Letter to Nan Hanchen on Drafting the Report on Financial and Economic Issues

(December 20, 1942)

Comrade Hanchen:

Have you started writing the material I asked for? What I need are the four sections on grain and fodder, taxation, finance, and trade. Each section should discuss policy and work, and should be addressed to the broad ranks of cadres, so that after reading it they understand the direction of policy and the methods of work.

When discussing policy and work, it is necessary to criticize erroneous views and shortcomings in the work, so that they will be on their guard.

Each section should include some history, some analysis, and also how the work should be carried out in 1943.

Please make a strenuous effort and hurry to complete it within the four days from today to Thursday, and hand it to me on Friday. Or you could first give me the section on grain and fodder on Tuesday or Wednesday, and the rest on Thursday or Friday.

For the two sections on finance and trade, please consult with people from the bank and the trade bureau. You are familiar with grain and taxation.

The report you submitted earlier was very good, but it was addressed to only a few people, not to the broad ranks of cadres, so it must be rewritten.

With salutations!

Mao Zedong

The night of December 20

The section on clothing and bedding that you wrote has already been incorporated by me into the section on industry.

[2]

Published according to the Selected Letters of Mao Zedong, People's Publishing House, 1983.

Notes

[1] Nan Hanchen (1895–1967), a native of Hongdong, Shanxi Province. At the time, he served as director of the Finance Department of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government.

[2] This refers to the fact that in Part Seven of Economic and Financial Problems, "On Developing Self-Supporting Industry," Mao Zedong incorporated the content on the issue of clothing and bedding from Nan Hanchen's earlier report.