(1) Under present conditions, cadre education should be given top priority within the overall framework of educational work. Similarly, the education of in-service cadres should hold the foremost place within all cadre education efforts. This is because all work, including national education, must be carried out by cadres. "Once the political line is determined, cadres become the decisive factor in everything." If we fail to regard cadre education as particularly important and assign it the primary position in all educational work, we risk committing the error of putting the cart before the horse. At the same time, it is undoubtedly a vital task to operate cadre schools with emphasis and seriousness, selecting many cadres to attend various cadre schools and providing them with systematic education—this must never be neglected in the slightest. However, the vast majority of cadres—over 90 percent—remain at their posts, and given current limitations in manpower, financial resources, and work demands, it is impossible to run a great many cadre schools. Therefore, providing necessary and feasible education to in-service cadres right at their work posts is truly the foremost task in all cadre education efforts, and it should attract the full attention of leading bodies and their propaganda and education departments at all levels of the Party, government, military, and mass organizations. The characteristics of guerrilla warfare not only permit such an approach but make it imperative.

(2) Since the Sixth Plenary Session of the Party Central Committee, in-service cadre education has drawn considerable attention within the Party, sparking a wave of learning among in-service cadres in many localities and departments—a most welcome development. Yet neglect persists. In some places and departments, such education has not even begun, and professional education has not been emphasized. Nevertheless, the majority of in-service cadres are highly enthusiastic about learning and mastering their professional work. Political education has generally received attention, but in some cases poor methods are used, priorities are not clearly distinguished, or consistency is lacking. Cultural education, urgently needed by the many cadres of worker and peasant origin in our Party, has likewise not drawn sufficient attention from leading bodies at all levels of the Party, government, and military. Theoretical education for senior cadres has either remained unattended to or has become divorced from reality, degenerating into dogmatism. Yet the success or failure of theoretical education is the first key to the success or failure of the revolution. All these shortcomings must be rectified or strengthened.

(3) In-service cadre education should encompass four areas: professional education, political education, cultural education, and theoretical education.

(a) All in-service cadres must receive professional education, implementing the slogan "Learn what you do." Regardless of the department in which they work—military affairs, political affairs, Party affairs, culture, education, propaganda, organization, mass movements, counter-espionage, finance, economics, banking, medicine, health, or any other—cadres must learn and master their own profession. This is the first educational and learning task. The leading body and responsible persons of each department must guide the cadres under their charge to study in an orderly manner, while Party committees, political departments, and their propaganda and education sections at all levels assume overall leadership responsibility. The scope of study includes the following five items: First, investigation and research into surrounding circumstances closely related to each department's professional work. For example, military departments should meticulously investigate the situation concerning the enemy, ourselves, and friendly forces, analyze and study it, select key points, compile teaching materials, and use them to educate military cadres. Similar approaches apply to other departments. Second, study of policies, decrees, directives, and decisions closely linked to each department's professional work. For example, financial personnel should become thoroughly familiar with financial policies and decrees. Counter-espionage personnel should master counter-espionage policies and decrees. The same principle applies to other fields. Third, study of specific professional experience within each department. For example, Party organization departments should study experiences in Party organizational work and cadre work, classify and synthesize them, extract key points, produce documents, and educate the cadres under them. Similar approaches apply elsewhere. Fourth, study of the historical knowledge specific to each department's profession. For example, Party propaganda departments should recount and summarize our Party's twenty-year history of propaganda, agitation, and its policy changes and developments, compile teaching materials, and educate cadres in propaganda work. The same applies to other departments. Fifth, study of the scientific knowledge related to each department's profession. For example, military cadres study military science, medical cadres study medicine, and each department must study its own theories. For all the above professional studies, each department's leading body bears the responsibility of supplying materials, guiding study, and assessing results, ensuring that the cadres under its charge gradually learn and master their professional duties in both theoretical and practical aspects. The view that belittles the study and mastery of one's profession is mistaken.

(b) All in-service cadres must receive political education. Its scope includes two items: education on current events and education on general policies. Methods for conducting current-events education include urging cadres under one's charge to read newspapers, explaining current issues to them, and convening cadres for current-affairs lectures at the regional or departmental level. Methods for general-policy education include requiring all cadres to universally study, for instance, the Central Committee's declarations on the current situation, its decision on strengthening Party spirit, its decision on investigation and research, and the administrative program of the Border Region—having cadres read these documents, explaining or discussing them, etc.; or mobilizing cadres to study matters not directly but indirectly related to their own department's work, which they need to investigate—for example, explaining the Central Committee's decision on land policy to military commanders. The purpose of political education is to enable cadres, besides mastering their specialized profession, local conditions, and local policies, to also comprehend general conditions and general policies, broaden their horizons, and avoid the defects of being one-sided, narrow-minded, or oblivious to the overall situation. It must be pointed out that the tendency to prattle about general politics while neglecting specialized professional work is wrong; likewise, the tendency to confine oneself solely to specialized professional work while neglecting general politics is also wrong. It must be noted that while general conditions and general policies are compulsory study for all cadres, the emphasis placed on them should vary according to the nature of each department. For example, for doctors, technical experts, writers, and artists, the emphasis should be lighter; for Party workers, propaganda workers, government functionaries, and political workers in the military, it should be heavier. The lack of regularity in political education must be overcome in a planned way by the Party, government, and military propaganda and education departments.

(c) For all cadres whose cultural level is too low or not high enough, cultural education must be stressed in addition to professional and political education, and mistaken views that belittle cultural education must be opposed. For them, studying culture and raising their cultural level is the central link in all their learning. The scope of education and study is tentatively set to include Chinese language, history, geography, arithmetic, natural sciences, social studies, and politics. Propaganda and education departments are responsible for resolving the issue of textbooks. Regarding educational and study methods, in areas where conditions permit, cultural make-up classes or schools must be universally established—either run by a single organ, jointly operated by several organs, or adopting a rotational training system in which cadres are transferred in turn to study at a centralized location; all are good approaches. In such make-up classes or schools, there should be full-time teaching and administrative staff, supplemented by part-time staff. In areas where conditions do not permit, small-group study systems should be used, wherein a cadre with a relatively high cultural level in the same organ reduces his or her daily work and concurrently serves as instructor; dedicated instructors may also be used. Cultural classes or schools may be divided into elementary and intermediate levels. Elementary classes are for those who are illiterate or barely literate, with the goal of reaching roughly the level of higher primary school; intermediate classes are for those already at about the higher primary school level, with the goal of reaching roughly the level of secondary school. Cadres should be divided into classes based on cultural level, not on position. Furthermore, certain cadres engaged in propaganda and educational work, though intellectuals, who still need to make up deficiencies in Chinese language and grammar, should do so through small-group study or other methods. To raise the cultural level of the broad mass of cadres, the status of cultural instructors within Party, government, and military bodies should be elevated; the best cultural instructors should receive great acclaim and preferential treatment. Those who render meritorious service in cultural education should be rewarded.

(d) Senior and intermediate cadres who possess the qualifications to study theory (in terms of cultural level, comprehension ability, interest in learning, etc.) must all study theory in addition to their professional and political studies. The scope of study includes political science, ideological science, economic science, historical science, and so on, to be studied progressively and in sequence. The learning method should be based on the principle of linking theory with practice. For example, in political science, works on strategy and tactics within Marxism-Leninism should serve as theoretical material, and our Party's twenty-year history of struggle as practical material; in ideological science, the Marxist methodology of thought should serve as theoretical material, and the history of China's ideological development over the past century as practical material; in economic science, Marxist political economy should serve as theoretical material, and China's economic development history over the past century as practical material; in historical science, the focus should be on studying the history of foreign revolutions and the history of the Chinese revolution. Concrete implementation should adopt methods involving senior study groups and intermediate study groups, with self-study as the primary approach complemented by collective discussion and guidance.

(4) The allocation of time and courses among the four types of education should be adjusted by the Party, government, and military propaganda and education departments, so that they are interconnected without conflicting or becoming disjointed.

(5) In every work department and in every aspect of professional education, political education, cultural education, and theoretical education, the spirit of combating subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing must be thoroughly carried through. All materials must be reviewed by leading bodies; anything containing the toxins of subjectivism, sectarianism, and stereotyped Party writing must be rigorously eliminated or criticized.

(6) In-service cadre education is a long-term endeavor, and it should be conducted on the principle of developing cadres' professional competence without hindering their work or impairing their health; at the front, it especially must not impede warfare. In localities or departments where conditions permit, a daily two-hour study regimen shall be consistently maintained. In localities or departments where conditions do not permit, study time may be adjusted flexibly. All time expended on in-service cadre education shall be counted as part of regular working hours, with education and study regarded as an integral part of work. When evaluating cadres, their study situation shall be one of the assessment criteria.

(7) Implement systems of examinations, tests, rewards, and penalties for in-service cadre education; specific procedures shall be formulated by the Central Propaganda Department.

(8) Leading bodies at all levels of the Party, government, and military shall devote their utmost attention to cadre education (both in-service cadre education and cadre school education). Personnel (teachers and staff) needed for cadre education shall undergo rigorous vetting and shall be assigned with top priority. Leading personnel at all levels have the responsibility to participate in teaching. Funds required for cadre education shall be supplied to the greatest extent possible.

(9) Personnel engaged in cadre education, especially teachers, shall themselves receive education; specific procedures shall be formulated by the Central Propaganda Department.

(*Rectification Documents*)