Strategically Despise the Enemies and Tactically Take Full Account of Them

Important strategy and tactical thoughts of the CPC when leading the Chinese people in the struggle against the strong enemy. In December 1936, Mao Zedong put forward in his article “Problems of Strategy in China's Revolutionary War” that one of the fundamental principles of defeating the enemy was to “pit one against ten" strategically and "pit ten against one" tactically. In January 1948, Mao Zedong pointed out in “On Some Important Problems of the Party’s Present Policy” drafted for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China: “While we correctly point out that, strategically, with regard to the whole, we should take the enemy lightly, we must never take the enemy lightly in any part, in any specific struggle, and attach due importance to the enemy tactically”.These expositions were later summarized as the formulation of "despising the enemy strategically and attaching importance to the enemy tactically", and became an important expression of the Chinese people's strategic and tactical thinking in the struggle against the enemy. Strategically despising the enemy and tactically attaching due importance to the enemy are complementary and dialectical. Like everything else in the world, imperialism and all reactionaries have two characteristics: iron tiger, real tiger; secondly paper tiger, fake tiger. When taking the overall situation into consideration and in the long run, imperialism and all reactionaries are weak in nature.

Mao Zedong pointed out: "All reactionaries are paper tigers. In appearance, the reactionaries are terrifying, but in reality, they are not so powerful. From a long-term point of view, it is not the reactionaries but the people who are powerful… Hence, imperialism and all reactionaries, looked at in essence, from a long-term point of view, from a strategic point of view, must be seen for what they are—paper tigers. On this, we should build our strategic thinking. On the other hand, they are also living tigers, iron tigers, real tigers that can devour people. On this, we should build our tactical thinking”. “If we do not despise the enemy with respect to the whole, we shall be committing the error of right opportunism.” “However, in dealing with concrete problems and particular enemies we shall be committing the error of adventurism unless we take them seriously. In war, battles can only be fought one by one and the enemy forces can only be destroyed one by one.”

Only when we despise the enemy strategically can we dare to fight against it; only when we maintain a strong will to fight with perseverance and keep advancing forward; only with this vision when we are in temporary difficulties, we will not become confused by the phenomena that the enemy is strong in appearance but weak in reality, and only with this vision we will not overestimate the enemy and be pessimistic or abandone ourselves in despair. Only by attaching due importance to the enemy from a tactical aspect can we not underestimate the enemy and produce the mistaken thought of paralyzing and belittling the enemy, only by doing so can we maintain a sober mind and avoid recklessness and hasty actions, and in this way we can surmount the most difficult and complex situations, thus we can give full play to our subjective initiative and eventually defeat the enemy. The thought of "despising the enemy strategically and attaching due importance to the enemy tactically" also has positive guiding significance for our socialist modernization construction, for the development of our work in all spheres of life and for each and every one of us to overcome all difficulties and hardships.