Kuomingtang government prevents CPC troops from accepting the surrender of Japanese army (6)

The Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the anti-Japanese guerrilla forces in south China had the right to accept the surrender of Japanese army and take part in the surrender activity, but the Kuomingtang government prevented these armies from accepting the surrender.

On August 10, 1945, Chiang Kai-shek gave the order that the only the designated officers were allowed to accept the surrender of Japanese army in his telegram to the Commander-in-Chief of the Army He Yingqin. In his telegram to Zhu De, Commander-in-Chief of the 18th Army Group and Peng Dehuai, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the 18th Army Group, Chiang ordered that the 18th Army Group should stay where they were awaiting deployment orders and the troops in the war zones should be in the control of the commander-in-chief of the war zones.

On August 13, Zhu De and Peng Dehuai announced their refusal to obey the order in the telegram to Chiang Kai-shek. On August 15, Zhu De sent letters to the British government, American government and the government of Soviet Union. In the letters, he declared that anti-Japanese forces led by the CPC have the right to accept the surrender of Japanese and puppet troops besieged by these forces. He also said that CPC should be allowed to have the delegates in the surrender activities. On August 16, Zhu De sent a telegram to Chiang Kai-shek. In the telegram, he said that it was wrong to force the anti-Japanese troops led by CPC to stay where they were awaiting the order and proposed that Japanese and puppet troops should surrender to the army which besiege them.

On August 25, the CPC central committee issued a declaration on the current political situation. The CPC central committee asked the Kuomingtang to designate the areas in which the Eighth Route Army, the New Fourth Army and the anti-Japanese column in south China can accept the surrender of Japan. All these requests were vetoed by the Kuomingtang government.