Telegram in Reply to Deng Xiaoping and Teng Daiyuan[1]
(February 26, 1944)

Your work on screening cadres has now entered the confession movement and has yielded some results; this is very good. To carry out the work more smoothly and correctly in the future, it must be recognized that the anti-espionage struggle is a covert and acute struggle. Because the enemy is covert, before the discovery of spies, the general tendency within the Party is to be apathetic, turning a blind eye. And because the struggle is acute, after spies have been discovered, and especially when the confession movement has begun, the tendency within the Party can easily turn into “spies as numerous as hemp” and “every bush and tree looks like an enemy.” This pattern of first Right and then “Left” is often the general law of deviations in the anti-espionage struggle, and the shift from Right to “Left” can happen very quickly. In places where the anti-espionage struggle has not yet been developed, the Right deviation should be corrected; in places where the mass anti-espionage struggle has already been launched, the “Left” deviation should be prevented.

Especially in places where the confession movement has set in, attention should be paid to the following issues: (1) Employ the confession movement flexibly, and do not mechanically copy the experience of various organs in Yan’an. (2) Correctly assess the enemy’s strength. Do not regard all students, intellectuals, soldiers, cultural workers, technical personnel, and so on coming from enemy areas or Guomindang areas, all half-hearted individuals who have made mistakes, all those who have made confessions, and all arrested prisoners as spy elements; do not regard all Party organizations behind enemy lines or in the great rear area, or all left-wing revolutionary groups, as spy organizations under the “red flag” policy. (3) In the course of the confession movement, continuously educate cadres on conducting investigation and research work, collect genuine and solid evidence, and do not readily believe confessions; make all cadres understand that without investigation and research, without genuine and solid evidence, it is very difficult to judge a person’s right and wrong and the seriousness of the case. (4) Adhere to the principle of not killing a single one and arresting only a few (not exceeding 5 percent of the suspects), and do not arrest at confession meetings those who have not made confessions. In places where the confession movement has already been launched, conduct deep-going and extensive education among cadres and the masses against extracting confessions by coercion and believing them, discuss in detail the various directives of the Central Committee, and make them understand the enormous danger and enormous harm of extracting confessions by coercion and believing them, which can not only wrong comrades but will inevitably fall into the scheme of slander and frame-up by spies. Therefore, you must tirelessly conduct education, formulate certain regulations, proclaim certain disciplines, and furthermore examine work at any time, constantly opposing the error of extracting confessions by coercion and believing them. As to the above points, we are not saying that you have already made these deviations, but rather, based on the experience of various localities, we are telling you and drawing your attention to them.

[1] This is the essential content of the telegram from Mao Zedong and Kang Sheng to Deng Xiaoping and Teng Daiyuan on the issues requiring attention in the confession movement during the screening of cadres.