In the Northeast, Work in the Countryside
and the Small and Medium-Sized Cities
Should for Now Still Be Given Priority
 (May 19, 1946)
To the Northeast Bureau and the Northern Manchuria1 local bureau:
Although we have already taken the two large cities of Chang[chun] and
Har[bin], work in the countryside and in the small and medium-sized cities is still
the priority, and we must be sure not to accumulate many cadres in Chang[chun]
and Har[bin]. All counties should be ordered to step up the training of troops, suppression of bandits, and resolution of the land question. This year, we must finish
resolving the land question completely or in large part. Once the land question is
resolved and we have troops, the bandits will be more easily suppressed and our
hold on the large cities will be consolidated. Toward this objective, a number of
cadres from counties in southern and eastern Manchuria2 where mass work has
penetrated most deeply should be pulled out and transferred to the various counties in northern Manchuria to do mass work. Mass work is extremely important in
the dozen or so counties on either side of the Changchun-Harbin railway.
The Central Committee
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 4, pp. 119–20, where it is reproduced
from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.
1.  Northern Manchuria refers to the regions surrounding Harbin, Mudanjiang, Bei’an,
Jiamusi, and Qiqihar.
2.  Southern Manchuria refers to the central Liaoning area east of the Shenyang-Dalian
section of the Chinese Changchun railway, which encompassed Andong (today’s Dandong),
Zhuanghe, Tonghua, Linjiang, Qingyuan, and southeastern Shenyang. Eastern Manchuria
refers to the area east of the Shenyang-Changchun section of the Chinese Changchun railway, including the region around Jilin, Xi’an (today’s Dongliao), Antu, Yanji, and Dunhua.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719511-147