Directive No. 6 of the Central Executive
Committee of the Chinese Soviet Republic

Provisional Procedure for Handling
Counterrevolutionary Cases and Establishing
Judicial Organs

(Passed by an Extraordinary Session of the
Central Executive Committee, December 13, 1931)

Since the third victory of the revolutionary war and the establishment of the
Provisional Central Government, soviet political power has been further consolidated. At this time in the soviet areas there is a task that urgently must be done,
which is to establish revolutionary order so as to safeguard the rights of the
masses.

When counterrevolutionary organizations such as the AB Corps, the Social
Democratic Party, the Reorganizationists, and all other counterrevolutionary factions were being exposed in the past, soviet governments at all levels everywhere
resolutely carried out arrests and interrogations and dealt with many counterrevolutionary elements, dealing death blows to these counterrevolutionaries and
thereby consolidating soviet political power. The main direction of this type of
work has been completely correct.

Everyone must be aware, however, that past work in eliminating counterrevolutionaries has not been without mistakes. The Provisional Central Government seriously points out to soviet governments at all levels everywhere that
in various respects the work of eliminating counterrevolutionaries was previously done incorrectly in many localities. For example, people were arrested
on the strength of confessions by a certain counterrevolutionary element or by a
few of them, without sufficient evidence or undertaking investigation work.
During interrogation there was willful insistence on using corporal punishment,
so that incidents of beating a confession out of someone were a frequent occurrence. In punishing offenders there was failure to make distinctions in class status
and between leaders and followers, so that those who should have been lightly
punished were instead punished severely. (For example, worker and peasant ele-

Our source for this text is Zhongyang genjudi shiliao Vol. 3, pp. 656-59.


ments who were followers were not released.) These mistakes were discovered
on numerous occasions in many places in the soviet areas. A portion of these
mistakes were made through the conspiratorial activities of counterrevolutionary
elements hidden within the soviet governments. Ever since these mistakes were
made, this has caused the worker and peasant masses in many places to develop
suspicions toward the soviet governments' work of eliminating counterrevolutionaries. The fact that the rights of the revolutionary masses cannot be
completely ensured under the soviet governments, that it has not been possible to
establish an excellent revolutionary order under the soviets, and that at the same
time it has not been possible to eliminate thoroughly counterrevolutionary organizations and activities—all this is extremely wrong.
The Provisional Central Government hereby notifies soviet governments everywhere at all levels that they must resolutely and rapidly establish revolutionary order, so that the basic rights and all appropriate legal rights of the
revolutionary masses are absolutely ensured. At the same time, counterrevolutionary organizations and activities are to be thoroughly destroyed, and the following provisional procedures are stipulated.
1. Investigations, arrests, and preliminary interrogations in all counterrevolutionary cases are to be carried out by the State Political Security Bureau. After
the preliminary interrogation is done, the State Political Security Bureau, acting
as prosecutor, brings the case to a state judicial organ (a court or a judicial
department), and that organ interrogates and passes verdict.
2. The authority to carry out interrogations (except for preliminary interrogations handled by the State Political Security Bureau) and sentencing (from verdicts of not guilty to death sentences) in all counterrevolutionary cases rests with
state judicial organs. Judicial organs at the xian level have no authority to pass
the death sentence, but under unusual circumstances, those who obtain special
permission from the provincial judicial organs may be excepted: after judicial
organs of the Central Area and nearby provinces have meted out the death
penalty, the defendant must appeal to the central judicial organs within fourteen
days.
3. Where there is no organ of the State Political Security Bureau (that is, the
State Political Security Bureau itself, a provincial branch office, a xian branch
office, or a special agent of the Political Security Bureau), if the local soviet
government discovers counterrevolutionary material it must report to the local
organ of the State Political Security Bureau and may not on its own authority
carry out arrests and interrogations.
4. At the xian and district levels where only a committee on eliminating
counterrevolutionaries has been established and there is yet no branch of the
State Political Security Bureau or its special agents, and where the régime has at
least a six month history, if counterrevolutionary materials are discovered in
such a soviet government, consent must be obtained from a branch of the State
Political Security Bureau (located where the provincial soviet is) before arrests

may be made. Only under extraordinary circumstances (such as cases in which
counterrevolutionaries have already begun to organize rebellion or where the
area is cut off from the provincial soviet by a White area or on the borders
between Red and White areas where it is easy to flee or there is urgent danger of
enemy attack) in which there is no time to report or it is impossible to report to a
provincial branch of the State Political Security Bureau and ample evidence of
everything has been obtained is it permissible for the district or xian government
and its committee on the elimination of counterrevolutionaries to authorize decisions to make arrests.
5. In newly developed areas, which is to say in places where the revolutionary government has been in existence for less than six months, when the struggle
between the local revolutionary masses and the despotic gentry, landlords, rich
peasants, and capitalists is extremely intense, xian-level organs for the elimination of counterrevolutionaries and specially designated district-level organs for
the elimination of counterrevolutionaries (special agents of State Political Secu-rity Bureau branches or committees for the elimination of counterrevolutionaries) have the authority to make decisions regarding the arrest and interrogation of
counterrevolutionary elements, contingent upon the prior consent of the xian or
district executive committee. After interrogation, [these elements) should be
handed over to the judicial organs at the same level of government for final
interrogation, and after interrogation is completed, a written verdict is drawn up
and reported to the provincial judicial organ for the purpose of making a final
judgment. In cases of despotic gentry, landlords, rich peasants, and capitalists,
however, whose crimes are clear and evident and whose execution is demanded
by the local masses of workers and peasants, the local government may rapidly
carry out the execution without having to obtain permission from the provincial
government.
6. When the movement is just beginning and organs of revolutionary political
power have not yet been established, the local revolutionary masses have the
authority to arrest and execute despotic gentry, landlords, and all counterrevolutionary elements on their own initiative. Once the revolutionary government is
established, on the other hand, matters are to be handled according to stipulation
no. 5.
7. Whether in new or old areas, in dealing with members of counterrevolutionary organizations (such as the AB Corps, the Social Democratic Party, the
Reorganizationist Faction, etc.), distinctions of class status and between
leaders and followers must be made. That is to say, counterrevolutionary elements of despotic gentry, landlord, rich peasant, and capitalist origins and ringleaders, should be harshly punished (sentenced to death, and so on), whereas
elements whose backgrounds are those of workers, peasants, poor people, and
the laboring masses but who joined counterrevolutionary organizations, and
those who are followers, should be punished leniently (released to make a fresh
start, and so on).

8. With regard to interrogation methods, in order to eliminate counterrevolutionary organizations thoroughly and pronounce judgment correctly in counterrevolutionary cases, we must resolutely eliminate corporal punishment and
instead adopt effective measures of various kinds, such as gathering and verifying evidence.
9. Before courts are established, local judicial organs are to set up tribunals in
the governments at the three levels of province, xian, and district as provisional
judicial organs to settle all criminal and civil cases, in addition to handling
counterrevolutionary cases according to the above-listed principles.
After receiving this order, soviet governments at all levels should strictly
observe it and carry it out. Any violation of the principles stipulated in this order
shall be severely punished. It is so ordered.