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

(April 13, 1943)

There is a distinction between liberalism inside and outside the Party; in the areas under Kuomintang rule, bourgeois liberalism is progressive. A distinction should be made between freedom of thought and liberalism; within the Party there can be freedom of thought, but there must be no liberalism. A distinction should be made between firmness in standpoint and flexibility in tactics. Inner-Party struggle must also have its tactics; the past struggle against Zhang Guotao’s errors was exemplary.

[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 during the discussion of the first, second (on methods of leadership), and third (on overcoming liberalism) drafts of the “Directive of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Continuing the Rectification Movement.”

Mao Zedong during the Yan’an period.