Speech at a Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China[1]

(July 25, 1942)

The policy of better troops and simpler administration meets present needs, but its implementation is still not thorough enough. Next year, the number of personnel not engaged in production in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region should be reduced to sixty thousand, and in northwestern Shanxi to fifty thousand. The Border Region has two main tasks: education work and economic work. In northwestern Shanxi, fighting should be added as a third task. We must raise work efficiency and quality—fewer but better—let those who can study engage in study, and those who can engage in production do so. The army should not be continuously replenished; the companies should be brought up to strength according to the actual number of existing personnel, and a small regiment system can be implemented. As for the areas behind enemy lines, we must prepare for very substantial reductions. Establish a sound economic system that combines overall planning and unified support with self-sufficiency, with the principle of seventy percent overall planning and unified support and thirty percent self-sufficiency.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech on the policy of better troops and simpler administration at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.