To Xie Juezai
(August 12, 1941)

Venerable Xie:

I am in receipt of your letter of the 11th.
That forced labor must be accomplished through political mobilization is absolutely correct, and herein lies the difference in principle between our forced labor
and that of the Guomindang. Our distinctive feature is making revolution in addition to fighting a war.
The Party group¹ in the [Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia] Border Region government
should not be confused with the commissions of the government. A Party group is
made of no more than three to five people, whose job is to be in control of policy,
meeting to discuss matters as they arise. After the matter is agreed upon, or written
up as a plan, and then approved by the Northwest Bureau (or passed by its standing committee), it is submitted to the government commission for adoption. You
are the one to convene the Party group meetings, and not every section has to be
represented; it should be limited to those who can handle policy matters. Please
consider this matter.
The question of a deputy chairman merits consideration.
Respectful salutations!

Mao Zedong

Our source for this letter is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 182-83, where it is reproduced
from the manuscript.
1. At this time, the "Party group" (dangtuan) was the Party organ leading the work of
government, labor union, peasants' associations, and other mass organizations in the Shen-Gan-Ning Border Region. At the Seventh Congress in 1945, the name was changed to
dangzu.