Chapter 85 Long live Mao Zedong in the Seventh Congress 1945

Journalist: “When did you call on you to hail?”

Mao: “At the 7th Congress. ‘The 7th Congress’ was held in Yan’an in April 1945, with 547 delegates present and 207 alternates, representing 1.21 million party members. ‘7th Congress’ as early as 1940, decided to convene, because the ‘6th Congress’ was opened in 1928, no longer open, too long, 500 delegates have been concentrated in Yan’an, but I thought about it, I think it is not mature enough, my absolute authority, not yet I want to open the General Assembly as a pro-democracy conference, not a democratic conference, which is meaningless to me, so I delayed again and again, the more than 500 delegates, all concentrated in the party school to study, and later to participate in the rectification of the wind, the trial of stem, was a lot of rectification, suicide, mental disorders are there. By 1945, only half of them were left, and the others were newly added.”

The Journalist: “Oh, the 7th Congress was ready to open in 1940, you delayed for five years, half of the delegates have also been eliminated?”

Mao: “Yes. In the spring of 1945, the rectification and trial had been completed and my authority had been absolutely established. The situation where I sat on an equal footing with other leaders and talked freely with them was gone. Senior leaders could no longer see me at any time, unless I summoned them, they had to call for instructions or write reports and submit them according to procedures. In the midst of a chorus of praise, the quiet distancing measures soon paid off, as I delivered my speech and a group of senior leaders concentrated on it, penciled in their notebooks, like a group of respectful pupils listening to their teacher’s teaching.”

Journalist: “Oh, Zhou Enlai took the lead in taking notes, and your speech became holy writ?”

Mao: “Yes. “A huge portrait of me hung in the middle of the 8th Congress, with the slogan, ‘Marching forward in victory under the banner of Mao Zedong.’ Liu Shaoqi reported that my name was mentioned 105 times, and everyone shouted ‘Long live Chairman Mao!’ The following is the ‘Emperor of the Communist Party’. In the five-member core, I enjoy veto power, that is, I alone have the say.”

Journalist: “You are officially the emperor of the Communist Party?”

Mao: “Yes. Zhou Enlai made a self-review at the meeting. After he returned to Yan’an, he wrote extensive introspective notes from September 1943 to the spring of 1944. As early as September 1, 1943, Zhou Enlai reported at the Politburo meeting on the work in the Great Rear Area for three years, he looked at me and took this opportunity to pay tribute to Liu Shaoqi. He said his work in the White Zone was the wrong line, while Liu Shaoqi was correct. He repeatedly reviewed and repented deeply for his ‘empiricist’ mistakes, but was still severely rebuked by me, Liu Shaoqi and others and criticized by the participants.

In the tense, high-pressure rectification meetings, starting with Zhou Enlai, the leading cadres reviewed and reflected one after another. Only Peng Dehuai was different.”

Journalist: “Zhou Enlai took the lead in repeated reviews, but Peng Dehuai was different?”

Mao: “Yes, Peng Dehuai was ordered to return to Yan’an in October 1943, although he also made a “self-criticism”, but he was stubborn and did not do self-flagellation against his will. I saw it in my eyes and took it to heart. In December 1942, he suggested that the Kuomintang had a long history of influence and a certain social base, and that the post-war political trend was ‘autonomy and freedom’ and ‘peaceful nation-building’. In February 1943, Peng issued a talk, arguing that democratic education, with the slogan ‘freedom, equality and fraternity,’ the CCP should establish a complete system, promote mutual love, mutual respect and mutual assistance, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, and do fraternal enlightenment and instill the spirit of science. Peng Dehuai wrote to me again on May 4, 1944, expressing his views on the financial problems of the border areas and writing an article ‘On Public Shops’, all of which caused me displeasure, and I saw him as not keeping his part, as non-participating and trespassing, and as constituting ‘oppression’ to me.”

Journalist: “Oh, Peng Dehuai proposed democratic freedom and fraternity, which disgusted you?”

Mao: “Yes, how to deal with Peng Dehuai, I am quite tricky. I want to rely on him to fight for me, but also to weaken his great influence, to kill his arrogance, to establish my absolute authority. So, from February 1 to July 25, 1945, in the form of a local and military work forum in northern China, intermittently meeting more than 40 times, 43 days of critical struggle against Peng Dehuai.

I did not allow Peng Dehuai to pass despite the fact that he had already expressed his heartfelt conviction to me. after March 1945, the criticism of him suddenly escalated, and in order to combat his prestige, I intentionally expanded the scale of the North China Conference, sending Kang Sheng, Li Fu-chun and a dozen other people working in the central organs and other large regions, to attend the conference, which turned into a general liquidation of Peng Dehuai.“

Journalist: “Wow, so you organized a 43-day meeting to criticize Peng Dehuai?”

Mao: “Yes, the accusations against Peng Dehuai were all-encompassing, from attacking him for leading the Pingjiang riots with the aim of ‘entering the stock’ and ‘speculating in the revolution’ to accusing him of carrying out Wang Ming’s ‘right-leaning surrenderist line’. Kang Sheng said that he went behind the Central Committee’s back and launched the ‘Hundred Regiment War’, which ‘exposed the strength of our army and caused the base area in North China to come under tremendous pressure from the Japanese and greatly reduced the base area’. The accusation of the ‘Hundred Regiment War’ that came out of Kang Sheng’s mouth first came from me. I was often inconsistent in my speech and went back on my words. At the beginning of the Battle of Hundred Regiments, I was overjoyed to hear the good news and cabled to Peng Dehuai, saying, ‘The Battle of Hundred Regiments is exciting, can we organize one or two more battles like this? The CCP wanted to ‘use the momentum of the Hundred Regiment Battle’ to oppose Chiang Kai-shek’s anti-Communist efforts.”

Journalist: “Oh, you earlier glorified the Hundred Regiments Battle and later criticized Peng Dehuai?”

Mao: “Yes, the North China Symposium rejected Peng almost in its entirety, and one of the evidences that he was accused of being ‘consistently opposed to Chairman Mao’ was that he rarely quoted me in his speeches and articles. His character was also stigmatized, and he was accused of ‘hypocrisy’ for being a model of hard living and frugality among leaders. Peng Dehuai’s original name, ‘Peng Dehua’, was also interpreted as his desire to ‘gain China’ and to compete with me. Peng Dehu Aiditd not accept the various charges and accusations, saying, ‘Comrade Mao Zedong is 99.9% correct, is there not 0.1% of mistakes? During the ‘7th Congress’, Peng Dehuai made a review in his speech to the General Assembly, but I was not satisfied. I said that he was headstrong and self-opinionated and had an empty vision. I could not stand such a strong self-respecting and prestigious commander-in-chief as Peng Dehuai. But the new situation to fight Chiang, I had to use him.”

Journalist: “Peng Dehuai was not that respectful to you, you just had to use him?”

Mao: “Yes. Among the leading cadres I wanted to purge, Chen Yi needed to ‘make up for it’, and his old disagreement with me in the early days of the Red Army in Jiangxi, I was happy to lend Liu Shaoqi and Rao Shushi’s hand to strike him in the New Fourth Army. Therefore, Rao Shushi was very arrogant and emboldened in his treatment of Chen Yi. In the conflict between Chen Yi and Rao Shushi, I clearly took sides with Rao. I actually waited for Chen Yi to take the initiative to make a review, bowing to me and admitting his mistake, the 7th party congress of the Fourth Red Army in 1929, by Chen Yi to replace me as secretary of the front committee. Chen Yi paid a heavy price for this old debt, and after 1929, Chen Yi was always treated coldly by me. In the suppression of the ‘AB League’, my crony Li Shaojiu was ready to attack him. Chen Yi was really detained and beaten, and was forced to admit that he was in the ‘AB League.’ Later, I handed him the gold I got from fighting the tycoons for safekeeping, and he realized that his life was no longer in danger.

My attitude toward Chen Yi was different from that of Peng Dehuai.

Chen Yi respected and believed in me, and I thought he was straightforward, while Peng Dehuai was deep in the heart. Therefore, Chen Yi was not subjected to struggle, except for self-censorship. However, I did not fully trust Chen Yi, and I intentionally forced Chen Yi to bow down to Rao. ‘After the 7th Congress’, Chen Yi remained in Yan’an, playing Go every day. In August 1945, when the news of Japan’s surrender came, Chen Yi expressed his willingness to go to the Northeast, saying that he had nothing to do in East China and could not play a role, but his request was not approved by me. I ordered him to go to Central China as deputy secretary of the Central China Bureau, under Rao Shushi. I intended to cause Chen Yi and Rao Shushi to hold each other in check and to suspect Chen Yi. after 1949, the secretary of East China, was still held by Rao Shushi.”

Journalist: “Oh, you are using Rao Shushi, to press Chen Yi?”

Mao: “Yes. Wang Ming was the number one person who should be reviewed by the General Assembly, but due to serious illness, he could not attend the meeting and asked for leave from the General Assembly, I personally went to the door and persuaded him to make sure he attended the opening ceremony of the General Assembly. So Wang Ming was carried into the meeting on a stretcher to show the unprecedented unity of the whole party under my leadership. Wang Ming handed over a long written review, saying that he accepted all the criticisms of the ‘Historical Resolution’ and claimed that he would study Mao Zedong Thought hard and obey my leadership. I understand that Wang Ming’s review was forced, and he was not convinced in his heart.”

Journalist: “Wang Ming, under your compulsion, also made a review?”

Mao: “Yes, Wang Ming was lying on a stretcher strapped to a chaise longue, attending the 15-minute opening ceremony, and Wang Ming recorded the following about the venue:

“Mao stood alone on the podium and vigorously beckoned for an invitation before Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Ren Bishi were invited up and stood with him behind the long table on the podium. The other 10 presidium members (Chen Yun, Kang Sheng, Peng Dehuai, Zhang Wentian, Gao Gang, Peng Zhen, Lin Boqu, Dong Biwu, He Long, Xu Qianqian, who were going to be elected to the Politburo for the first time) were sitting down in turn. Mao Zedong and then hastily beckoned and nodded to them to come to the stage, before they walked shyly and lazily to the stage, and then walked to the right, far from the podium and sat down. Even the delegates sitting in the first few rows could not see them.

At this time the five people behind the podium in front of the situation is: ‘Mao Zedong left and right, indecisive, the other four people blushing you pull me, you push me, like a child as a guest, each of them do not know where to sit right.’”

Journalist: “Oh, you pulled the 4 people on the podium, we do not know how to sit?”

Mao: “Yes, the reason is, Liu Shaoqi before the rectification movement, in the party status, lower than the other three people, embarrassed to sit in the second chair all of a sudden. Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Ren Bishi (especially Zhou Enlai) in the rectification movement, were subjected to various slander and crackdown, much less know which chair each should sit on,. Finally, by Mao Zedong placed them in the designated seats, that is: Liu Shaoqi second, Zhou Enlai third, Zhu De fourth, Ren Bishou fifth, five people to sit down together.”

From Wang Ming’s sidebar, it can be seen that after 3 years of rectification, all people were made submissive by me, everyone bowed to me, I became an absolute authority, everyone listened to me alone, I designated who second, who third, everyone listened to me to sit in a row. Wang Ming became an outsider, and he did not dare to say a word, although he was not convinced.”

Journalist: “That’s it, everyone listens to you 1 person commanded to sit in a row?”

Mao: “Yes, the 7th Congress established a five-member leadership core, I am the leader of the overall situation, Liu Shaoqi is the second person, Zhou Enlai in the third position, Zhu De as the commander-in-chief, only symbolic significance, Ren Bishi since 1940 into the core, has been fully supportive of me.

From the mid-1950s onwards, I repeated the tightening spell: in 1958 Zhou Enlai was criticized, in 1959 the Lushan Conference, then revisited the old historical accounts, struggled Peng Dehuai and Zhang Wentian, blamed Zhu De, and in 1966 the Cultural Revolution, I knocked over Liu Shaoqi, Peng Zhen and Lu Dingyi, all of whom had been promoted during the Rectification. This is an afterthought.”

Journalist: “Were you the one who made the report at the 7th Congress? What did you say?”

Mao: “Yes, I gave a political report at the 7th Congress, entitled ‘On the United Government,’ because the war against Japan was coming to an end and the fight against Chiang was on the agenda, but I openly wanted to use ‘On the United’ as a cover and prepare everything internally for the civil war against Chiang.”

Journalist: “Oh, you are openly doing the United Report and behind the scenes launching a civil war to fight Chiang, saying one thing and doing another?”

Mao: “Yes.”