The Chongqing Negotiations

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War ese Aggression, the two parties, the CPC and the KMT, held a historic meeting in Chongqing on the future development of China and the major plans for its construction. After the victory of the war, Chiang Kai-shek invited Mao Zedong to Chongqing three times by telegram on August 14, 20 and 23, 1945 to hold peace talks and discuss a common national plan. The Communist Party of China decided to send Mao Zedong and others to Chongqing to negotiate in order to do everything possible for achieving peace and democracy.

On August 25, the CPC Central Committee issued the "Declaration on the Current Situation", putting forward the three slogans: "Peace, Democracy and Unity". On the 26th, the Central Committee issued to the Party "On Peace Negotiations with the KMT—Circular of the CPC Central Committee". On the 28th, Mao Zedong, together with Zhou Enlai and Wang Ruofei, flew to Chongqing from Yan'an. After 43 days of arduous negotiations, on October 10, 1945, representatives of the CPC and the Chinese Government signed the "Summary of Conversations between the Government and the Representatives of the CPC", or the "Double Ten Agreement", which was publicly released. The KMT government accepted the basic principle of peaceful nation-building proposed by the CPC.

The two sides agreed that they "must work together on the basis of peace, democracy, unity and reunification" and "cooperate for a long time, resolutely prevent civil war, and build a new China, independent, free, prosperous and powerful". The two sides also decided to hold a political consultation meeting with the participation of representatives of all parties and people without party affiliation to discuss the plan for a peaceful nation-building. These were two of the most important fruits of the Chongqing negotiations. In addition, the negotiations also resulted in an agreement to quickly end the KMT’s "political tutelage" politics and democratization of politics, to make the political parties equal and legal, and to release political prisoners. But, since Chiang Kai-shek insisted on the policy of unifying military and government orders, abolishment of the PLA and the Liberated Areas led by the CPC, and refused to recognize the legitimate status of the democratically elected governments at all levels in the Liberated Areas led by the CPC and because he didn’t accept the idea of fairly and reasonably integrating and reorganizing the national army including the PLA, the two sides could not reach an agreement on these fundamental issues.

On October 11, Mao Zedong returned to Yan'an, while Zhou Enlai and Wang Ruofei remained in Chongqing to continue negotiations. The Chongqing negotiations and the signing of the "Double Ten Agreement" forced the KMT to recognize the equal and legal status of the CPC and to promise to convene a political consultation conference with the participation of all parties, thus made the CPC’s political proposal of peacefully building a new China be understood by the whole country and promote the development of the nation-wide peace and democracy movement. As a major political event in post-war China, the Chongqing negotiations advanced the cooperation between the two parties to a new level. In a sense, it determined the political direction and political structure of post-war China and left a valuable historical experience for the development of the relationship between the two parties.