On Coalition Government

Written political report submitted by Mao Zedong to the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China on April 24, 1945.

Previously, the draft report was discussed and adopted at the Seventh Plenary Session of the Sixth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on March 31, based on the opinions of the deputies. It was later included in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 3.

The central content of the report is to draw a conclusion on the eight year Anti-Japanese War of the whole nation and to clarify the program and policy of the Communist Party of China to solve China's problems.

(1) The basic requirement of the Chinese people is that "we must take the line of unity and democracy, defeat the aggressors and build a new China".

The report points out that when the time is approaching to defeat the Japanese aggressors, “China remains disunited and is still confronted with a grave crisis”. Therefore, "whether or not a democratic coalition government should be set up has become a matter of deep concern for the Chinese people and for democratic public opinion in the allied countries.” This requires our Party to "work still more solidly and intensively and that it should continue to overcome the difficulties and strive to fulfil the fundamental demands of the Chinese people".

(2) The different anti-Japanese routes of the KMT and the Communist Party and their results and relations are analyzed in depth.

The report points out that "there have been two lines in China for a long time, the KMT government's line of oppression of the people and of passive resistance, and the Chinese people's line of enhancing their own consciousness and unity for the waging of a people's war. Herein lies the key to all China's problems.

It also pointed out that as a result of the implementation of the two routes, "one leads to victory even in the difficult conditions in China's Liberated Areas with their total lack of outside aid, and the other leads to defeat even in the extremely favourable conditions in the KMT areas with foreign aid available." Therefore “the dispute between the two parties is not an unnecessary or unimportant or merely captious dispute, as some have alleged, but is one of principle on which the lives of hundreds of millions of people depend.”

(3) Systematically expounded the "Communist Party of China concerning the major policies for solving China's problems", that is, "our general programme" and "our specific programme".

The report points out that an agreed common programme is urgently needed by the Chinese people, the Communist Party of China and all the anti-Japanese democratic parties for the purpose of mobilizing and uniting all the anti-Japanese forces of the Chinese people, completely wiping out the Japanese aggressors and building a new China that is independent, free, democratic, united, prosperous and powerful.

Such a common programme may be divided into two parts, the general and the specific. As for the general program, "On Coalition Government" is different from "On New Democracy", which "determines the need for the broad development of capitalism, and takes anti-despotism as the first". Based on this, Mao Zedong emphasized: "It is a law of Marxism that socialism can be attained only via the stage of democracy." In view of the situation that some people at home and abroad are clamoring for the "dissolution" of the Communist Party of China or for the Communist Party to change its name by taking advantage of the dissolution of the Comintern, the report emphasizes: "We Communists do not conceal our political views.”

“Our future or maximum program is to push China forward into socialist and communist societies, which is definite and beyond doubt.” The so-called concrete (ed. Minimum) program refers to the program applicable to a certain period of time in the course of the development of the New-Democratic Revolution. In this regard, the Coalition Government has put forward more than 40 articles, including political, military, economic, cultural and educational, social and diplomatic aspects.

Mao Zedong pointed out: “To achieve these demands, the most important thing is the immediate abolition of the KMT one-party dictatorship and the establishment of a democratic provisional central government, a coalition government enjoying nation-wide support and including representatives of all the anti-Japanese parties and people without party affiliation. Without this prerequisite it is impossible to make any genuine change in the KMT areas, and therefore in the country as a whole."

(4) In an in-depth elaboration of the Party's specific programme, the report points out: "In the last analysis, the impact, good or bad, great or small part of the policy and the practice of any Chinese political party upon the people depends on whether and how much it helps to develop their productive forces, and on whether it fetters or liberates these forces.

The social productive forces of China can be liberated only by destroying the Japanese aggressors, carrying out agrarian reform, emancipating the peasants, developing modern industry and establishing an independent, free, democratic, united, prosperous and powerful new China, and this will win the approbation of the Chinese people.”

(5) It was the first time that the three fine styles of the Communist Party of China were summarized. The report points out: "Armed with Marxist-Leninist theory, the Communist Party of China has brought a new style of work to the Chinese people, a style of work which essentially entails integrating theory with practice, forging close links with the masses and practicing self-criticism.”

The report also pointed out: "The experience of the three periods of the revolution, and especially that of the Anti-Japanese War, has convinced us and the whole Chinese people that without the efforts of the Communist Party of China, without the Chinese Communists as the mainstay of the Chinese people, China can never achieve independence or liberation, or industrialization and the modernization of her agriculture. Comrades! I firmly believe that with the Communist Party of China armed with the experience of the three revolutions, we can accomplish our great political task."

The report on "On Coalition Government" was published publicly. It was printed as a pamphlet and distributed widely, which not only had a huge impact in Yan'an and the anti-Japanese base areas, but also caused a sensation in the KMT-controlled area. The Party's program that systematically expounded was one of the most important embodiment of the CPC's political leadership over the whole nation during the Anti-Japanese War.

The three fine styles of work of the Party summarized for the first time have a far-reaching impact on strengthening the Party's construction.