Message to all Compatriots on Resistance against Japanese and National Salvation

That is the “August 1 Declaration”. A document was drafted by the Chinese Communist delegation to the Communist International, headed by Wang Ming (Chen Shaoyu), on August 1, 1935. On October 1, the Declaration was officially published in the name of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in the newspaper Salvation which was published in Paris, France. In July and August 1935, the Seventh Congress of the Communist International was held in Moscow.

In his report “The Fascist Offensive and the Tasks of the Communist International in the Struggle of the Working Class against Fascism”, Dimitrov proposed that the primary task of the Communist Party and the working class in colonial and semi-colonial countries lay in building a broad anti-imperialist national united front to fight for the expulsion of imperialism and the struggle for national independence. This congress made the establishment of the broadest possible world anti-fascist united front the basic strategy of the communist parties of all countries. Wang Ming made a speech at the meeting on behalf of the CPC delegation to the Communist International on the issue of establishing an anti-imperialist united front.

The “August 1 Declaration” was made in accordance with the deepening national crisis since the North China Incident and the spirit of the Seventh Congress of the Communist International. Firstly, it analyzed the urgent situation caused by the Japanese invasion and the non-resistance policy of Chiang Kai-shek's KMT government, exposed the face of Japan's intensified invasion of North China and the KMT's compromise with Japan, and pointed out that the Chinese nation was at a critical juncture of life and death, and that resistance to Japan and saving the country was the primary task facing all Chinese people. Secondly, the manifesto clearly states that "if you resist Japan, you will live, if you don't resist Japan, you will die, and it has become the sacred duty of every compatriot to resist Japan and save the country!". Thirdly, the Declaration emphasized that in the face of a great enemy, we can only unite to fight against it together. Now we have to build a united front that includes the upper strata and expand the scope of the Anti-Japanese National United Front. Finally, the Declaration calls on all parties, armies, and compatriots from all walks of life, regardless of any differences in political views and interests between the past and the present, and regardless of any hostile actions, to have a sincere awareness of “fratricidal rivalry to defend themselves from external insults”, to put aside former grudges, to stop the civil war, and to concentrate all national strength to fight for the resistance to Japan, and to truly “Let the people of the whole country mobilize, take up arms and join the War of Resistance. Let those with strength contribute strength, those with money contribute money, those with guns contribute guns, and those with knowledge contribute knowledge.”

The Declaration openly proclaimed that the Red Army was willing to join hands with KMT immediately to save the country, as long as the KMT army stopped attacking the Soviet areas and carried out the war against Japan. The Declaration proposed that all parties, groups, celebrities, scholars, politicians, local military, and political organs willing to participate in anti-Japanese resistance should negotiate and jointly establish a national defense government. Under the leadership of the national defense government, all Anti-Japanese Armies should form a unified Anti-Japanese Allied Army. The Declaration clearly stated that the Chinese Soviet Government and the Communist Party of China were willing to be the initiators of the national defense government and that the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army would first join the Anti-Japanese Allied Army to do their vocation of fighting against Japan and saving the country. At the end of the Declaration, the Ten Programmes for Resisting Japan and Saving the Nation were put forward. The "August 1 Declaration" highlighted that the national conflict between China and Japan had become the main conflict in China, and for this reason, it put forward the political idea that anti-Japanese resistance was the primary task of the Chinese people. The Declaration initially corrected the “Left” and closed-doorism errors within the Party, put forward the idea of establishing an Anti-Japanese National United Front, and pointed out that the scope of the Anti-Japanese National United Front should be expanded.

The formulation and publication of the Manifesto indicated the beginning of a new shift in the political strategy of the Communist Party of China. When the "August 1 Declaration" was announced, the CPC Central Committee was on its way to the Long March and was not informed of the contents of the Declaration. However, forced by the aggravation of the national crisis, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued on November 13 of the same year, “Declaration on the Annexation of Northern China by Japan and on the Betrayal of Northern China and Entire China by Chiang Kai-shek” said that The Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army is willing to unite with all the anti-Japanese and anti-Chiang Chinese people and armed forces to oppose Japanese imperialism.

In mid-November, the CPC delegation to the Communist International sent Zhang Hao back to North Shaanxi to convey to the CPC Central Committee the spirit of the Communist International and the contents of the "August 1 Declaration" on the establishment of a broad anti-fascist united front. This played a positive role in promoting the development of the strategic approach of the Anti-Japanese National United Front of the Communist Party of China.

Then, on November 28, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued the "Declaration of the Central Government of the Chinese Soviet Republic and the Revolutionary Military Committee of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army", which was basically the same as the "August 1 Declaration".

Together with the two declarations of the CPC Central Committee on November 13 and 28, the "August 1 Declaration" aroused strong repercussions among all social strata and gave a strong impetus to the December 9 Movement of students in Beijing and the subsequent nationwide anti-Japanese resistance movement. This laid the foundation for the second cooperation between the Communist Party and the KMT and the establishment of the Anti-Japanese National United Front.