The Communist Manifesto legally be published in Germany. Thus in 1872 Marx and Engels rushed out a new German-language edition, writing a preface that identified that several portions that became outdated in the quarter century since its original publication. This edition was also the first time the title was shortened to "The Communist Manifesto" ("Das Kommunistische Manifest"), and it became the bedrock the authors based future editions upon. Between 1871 and 1873, the "Manifesto" was published in over nine editions in six languages; in 1872 it was published in the United States for the first time, serialised in "Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly" of
The Christian Manifesto signatories can be interpreted in two ways: a relatively high number of signatories testifies to the success of Wu and the campaign to accommodate to the communist government. Conversely, the number of people who did not sign the manifesto count as people who did not want the Chinese church to sever its links with foreigners. It was feared that the NCC, which had facilitated cooperation between Chinese Protestants and foreign missionaries since 1922, would lose its independence. Most appear to have signed the document out of patriotic sentiments, not because of fundamental agreement with the actual provisions of the manifesto: