ABSTRACT
In general, the counterrevolutionary parties refer to the national revolution as the Communist revolution, the Guomindang as the Communist Party, the national government as the Communist government, and the National Revolutionary Army as the Communist army. All of this is nothing but following the suggestions of the imperialists by concocting a few simple epithets and spreading them around with the intention of smashing the united front of cooperation among various classes in the national revolution. But such creations as these can only be rather abstract. They cannot be too concrete, for if they are too concrete, it will be easy for their authors to expose their nakedness so that people will not believe them. And yet, on this occasion, staking everything on a single throw, and having already exhausted every conceivable method, Chen Jiongming in the East River area recently fabricated a so-called “Communist Program” to scare the people. Among their propaganda leaflets there is one of which the title reads “An Exhortation to the people of Guangdong to help the Guangdong Army Subdue the Red Party.” In the text, it is stated: “Alas! Elders and bretheren, do you know of the Communist Program drafted by Jiang Zhongzheng? 1 From my insignificant position, I am concerned lest the people in their ignorance imagine that the Communists will share out only the property of the wealthy, and will not bother ordinary poor people. They even think that the Communists will benefit the poor 279people. Don’t they know that this is a big lie? I would summarize their program generally as follows: There is the so-called 3–3–3–1 system, which pertains to productive lands. There is the so-called 4–4–2 system, which refers to houses and buildings. As for factories and commercial establishments with a moderate amount of capital, everything will be confiscated.” But recently the Hong Kong Industrial and Commercial Daily reported: “When the representatives of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce arrived in Hong Kong, the representatives of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce invited the representatives of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce to the Chinese Merchants’ Club for a second conference to discuss solving the strikes and restoring communications. Chinese gentry and merchants sat around a long table with the representatives of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce. The representative of the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce, Jian Qinshi, began by saying that the Guangzhou government was not really carrying out Communism.” If someone should ask Chen Jiongming about this statement of Jian Qinshi, I expect that Chen Jiongming would have to reply: “Jian Qinshi is himself lying. Others have communized his property and he still says that it hasn’t been communized.”
