Chapter 52 Letter to Deng Xiaoping[1]

(April 25, 1961) Comrade Xiaoping: Please draft a notice to convene a central working conference[2]. Responsible comrades from all central bureaus, provincial, municipal, and district party committees arrived in Beijing on May 15. As in Guangzhou) arrived in Beijing on May 9.The task of this meeting is to continue the unfinished work of the Guangzhou meeting[3]: to collect the opinions of farmers and cadres, to revise the sixty work regulations and to continue to rectify the "five styles"[4], not to discuss the issue of industrial and urban rectification, or It will be discussed briefly at the end of the meeting, and this issue will be discussed at the July meeting[5].For this reason, comrades present at the meeting should use this period of time to discuss several key issues in the countryside (canteen issues, food issues, supply system issues, self-retained mountain issues, hierarchical management of mountain forests, whether cattle and farm equipment brigades are good or not). There are good issues, such as comprehensive rectification and resolute restitution of first- and second-class counties, communes, and brigades, the issue of opposing the idea of ​​gifts and resolutely following the mass line, the issue of asking the masses for advice, the issue of vigorous investigation and research, the issue of restoring the handicraft industry, and the issue of restoring supply and marketing cooperatives) Carry out key investigations, work hard for ten to fifteen days, and seek the truth from the masses so that the May meeting can complete the above tasks more thoroughly.

Please find Comrade Tian Jiaying [6] to draft this notice.We have discussed it tonight, and it will be sent out by telegram tomorrow, which is the most hopeful! Mao Zedong April 25 at 9:00 am According to the "Selected Letters of Mao Zedong" published by People's Publishing House in 1983. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] Deng Xiaoping, then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. [2] The working conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing from May 21 to June 12, 1961.The meeting revised the "Regulations on the Work of Rural People's Commune (Draft)" and passed the "Regulations on the Work of Rural People's Commune (Draft Amendment)".The draft amendment stipulates that the supply system will be abolished, and whether or not to run a cafeteria will be decided entirely by discussion among members.The meeting also discussed issues of commercial work and urban and rural handicrafts, and formulated "Several Regulations on Improving Commercial Work (Trial Draft)" (the "Forty Commercial Articles") and "Provisions on Several Policy Issues Concerning Urban and Rural Handicrafts (Trial Draft)" (ie "Thirty-five Articles of Handicraft Industry") and so on.

[3] The Guangzhou Conference refers to the working conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Guangzhou from March 15 to 23, 1961.The meeting discussed and passed the "Regulations on the Work of Rural People's Commune (Draft)", a total of 60 articles. [4] "Five styles" refers to the "communist style", exaggerated style, command style, special style of cadres and blind direction of production that occurred during the "Great Leap Forward" and the People's Commune Movement. [5] This meeting was later the Working Conference of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in Lushan from August 23 to September 16, 1961.

[6] Tian Jiaying, then deputy director of the Political Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, Mao Zedong's secretary.