Comrade Shaoqi: I have received your telegram [2] in full.

(1) In order to give thorough consideration to the January Decision, you may convene a meeting lasting several days with the members of the Fuping Central Bureau and the Central Working Committee. It will not matter if the reply is delayed by a few days.

(2) There are still a few points that I propose should be added to this Decision: (a) With the aim of stabilizing the middle peasants, newly enriched farmers in the old liberated areas shall be treated on an equal footing with well-to-do middle peasants; that is, their land may not be equally divided without their consent. (b) A small amount of garden land should be reserved for churches, ancestral halls, and temples. (c) Foreigners engaged in peaceful trade and missionary work should be protected. (d) The handling of commodity debts and internal peasant debts. (e) The implementation of the Land Law in the new liberated areas should differ from that in the old areas. Specifically, it should proceed in two stages: in the first stage, landlord land is confiscated and distributed, while rich peasants are kept neutral; in the second stage, all land is equally divided.

In the first stage, only peasant associations are organized; in the second stage, poor-peasant leagues are then formed.

Please consider all of the above points together.

(3) I have drafted a telegram to Comrade Su Yu [3], which states that land reform must not be rushed. Completing land reform within three years across the major liberated areas north of the Yangtze River up to Manchuria [4] would already be a significant achievement. In the new areas, land reform should also be carried out in two stages, with rich peasants remaining neutral during the first stage. Moreover, the methods of land reform should be introduced gradually and not implemented simultaneously throughout the region.

This telegram is intended to be sent to all regions at the same time. It has not yet been dispatched. I would appreciate your views on it.

Respectfully submitted by Mao Zedong, printed from the manuscript.
Notes [1] The Central January Decision refers to the draft decision drafted by Mao Zedong on January 18, 1948, for the CPC Central Committee. It comprises four sections: “The Question of Opposing Wrong Tendencies Within the Party,” “Several Specific Policy Questions in Land Reform and Mass Movements,” “On the Question of Political Power,” and “On the Relationship Between Leaders and Followers in the Revolutionary United Front.” This draft decision has been included in Volume Four of Selected Works of Mao Zedong under the title “On Several Important Questions in the Current Policies of Our Party.”
[2] Refers to Liu Shaoqi’s telegram to Mao Zedong dated January 22, 1948. The telegram states that personnel have been sent to the grassroots level in two counties to gather opinions on the “Central January Decision,” and that a report on these discussions can be transmitted by telegraph in three or four days. Apart from a few isolated issues on which there may be some dissenting views, the general consensus is in favor of the Decision. Furthermore, the Fuping Central Bureau has already been informed of the Decision, and they may raise certain objections.
[3] Refers to Mao Zedong’s telegram dated January 22, 1948, addressed to Su Yu, Deputy Commander of the East China Field Army, concerning the issue of land reform in the newly liberated areas. See pages 35–39 of this volume.
[4] Manchuria refers to the Northeast region of China.