Comrade Lei Jingtian,
To Lei Jingtian¹
(October 10, 1937)

Both your letter and Huang Kegong's letter² have been received. Huang Kegong's
past history of struggle was honorable. He receives capital punishment today and
the comrades of the Party Central Committee and I feel sorry about it. But he
committed an unpardonably serious crime. If a Communist Party member and
Red Army cadre were pardoned for such a mean and brutal act, an act that deserted
the stand of the Party, the revolution, and humanity, it would be impossible to
educate the Party, the Red Army, and the revolutionaries, or to teach people how to
be ordinary human beings. Therefore, the Party Central Committee and the Military Commission cannot do otherwise than to sentence him to death in view of his
criminal act and in accordance with the discipline of the Party and the Red Army.
It is precisely because Huang Kegong was not an ordinary person, because he was
a Communist Party member for many years and a Red Army man for many years,
that we cannot do otherwise. The Communist Party and the Red Army must impose stricter discipline on their members and soldiers than on ordinary civilians.
At the time of a national crisis and a tense revolutionary situation, Huang Kegong
could be malicious, contemptible, cruel, and selfish to such a degree; his execution was determined by his own acts. All Communist Party members, all Red Army
commanders, and all revolutionaries must draw lessons from Huang Kegong's
act. Apart from announcing the verdict of the court, you may read this letter from
me before Huang Kegong and the masses present at the public trial. Comrade Liu
Qian's family members should be comforted and compensated.

Mao Zedong

Our source for this letter is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 110-11, where it is reproduced
from the manuscript.
1. Lei Jingtian (1904-1959) was born in Nanning, Guangxi. He served as president of
the Superior Court of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region and was chief judge in the
case of Huang Kegong at the time.
2. Huang Kegong joined the Red Army in early youth and participated in the struggle on
the Jinggangshan and the Long March. He served as leader of the Sixth Brigade of the
Chinese People's Anti-Japanese Military and Political College. In October 1937, he shot to
death Liu Qian, a female student of the Shanbei Public School, after failing to force her to
marry him. After a trial by the Superior Court of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region, Huang Kegong was sentenced to death.