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

(August 29, 1942)

With regard to financial ratios, military needs must be given first priority. The Party, government, and military shall allocate funds according to set ratios, with the financial ratios determined based on three conditions: personnel numbers, work, and production capacity. Better troops and simpler administration, in addition to encompassing streamlining, efficiency, and unification, shall also include the two items of economizing and combating bureaucracy. Better troops and simpler administration is a policy that involves various aspects such as military-civilian relations, military construction, administrative efficiency, work style, and financial policy. The Central Committee and the Central Military Commission together have over 24,000 personnel, which should be reduced to five or six thousand. The principle of the Central Committee’s work is to guide work and educate cadres. The Northwest Bureau’s senior cadres’ meeting will convene in October to discuss the Central Committee’s decision on unifying the Party’s leadership in the anti-Japanese base areas and adjusting relations among various organizations. The *Liberation Daily* has made progress since its revision in April this year and must implement the Party’s daily policies. The editorials and broadcast news of the *Liberation Daily* represent the Central Committee speaking to the people, and articles published by individuals also have a great impact. Henceforth, on daily policy issues, the newspaper office should seek instructions from the Central Committee. To make the *Liberation Daily* the organ newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China still requires great effort. Qin Bangxian and Lu Dingyi[2] shall draft a set of regulations for Party newspaper work.

[1] This is part of Mao Zedong’s speech at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

[2] Lu Dingyi, then Editor-in-Chief of the *Liberation Daily*.