Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270
Memorandum11 by General Chou En-lai 12 to General Marshall
Dear General Marshall: Since the interruption of the talks during the June armistice, the Kuomintang Government thenceforth not only went further in ignoring all the previous commitments, but also tore the Cease Fire Agreement of January13 to pieces, and launched a large-scale drive in China proper. During the last three months they have occupied many cities, destroyed the popularly-elected local administrations of many a place, made ruthless air raids into Liberated Areas, killing and wounding countless civilians. They further advanced the insensible five-point demand14 setting forth the withdrawal of Communist troops and popularly-elected local administrations from a number of areas. When the Chinese Communists rightfully rejected their proposition on account of its incompatibility with [Page 259] the basic principles of the PCC Joint Platform,15 they threw their military drive into high gear, in order to achieve this demand by force, and aggrandize their occupation.
Thus, apart from taking away a series of places from the Commumist-led Liberated Areas in Hupeh-Honan, north Anhwei, north Kiangsu, Shantung, Shansi, Hopei and Jehol, the Kuomintang authorities then used the Communist siege over Tatung as an excuse for making the announcement that they would launch ruthless drives for capturing Chengteh, Kalgan and Yenan. What then happened was that Chengteh was soon occupied by them, followed by such key cities like Tsining and Fengchen along the Peiping-Suiyuan rail line. Actually the Communist campaign around Tatung is merely calculated to divert the attacks launched by the Kuomintang troops in Shansi under Yen Hsi-shan and Hu Chung-nan, and as such it is of a besieging nature. Most recently the Communists even announced the formal lifting of the siege, thereby freeing Tatung from any kind of menace.
On the other hand, the Kuomintang troops are still up to the neck engaged in enlarging their occupation in Jehol and east Hopei. Most significantly, at this moment, a three-pronged attack is being formally launched against Kalgan. It thus became obvious that the Kuomintang Government shows even no hesitation to strike against one of the political and military centers of the Communist-led Liberated Areas—Kalgan—, in order to force the Kuomintang-Communist relation into the perilous state of an ultimate break.
Now I am duly instructed to serve the following notice, which, I request, you would kindly transmit to the Government: If the Kuomintang Government does not instantly cease its military operations against Kalgan and the vicinity areas, the Chinese Communist Party feels itself forced to presume that the Government is thereby giving public announcement of a total national split, and that it has ultimately abandoned its pronounced policy of peaceful settlement. When reaching such a stage, the responsibility of all the serious consequences should as a matter of course solely rest with the Government side.
- Text published by New China Times Agency on October 1.↩
- Head of the Communist delegation in discussions with General Marshall and the Chinese Government.↩
- January 10, vol. ix, p. 125.↩
- See record of conference at the Embassy at Nanking, August 6, ibid., p. 1452.↩
- For texts of Political Consultative Conference resolutions, see Department of State, United States Relations With China (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1949), pp. 610 ff.; for correspondence, see vol. ix, pp. 131 ff.↩