January 7, 1948

[This inner-Party directive was drafted by Comrade Mao Tse-tung for the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China. The system of reports instituted
in the directive was a development under new conditions in the long struggle
of the Central Committee firmly to uphold democratic centralism and combat
tendencies of indiscipline and anarchy. The problem was especially important
at that time because there had been tremendous progress in the revolutionary
situation. Many Liberated Areas had been linked together, many cities had
been or were about to be liberated, the People's Liberation Army had become
much more of a regular army, the People's War of Liberation had become much
more of a regular war, and countrywide victory was in sight. This situation
demanded that the Party should speedily overcome any conditions of indiscipline
or anarchy existing in the Party and the army and should concentrate in the
Central Committee all the powers that had to be and could be centralized.
The setting up of a strict system of reports was an important step taken
by the Party for this purpose. On this question, see also "The Work of Land
Reform and of Party Consolidation in 1948", Section 6, p. 258 and "On the
September Meeting -- Circular of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of China", Point 4, pp. 273-74, of this volume. ]


In order to provide the Central Committee with timely information so that
it can help all areas, either before or after the event, to avoid mistakes
or commit fewer mistakes and win even greater victories in the revolutionary
war, the following system of reports is instituted, beginning with this year.

1. For each bureau or sub-bureau of the Central Committee, the secretary
is responsible for submitting to the Central Committee and its chairman a
comprehensive bi-monthly report (written by himself, not by his assistants).
The report should cover military, political, land reform, Party consolidation,
economic, propaganda and cultural activities, the problems and tendencies
that have arisen in these activities and the methods of dealing with them.
Each report should be limited to about a thousand words and, except in special
cases, should not exceed two thousand words. When all questions cannot be
covered in one report, write two. Or the first report may concentrate on
certain questions and deal briefly with the rest, and the next report may
concentrate on the latter and deal briefly with the former. The comprehensive
report should be concise in content and succinct in wording and point out
the problems or controversial issues. It should be written and telegraphed
early in every odd month. This is to be the regular report and request for
instructions which the secretary of each bureau or sub-bureau is personally
responsible for submitting to the Central Committee and its chairman. When
the secretary is at the front directing military operations, he should, in
addition to submitting his own reports, authorize the acting secretary or
deputy secretary to report on rear-area activities. The above does not include
occasional reports and requests for instructions which the bureaus or sub-bureaus
should continue to submit to the Central Committee.

We are instituting this system of regular comprehensive policy reports and
requests for instructions because, after the Seventh National Congress of
our Party, some (not all) comrades in the bureaus or sub-bureaus still do
not realize the necessity and importance of submitting reports to the Central
Committee and asking for instructions before or after the event, or they
send reports and requests for instructions only on technical points; and,
as a result, the Central Committee is not clear or is not sufficiently clear
about their major activities and policies (not those of secondary importance
or of a technical nature), and therefore certain things have occurred that
cannot be remedied or are hard to remedy, or can be remedied but have already
caused losses. Those bureaus and sub-bureaus that have asked for prior
instructions and submitted reports afterwards have avoided or reduced such
losses. Beginning with this year, the Party's leading bodies at all levels
must correct the bad habit of neither asking the higher level for prior
instructions nor submitting reports afterwards. The bureaus and sub-bureaus,
being organs appointed by the Central Committee to carry out on its behalf
the tasks entrusted to them, must keep in the closest possible contact with
the Central Committee. Also, the provincial or area Party committees must
keep in close contact with the bureaus and sub-bureaus of the Central Committee.
At a time when the revolution has entered a period of new high tide, it is
imperative to strengthen these contacts.

2. Leaders of field armies and military areas, apart from their obligation
to submit reports and requests for instructions on matters of strategy when
necessary and their obligation to submit, as previously required, monthly
reports on combat gains, on losses and munitions consumed and on the actual
strength of their forces, must also submit comprehensive policy reports and
requests for instructions every two months, beginning this year. These should
cover the discipline of the troops, their living conditions, the morale of
commanders and fighters, any deviations that have arisen among commanders
and fighters and the methods for overcoming them, the progress or retrogression
in technique and tactics, the strong and weak points of the enemy forces
and whether their morale is high or low, the political work of our army,
its implementation of land policy, urban policy and policy concerning captives
and the methods of overcoming deviations from these policies, the relations
between the army and the people and the trends among different strata of
the people. The length, method of writing and time of dispatch of these reports
should be the same as those laid down for reports by the bureaus and sub-bureaus
of the Central Committee. If intense fighting is going on when a report is
due (that is, early in every odd month), its submission may be advanced or
postponed a few days, but the reasons must be given. The section dealing
with political work should be drafted by the director of the army's political
department, examined and corrected by the commander and political commissar
and then jointly signed by all three. These reports should be telegraphed
to the Chairman of the Party's Military Commission. We require these
comprehensive policy reports for the same reasons as we require such reports
from the bureaus and sub-bureaus.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.