Asking for Deng Xiaoping’s Views on Several
Policy Issues Concerning the Newly Liberated
Areas
(January 14, 1948)
Comrade Xiaoping:1
Please answer the following questions:
	 1.	 Should the Newly Liberated Areas be divided into two regions: one where
a base area can be speedily built up and consolidated, and one where a base
area can only be built up after protracted seesaw battles? Should different
policies be adopted toward work in the two regions?
	 2.	 Should land reform in the new areas be carried out indiscriminately following the Outline Land Law, or should the land of the rich peasants and
some small, weak landlords remain untouched for the time being? What are
the attitudes of the rich peasants and small weak landlords in the Newly
Liberated Areas?
	 3.	 Are any enlightened gentry cooperating with us?
	 4.	 Are many intellectuals cooperating with us or adopting a neutral attitude?
	 5.	 What are the attitudes of the merchants of the various strata? Can our army
avoid asking for donations from industrial and commercial capitalists in the
new areas? If we ask for donations, what form should they take?
	 6.	 How should we deal with the different types of personnel in the Guomindang
government, in the party itself, and in the Three People’s Principles Youth
League? Are there any among them who can be won over? How shall we
deal with the leaders of the baojia?2
Mao Zedong
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 17–18, where it is reproduced
from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.

--- Notes

1.  Deng Xiaoping was political commissar of the Jin-Ji-Lu-Yu (Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan) Field Army.

2.  The community-based security apparatus.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-70