Request That Every Locality Investigate
and Reply to Ten Questions
(July 28, 1944)
Comrades [Li] Xiannian, [Rao] Shushi, [Luo] Ronghuan, Huang Jing, [Deng]
Xiaoping, [Cheng] Zihua, and Lin Feng:1
Please reply to the following questions by telegram.
1. After going through education on the current situation, rectification,
counter-espionage, and rent reduction, is there a “Leftist” phenomenon that has
arisen in regard to unity with public figures outside the Party and with
implementation of the “Three-Thirds” system?2 Have public figures outside the
Party become dissatisfied with us, and what are the main points of their
dissatisfaction? Do they feel that they have jobs but no authority, and how
should we go about making them have both jobs and authority? How can we get
them to unite further through the Provincial Assembly, forums, and participation
in government work and social causes? At the same time, what Rightist
phenomena are there?
2. In terms of rent reduction, does the erroneous tendency of only nominally
reducing rents but actually not still exist? Should rent reduction still be an
assigned task for this year? At the same time, what are the excessively Leftist
phenomena that have occurred during rent reduction?
3. Have the two tasks of “supporting the government and cherishing the
people” and “supporting the army and the families of the resistance fighters and
martyrs” made progress? What are the respective flaws in the two tasks?
4. In your view, how possible is the large troop rectification and training
session this fall and winter, and have you already begun to study this matter or not? What are the major flaws in military affairs and political work right now?
5. What are the flaws in militia work? Is there still potential for much
development? How can we extend the militia and land-mine warfare on a large
scale? And how can we fully realize unification of the war effort with production
during the militia campaign?
6. Has the coordination of legal and illegal work in enemy-occupied areas and
adjacent areas made great progress? Has conflict between the Guomindang and
the Communists occurred, and how was it dealt with?
7. In your view, what are the possibilities of realizing [the goals of] the Central
Committee’s directive on work in the cities?3 Have you already begun to study
this task?
8. After this year’s big production campaign, will it be possible to consider
easing the burden on the people? For example, can we reduce it by 10 to 20
percent and not harm financial administration expenditures?
9. On the basis of this year’s production development among the troops and
organizations, can we already see considerable improvement in the lives of the
soldiers and workers? Or are their lives still very bitter? At the same time, as far
as our helping peasants develop production is concerned, can we see an
improvement in peasant incomes? What are the attitudes of the peasants toward
the household planning system, the mutual-aid organizations, and the
cooperatives? In these tasks, is commandism still a serious problem? In the base
areas, what are the possibilities for and level of self-sufficiency in the areas of
grain, cotton, and every kind of industrial product?
10. What are your views about transferring the work of mass organizations to
leading people in all walks of life to develop production, culture, and health after
the task of rent and interest reduction has been completed? In your view, is it
only after such a change is made that the workers in mass organizations (each
national salvation organization) will have something to do instead of merely
holding sinecures? Is every locality in the midst of making such changes or not?
Please send one answer, or divide the questions and send several answers, to
the above ten questions (do not answer each question in too great detail; limit
your replies to clear responses to the questions). Your answers will help the
Central Committee provide appropriate direction about several of the
aforementioned tasks this autumn.

Mao Zedong

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Notes
Our source for this document is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 3, pp. 198–99, where it is reproduced from the
manuscript.
1. Huang Jing was at this time secretary of the Pingyuan Subbureau of the Central Committee of the
Chinese Communist Party and commissar of the Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Area Command of the
Eighth Route Army. Cheng Zihua (1905–1991) was at this time acting secretary of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei
Subbureau of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and acting commissar of the Shanxi-Chahar-Hebei Military Area Command of the Eighth Route Army. (The others have been glossed in previous
notes and can be located in the Index.)
2. On the “Three-Thirds” system, see above, note to the text of January 26, 1942.
3. On the “Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Directive on Work in the Cities,” see above, the
text of June 5, 1944.