. On August 13, 1945, Mao Zedong delivered a speech at the Yan'an Cadre Conference, by using the method of class analysis; he analyzed the world situation and China's political situation after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, and put forward the revolutionary strategy of the Communist Party of China.

Mao Zedong said that the stage of the Anti-Japanese War had passed and that the new situation and tasks were related to domestic struggles. Chiang Kai-shek said he wanted to “build the country”; from now on the struggle will be, build what sort of country? To build a new-democratic country of the broad masses of the people under the leadership of the proletariat? Or to build a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country under the dictatorship of the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie? This will be a most complicated struggle. This struggle was manifested on the one side by Chiang Kai-shek's struggle to usurp the fruits of the victory of the War of Resistance and on the other hand our struggle against this usurpation attempt. If there was any opportunism during this period, it would lie in failing to struggle hard and in making a voluntary gift to Chiang Kai-shek of the fruits which should go to the people. In order to safeguard the victorious fruits of the people, we must adopt the policy of "tit-for-tat, fighting for every inch of land".

Mao Zedong pointed out that history would finally prove that people plus rifles would be stronger than Chiang Kai-shek's aircrafts plus tanks. He also said that there were many difficulties facing the Chinese people and they would suffer for a long time, but finally these reactionaries will fail and the Chinese people would win one day. “The reason for this is: the reactionaries represent reactions and we represent progress.”