Letter to Xie Juezai1
(December 1, 1944)
Comrade Juezai:
This document is very good. I have made some additions and deletions; please
take them into consideration.
As for changing the name of the Provincial Assembly to the People’s Congress,
I think this would have a positive impact, both domestically and abroad. Please
discuss it with other comrades. The Central Committee wants to discuss this
point and other questions related to this session of the Provincial Assembly.
Please inform Comrades Gao [Gang],2 Lin [Boqu], and Luo [Mai] of this.
Political democracy has its own content; the economy is its material
foundation, not simply [the ideas of] political democracy. Culture is a spiritual
thing. It is conducive to political democracy but is not simply a matter of politics.
Please consider these points.
As for the various rights of the people, we can only say that we have fulfilled
some important ones, such as running the government, the right to work, and the
rights to speech, publication, and assembly under the limits of current material
conditions. As for the right to rest, China in general still cannot consider this,
especially the workers and peasants. As for the rights to education and to health
care for the old and sick, we are still taking the first steps. The Soviet constitution
is the product of several five-year plans. In China, many sections [of the
constitution] are still in the realm of the ideal rather than the real. Moreover, we
should refrain from mentioning the Soviet constitution in these documents in
order to avoid misunderstanding.
Salutations,
Mao Zedong

Notes
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong shuxin xuanji, pp. 248–49, where it is reproduced from Mao’s
handwritten manuscript.
1. Xie Juezai was at this time deputy chair of the Provincial Assembly of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia
Border Region; see above, note to the text of July 28, 1944.
2. Gao Gang (1905–1954) was at this time secretary of the Northwestern Bureau of the Central Committee
of the Chinese Communist Party.