Chapter 12 Supplementary Comments on Central January Decision[1]

(January 24, 1948) Comrade Shaoqi: Zi Yang Dian [2] learned. (1) In order to consider the decision in January in detail, you can call all the members of the Fuping Central Bureau and the Central Working Committee to hold a meeting for a few days. It does not matter if you delay the call for a few days. (2) There are still a few points to be added to this decision: A. For the purpose of stabilizing the middle peasants, the new rich peasants in the old areas will be treated as the rich middle peasants, that is, they cannot be divided equally without their own consent; Foreigners engaged in peaceful business and missionary work; D. Dealing with goods debts and farmers’ internal debts; E. The implementation of the land law in the new districts should be different from that in the old districts. There should be two stages in the new districts. The first stage is to confiscate and distribute the land of the landlords and neutralize the rich peasants; Phases divide the land equally.In the first stage, only peasant associations were organized, and in the second stage, poor peasant leagues were organized.Please consider the above points together.

(3) I drafted a telegram to Su Yu[3], which said that the land reform should not be rushed, and that the completion of the land reform in the liberated areas from the north of the Yangtze River to Manchuria[4] would be a great achievement within three years; the land reform in the new areas should be completed in two stages , the rich peasants should be neutralized in the first stage; the method of land reform should be promoted step by step, and should not be carried out widely.This telegram intends to notify all districts at the same time, but it has not yet been sent out. If you have any comments, please let me know.

Mao Zedong Zijing Printed from manuscript. -------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ note [1] The Central Committee's January Decision refers to the draft decision drafted by Mao Zedong for the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on January 18, 1948. Policy Issues", "Regional Issues", and "Relationship Issues between Leaders and Leaders in the Revolutionary United Front".This draft decision has been included in the fourth volume of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", entitled "Several Important Issues Concerning Current Party Policies".

[2] Refers to Liu Shaoqi's telegram to Mao Zedong on January 22, 1948.The telegram stated that people had been sent to the lower levels of the two counties to collect opinions on the "Central January Decision", and the discussion opinions could be telegraphed three or four days later.Except for individual issues where there may be some opinions, this decision is generally in favor.The Fuping Central Bureau has also been notified of the decision, and they may have some opinions. [3] Refers to Mao Zedong’s telegram to Su Yu, Deputy Commander of the East China Field Army on January 22, 1948, concerning the issue of land reform in the newly liberated areas.See pages 35-39 of this volume.

[4] Manchuria refers to the Northeast of China.