To Liu Yi¹
(October 30, 1938)

Comrade Liu Yi:

I am replying only today to your letter of August, and I don't know whether it will
still be of any help in dealing with your problem. Are you still in the Third Brigade? Because I have been busy, I have put off replying until today. I am sorry!
You were sincere in your intentions. If it is true that, as the Party comrades in
the Northern Shaanxi Public School and the Anti-Japanese Military and Political
University have said, your behavior satisfies the qualifications for Party membership, and it is merely that you have no one to serve as your witness for your joining
and then leaving the Guomindang, while, on the other hand, you have been here in
Yan'an for as long as nine months and have no other problems that can possibly
prevent you from joining the Party, then in my opinion you should be allowed to
join the Party. The way to resolve this problem is for you to take this letter to the
responsible comrades of the Third Brigade and discuss the matter with them. Show
them your original letter too, and ask that they give final consideration to your
problem. If the problem still cannot be solved, you may take this letter to Director
Zhang of the Political Department.² There are reasons for the defects you pointed
out, and you can send your letter to the Political Department for their reference.
Finally, I must inform you that only Party members and those whose level of study
and cultivation are relatively high can be admitted to the Academy of Marxism-
Leninism. Here I conclude my reply, with

Salutations

Mao Zedong