Resolution of the Central Executive Committee
Concerning Committees for Eliminating
Counterrevolutionaries
(April 15, 1933)
Recent investigation shows that many townships and districts in which formal
political authority has already been established for more than a year, and even
some very old districts, not only have judicial departments and state political
security bureaus, but also committees for eliminating counterrevolutionaries.
Such reduplication of organs and splitting up of authority surely violates organizational principles and affects the carrying out of the work. Add to this the fact
that in the past there was no clear directive specifying which organ is to supervise the committees for eliminating counterrevolutionaries, to the point that in a
number of places the committees for eliminating counterrevolutionaries have run
their own affairs independently of any other organ, and as a result a number of
serious incidents have occurred. The Central Executive Committee, in order to
establish organs for the elimination of counterrevolutionaries and make it possible to administer the task of eliminating counterrevolutionaries effectively within
the environment of the civil war, specifically resolves as follows:
1. All committees for eliminating counterrevolutionaries organized by xian or
district standing committees belonging to newly formed soviet areas and the
provisional governments in those places., as the provisional organs for eliminating counterrevolutionaries, have the duty to suppress and pass judgement on
counterrevolutionary activities and schemes of the bad gentry, landlords, rich
peasants, capitalists, and all reactionaries in that area, and to wipe out the counterrevolutionary forces in that area, in order to consolidate the position of the
provisional political authorities. Their duties and powers include the responsibilities of both a judicial organ and a political security bureau.
2. Organizationally, the xian and district committees on eliminating counterrevolutionaries come under the jurisdiction of their respective revolutionary
committees and are subject to their direction and supervision. In their work of
eliminating counterrevolutionaries, they should be under the direction of the
state political security bureau at the next higher level, but if the respective
Our source for this resolution is Mao Zedong ji. Bujuan, Vol. 4, pp. 111-12, where it is
reproduced from a documentary collection published in China in 1981.

A.PR11. 1933
provisional political authorities have not yet established contact with the provincial or xian political security bureau, the work of eliminating counterrevolutionaries should be directed by a security bureau at the level of a Red
Army command or above. Where there is no Red Army or the Red Army has
already left, they should be completely under the direction of the xian or district
revolutionary committee.
3. The xian committee for the elimination of counterrevolutionaries, under
the direction of the xian revolutionary committee, has the authority to arrest,
prosecute, and pass judgment on counterrevolutionaries and on ordinary criminals directly, and to carry out sentences on them (from execution to release). The
district and city elimination committees must have approval from the xian elimination committee before they can carry out executions, but if after the crimes of
local bad gentry, landlords, rich peasants, and capitalists have been publicly
revealed, the worker and peasant masses have demanded that they be executed,
or in emergency situations that do not permit reporting across long distances., the
district and city elimination committees may carry out the execution first and
then report the case to the xian elimination committee for the record.
4. All xian and districts, whether in central or border areas, in which formal
political authority has already been established, must set up judicial departments
and state political security bureaus to carry out the work of eliminating counterrevolutionaries and to deal with criminal cases involving ordinary civilians,
and abolish committees for eliminating counterrevolutionaries.
In accordance with the above resolution, all xian and district committees for
eliminating counterrevolutionaries presently existing within the older soviet
areas are to be eliminated, and their work is to be divided up and distributed
among the judicial departments and the security bureaus. The committees for
eliminating counterrevolutionaries in all new areas must also carry out the requisite changes in duties, organization, and work tasks in accordance with this
resolution.
Chairman
Vice-Chairmen
Mao Zedong
XiangYing
Zhang Guotao