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    Today we are holding the inaugural session of the Preparatory Meeting of the New Political Consultative Conference.[1] The task of this meeting is to complete all necessary preparations and speedily convene the New Political Consultative Conference, which will form a democratic coalition government in order to lead the people of the whole country in eliminating the remnant forces of Kuomintang reaction and unifying all China as swiftly as possible, and in carrying out, systematically and step by step, country-wide construction in the political, economic and cultural fields and in national defence. This is what the people of the whole country expect us to do, and we must do it.

    The convening of the New Political Consultative Conference was proposed to the people of the whole country by the Communist Party of China on May 1, 1948.[2] The proposal obtained a quick response from the democratic parties, people's organizations, democratic personages in all walks of life throughout China, the country's minority nationalities and the overseas Chinese. The Communist Party of China, the democratic parties, people's organizations, democratic personages in all walks of life, minority nationalities and overseas Chinese all hold that we must overthrow the rule of imperialism, feudalism, bureaucrat-capitalism and the Kuomintang reactionaries, convene a Political Consultative Conference of representatives of all the democratic parties, people's organizations, democratic personages in all walks of life, minority nationalities and overseas Chinese, proclaim the founding of the People's Republic of China and elect a democratic coalition government to represent it. Only thus can our great

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motherland free herself from a semi-colonial and semi-feudal fate and take the road of independence, freedom, peace, unity, strength and prosperity. This is a common political basis. It is the common political basis for the united struggle of the Communist Party of China, the democratic parties, people's organizations, democratic personages in all walks of life, minority nationalities and overseas Chinese; it is also the common political basis for the united struggle of the whole people. So firm is this political basis that no serious-minded democratic party, people's organization or democratic personage has expressed any differences of opinion, and all hold that this is the only road which leads in the right direction for solving all China's problems.

    The people of the whole country supporting their own People's Liberation Army have won the war. This great People's War of Liberation, begun in July 1946, has now lasted three years. The war was launched by the Kuomintang reactionaries with the help they received from foreign imperialism. In unleashing this civil war against the people the Kuomintang reactionaries perfidiously and unscrupulously tore up the truce agreement and the resolutions of the Political Consultative Conference of January 1946. But in three short years they have been defeated by the heroic People's Liberation Army. Not long ago, after the Kuomintang reactionaries' peace plot was exposed, the People's Liberation Army bravely advanced and crossed the Yangtse River. Nanking, the capital of the Kuomintang reactionaries, is now in our hands. Shanghai, Hangchow, Nanchang, Wuhan and Sian have been liberated. At this very moment, the field armies of the People's Liberation Army are conducting a great march unprecedented in Chinese history into the southern and northwestern provinces. In three years the People's Liberation Army has wiped out a total of 5,590,000 of the reactionary Kuomintang troops. Now the remnants of the Kuomintang forces number only about 1,500,000, including regulars, irregulars and those in the military establishments and academies in the rear. It will still take some time to mop up these enemy remnants, but not long.

    This is a victory for the people of all China, and also a victory for the peoples of the whole world. The whole world, except the imperialists and the reactionaries in various countries, is elated and inspired by this great victory of the Chinese people. The struggle of the Chinese people against their own enemies and the struggles of the peoples of the world against their own enemies have the same meaning. The people of China and the peoples of the world

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have all witnessed the fact that the imperialists have directed the Chinese reactionaries ruthlessly to oppose the Chinese people by means of a counter-revolutionary war and that the Chinese people have triumphantly overthrown the reactionaries by means of a revolutionary war.

    Here, I think it is necessary to call people's attention to the fact that the imperialists and their running dogs, the Chinese reactionaries, will not resign themselves to defeat in this land of China. They will continue to gang up against the Chinese people in every possible way. For example, they will smuggle their agents into China to sow dissension and make trouble. That is certain; they will never neglect these activities. To take another example, they will incite the Chinese reactionaries, and even throw in their own forces, to blockade China's ports. They will do this as long as it is possible. Furthermore, if they still hanker after adventures, they will send some of their troops to invade and harass China's frontiers; this, too, is not impossible. All this we must take fully into account. Just because we have won victory, we must never relax our vigilance against the frenzied plots for revenge by the imperialists and their running dogs. Whoever relaxes vigilance will disarm himself politically and land himself in a passive position. In view of these circumstances, the people all over the country must unite to smash resolutely, thoroughly, wholly and completely every plot against the Chinese people by the imperialists and their running dogs, the Chinese reactionaries. China must be independent, China must be liberated, China's affairs must be decided and run by the Chinese people themselves, and no further interference, not even the slightest, will be tolerated from any imperialist country.

    The Chinese revolution is a revolution of the broad masses of the whole nation. Everybody is our friend, except the imperialists, the feudalists and the bureaucrat-capitalists, the Kuomintang reactionaries and their accomplices. We have a broad and solid revolutionary united front. This united front is so broad that it includes the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. This united front is so solid that it possesses the resolute will and the inexhaustible capacity to defeat every enemy and overcome every difficulty. The epoch we are living in is an epoch in which the imperialist system is heading for total collapse, the imperialists have fallen inextricably into crisis and, no matter how they continue to oppose the Chinese people, the Chinese people will always have a way to win final victory.

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    At the same time, we proclaim to the whole world that what we oppose is exclusively the imperialist system and its plots against the Chinese people. We are willing to discuss with any foreign government the establishment of diplomatic relations on the basis of the principles of equality, mutual benefit and mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty, provided it is willing to sever relations with the Chinese reactionaries, stops conspiring with them or helping them and adopts an attitude of genuine, and not hypocritical, friendship towards People's China. The Chinese people wish to have friendly co-operation with the people of all countries and to resume and expand international trade in order to develop production and promote economic prosperity.

    Fellow Delegates, all the conditions are ripe for us to convene the New Political Consultative Conference and to form a democratic coalition government. The people throughout the country are most eagerly expecting us to convene the conference and form the government. I believe the work we have now begun will fulfil this hope, and do so before long.

    Upon the formation of China's democratic coalition government, its central tasks will be: (1) to mop up the remnants of the reactionaries and suppress their trouble-making; and (2) to do everything possible and make the utmost effort to restore and develop the people's economy and, at the same time, to restore and develop the people's culture and education.

    The Chinese people will see that, once China's destiny is in the hands of the people, China, like the sun rising in the east, will illuminate every corner of the land with a brilliant flame, swiftly clean up the mire left by the reactionary government, heal the wounds of war and build a new, powerful and prosperous people's republic worthy of the name.

    Long live the People's Republic of China!

    Long live the democratic coalition government!

    Long live the great unity of the people of the whole country!

  ^[1] The meeting was held at Peiping from June 15 to 19, 1949. It was attended by 134 representatives from twenty-three organizations and groups, including the Communist Party of China, the various democratic parties, the people's organizations, democratic personages in all walks of life, the minority nationalities of the country

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and the overseas Chinese. It adopted the "Organic Rules of the Preparatory Committee of the New Political Consultative Conference" and the "Provisions Regarding the Organizations and Groups Participating in the New Political Consultative Conference and the Size of Their Delegations" and elected a Standing Committee headed by Chairman Mao Tse-tung. The Conference was called the New Political Consultative Conference to distinguish it from the Political Consultative Conference which had opened at Chungking on January 10, 1946. Its name was changed to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at its first plenary session on September 21, 1949.    [p. 405]

  ^[2] See "On the September Meeting -- Circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China", Note 4, p. 276 of this volume.    [p. 405]