Chapter 47 On the Suppression of Counter-Revolutionaries

(December 1950-October 1951) one When suppressing counter-revolutionaries, please pay attention to fighting steadily, accurately, and ruthlessly, so that all sectors of society have nothing to say. [1] (December 19, 1950) two A batch of bandit leaders, bullies, and spies were killed in 21 counties in western Hunan, and another batch is planned to be executed by local governments this year.I think this treatment is very necessary.Only in this way can the flames of the enemy be lowered and the hearts of the people greatly expanded.If we are indecisive and condone traitors, we will bring disaster to the people and become divorced from the masses.

The so-called playing steadily means paying attention to strategy.Hit accurately, just don't kill wrongly.To fight hard means to resolutely kill all reactionaries who should be killed (those who should not be killed, of course not).As long as we don't make mistakes, the bourgeoisie will not be afraid of their calls even though they call out. [2] (January 17, 1951) three In order to defeat the flames of the enemy and win the hearts of the people, we should kill several batches of bandit leaders, habitual bandits, bullies, and important spies and gang leaders who have proven evidence.In order not to make mistakes and put oneself in a passive position, we should carry out reconnaissance and obtain corroborative evidence for spies and sect leaders who have no evidence, instead of arresting people and killing people casually.It is necessary to distinguish between the two situations. [3]

(January 24, 1951) Four The so-called coercion and non-questioning refers to those who are forced to participate but do not do bad things, or do not do relatively bad things.As for the evidence of aiding evil, that is, the accomplice should be sentenced to a crime. If the principal offender is sentenced to death, the accomplice should be sentenced to at least imprisonment. [4] (February 28, 1951) Fives Comrade Huang Zuyan, deputy director of the Political Department of the Shandong Military Region, was shot and killed by counter-revolutionary Wang Jumin at a meeting on March 13.This is the assassination of a senior cadre of our party by hidden counter-revolutionaries within the party, which was rare in the past, and should arouse the vigilance of the whole party.Wang Jumin was the deputy chief of the Propaganda Section of the Political Department of Shandong Huimin Army Division. He joined our party in 1941. His family was a bully.According to calls from the Shandong branch and the military region, this incident was clearly a retaliation by counter-revolutionaries at a time when our party and the people's government were resolutely suppressing counter-revolutionaries.I hereby inform you that you must pay attention to: (1) Strictly guard against counter-revolutionary retaliation.It should be affirmed that counter-revolutionary reprisals will inevitably occur, and preventive measures must be taken in advance, and they must not be neglected.In addition to strengthening security, the most important thing is to take active measures to crack down on counter-revolutionary organizations, wipe out the lairs of counter-revolutionaries, and resolutely and quickly kill all counter-revolutionaries who should be killed, so that the counter-revolutionaries are caught off guard and unable to carry out retaliation. (2) We must realize that a small number of counter-revolutionaries have infiltrated the party, the government and the army, and we must not think that nothing is going on.Now is the time to start paying attention to the problem, examining suspect molecules, and gathering material.In the organs above the level of prefectural committees and special agencies, in the organs of the military sub-divisions and divisions above the level, and in the cities at the city and district levels, special attention should be paid to investigating such suspicious elements. To ensure the purity and safety of leading organs at all levels of the party, government, and military, we must not be indecisive, and it is most important to tolerate and support traitors. [5]

(March 18, 1951) six Suppressing counter-revolutionaries is a great struggle. Only when this matter is done well can the regime be consolidated.Counter-revolutionaries include: (1) counter-revolutionaries in society; (2) counter-revolutionaries hidden among old personnel and new intellectuals in the military and political system; (3) counter-revolutionaries hidden within the party.To suppress the counter-revolutionaries in these three aspects, of course, there must be steps, and they cannot be carried out at the same time. However, some of the most important departments of the party, government, and military, especially the public security departments, must be cleaned up in time, and suspicious elements must be dealt with in advance, so that these organs can be controlled. In the hands of reliable personnel, it is absolutely necessary.Under possible conditions, one and two can be done at the same time. For example, the clean-up work of the organs directly under the Southwest Military and Political Committee is already being done and has achieved results. [6]

(March 24, 1951) seven In some places in Shandong there is a tendency of lack of energy, and in some places there is a tendency to act hastily. These are two kinds of biases that generally exist in all provinces and cities across the country, and attention should be paid to correcting them.In particular, the tendency to act hastily is the most dangerous.Because of the lack of energy, after education and persuasion, the energy will always be enough. It doesn't matter if the counter-revolutionaries are killed a few days earlier or a few days later.As long as it is done rashly, wrongly arrested and killed, the repercussions will be very bad.Please exercise strict control over counter-revolutionary work, be careful in doing it, and correct any tendency to do it hastily.We must suppress all counter-revolutionaries, but we must not arrest or kill wrongly. [7]

(March 30, 1951) Eight Suppression of counter-revolutionaries must be carried out with great fanfare and widespread publicity, no matter in the city or in the countryside, so that the people are well-known.Beijing's approach, all regions are requested to follow suit.Suppressing counter-revolutionaries must be strictly limited to bandit leaders, habitual bandits, bullies, spies, reactionary leaders, etc., and cannot include thieves, drug addicts, ordinary landlords, ordinary Kuomintang members, and ordinary Kuomintang officers.Those who are sentenced to death must be those who have committed serious crimes. It is wrong to give a light sentence for a serious crime, and it is also wrong to give a heavy sentence for a minor crime.The most important thing is that the power to approve the list of arrests and murders must be controlled at the prefectural committee level.It can be said that the campaign to suppress counter-revolutionaries has now been launched nationwide. The attention of party committees at all levels should be mainly focused on the two points of careful censorship and extensive propaganda. If you grasp these two points, you will not make mistakes .Because the Beijing Municipal Party Committee has grasped these two points, it has achieved great results. [8]

(April 2, 1951) Nine You can't kill too many people. If you kill too many people, you will lose social sympathy and labor.The principle is that anyone who has a blood debt or other major crimes that cannot be angered by the people should be killed resolutely, so that production can be facilitated by the anger of the people.Anyone who has no blood debt or other major crimes that arouse public anger, but who deserves to be killed, such as some secret agents or spies, and some counter-revolutionaries in the education and economic circles, etc., can be sentenced to death, but the execution is suspended for one or two years. Force them to work to see the effect.If they can be reformed in labor, the second step can be changed to life imprisonment, and the third step can be changed to fixed-term imprisonment. (Anyone who is sentenced to more than one year in prison should generally be organized to work, and should not be idle.) In this way, the initiative is in our hands, and we can do whatever we want afterwards. [9]

(April 30, 1951) ten The Central Committee has decided that counter-revolutionaries purged from the Communist Party, the People's Liberation Army, the people's government system, the educational circles, the industrial and commercial circles, the religious circles, and the democratic parties and people's organizations will not be exonerated. Except for those who should be sentenced to fixed-term or life-imprisonment, or be subject to surveillance, all those who should be killed should only kill those with blood debts, other major crimes that arouse the anger of the masses, such as raping many women, plundering many properties, and most seriously damaging the country. Interested persons; for the rest, the policy of imposing the death penalty with a two-year reprieve and forced labor during the probation period is adopted to see the aftermath.This policy is a prudent one to avoid mistakes.This policy can win the sympathy of the general public.This policy can divide the counter-revolutionary forces and is conducive to the complete elimination of counter-revolutionaries.This policy also preserves a large number of labor forces, which is beneficial to the construction of the country.Therefore, this is a correct policy.It is estimated that among the above-mentioned counter-revolutionaries who should be killed by the party, government, army, religion, economics, and regiments, those who have blood debts or other crimes that arouse the hatred of the masses or the most serious damage to the interests of the country account for only a very small number, about It's only two out of ten, and the number of people sentenced to death with a suspended execution may account for eighty-nine out of ten, which can save eighty-nine out of ten capital criminals from being killed.They are different from the bandit leaders, habitual bandits, and bullies in the countryside, and also different from the urban bullies, bandit leaders, habitual bandits, big gangsters, and gangsters. They are also different from some spies who have most seriously damaged the interests of the country. Blood debts or other great crimes hated by the masses.The extent to which they have harmed national interests is serious, but not the worst.They committed capital crimes, but the masses were not directly victimized.If we kill these people, it will not be easy for the masses to understand, and people in society will not be very sympathetic, and we will lose a large number of labor forces, and we will not be able to divide the enemy, and we may make mistakes on this issue.Therefore, the central government has decided to adopt a policy of imposing the death penalty, suspended execution, forced labor, and seeing the aftermath of such people.If some of these people cannot be reformed and continue to do evil, they can still be killed in the future, and the initiative is in our hands.Counter-revolutionary elements purged from the Party, government, military, education, economics, and regiments in various places are requested to deal with them according to the above principles.For the sake of prudence, the very small number of people who should be executed (accounting for about one-two tenth of the capital criminals) must be reported to the large administrative region or the large military region for approval.Important members of the united front must report to the central government for approval.In addition, with regard to the counter-revolutionaries in the countryside, only those who must be killed if the people are indignant are killed, and those who the people do not want to be killed are not to be killed.Some of them should also adopt the policy of death sentence with reprieve.Those who the people demand to be killed must be killed, so that production can be benefited from the anger of the people. [10]

(May 8, 1951) eleven The policy of a two-year reprieve should by no means be interpreted as refusing to execute criminals who have committed blood debts or committed other serious crimes. It would be wrong to do so.We must explain clearly to the district and village cadres and the masses of the people that if the crime is extremely serious and the anger of the people is too deep, it must be executed if it is not enough to cause the anger of the people.Only those who are not deeply angry with the people and the people do not demand execution but commit capital crimes can be sentenced to death, suspended for two years, and forced to work to see the aftermath. [11]

(June 15, 1951) twelve The entire work of suppressing counter-revolutionaries must be under the unified leadership of party committees at all levels.Comrades in charge of all public security organs and organs related to the suppression of counter-revolutionaries must, as in the past, resolutely accept the leadership of the party committee. [12] (September 1951) Thirteen The counter-revolutionary forces have already received an extremely serious blow from us.But there are still remnants of them that have not been purged, and the outside is still sending them in. The remnants inside may ferment and expand, and they are still doing crazy activities, endangering the cause of the people.If we lose our vigilance, if we stop fighting the counter-revolution, then we will fall for the counter-revolution.Therefore, we must continue to heighten our vigilance, and we must continue to fight against counter-revolutionaries. As long as there are counter-revolutionaries, we must completely eliminate them. [13]

(October 1951) Published according to Mao Zedong's manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] This is the main part of Mao Zedong's telegram to Huang Kecheng, secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, on the policy of suppressing counter-revolutionaries. [2] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong to the heads of the East China Bureau, Central South Bureau, Southwest Bureau, Northwest Bureau, North China Bureau, Northeast Bureau and South China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in order to forward the report of the 47th Army of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on the suppression of counter-revolutionaries excerpt. [3] This is the main part of Mao Zedong's commentary for forwarding the telegram sent by the East China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to the Fujian Provincial Party Committee on issues that should be paid attention to in suppressing counter-revolutionaries. [4] This is part of Mao Zedong's telegram to forward the report of the Southwest Military Region Party Committee on the anti-revolutionary work to the major military regions in East China, Central South, Northwest, North China, and Northeast China. [5] This is a report on the assassination of Huang Zuyan, deputy director of the Political Department of the Shandong Military Region, drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. [6] This is part of Mao Zedong's reply telegram agreeing to the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee's plan to suppress counter-revolutionaries. [7] This is the main part of Mao Zedong’s commentary for forwarding the anti-revolutionary work report of the Shandong Branch of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. [8] This is a comment written by Mao Zedong in order to forward the report of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China on the work experience of suppressing counter-revolutionaries. [9] This is the main part of Mao Zedong's comments written to forward the instructions of the Southwest Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Northern Sichuan District Party Committee on the issue of suppressing counter-revolutionaries. [10] This is Mao Zedong's decision drafted by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the policy that most of the counter-revolutionaries who committed capital crimes should be sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. [11] This is a telegram of Mao Zedong's explanation of the "death reprieve" policy to the central bureaus and sub-bureaus, provincial and urban party committees, prefectural committees, and county committees. [12] This is an additional text written by Mao Zedong when reviewing the draft resolution of the Fourth National Public Security Conference. [13] This is an additional text written by Mao Zedong when he was reviewing the draft report delivered by Luo Ruiqing, Minister of Public Security, to the Third Session of the First National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on the current situation of counter-revolutionary activities and our countermeasures.