January 18, 1948

[This inner-Party directive was drafted by Comrade Mao Tse-tung for the Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China. See the introductory note to
"The Present Situation and Our Tasks", pp. 158-59
of this volume.]


I. THE PROBLEM OF COMBATING ERRONEOUS TENDENCIES WITHIN THE PARTY


Oppose overestimation of the enemy's strength. For example: fear of U.S.
imperialism; fear of carrying the battle into the Kuomintang areas; fear
of wiping out the comprador-feudal system, of distributing the land of the
landlords and of confiscating bureaucrat-capital; fear of a long-drawn-out
war; and so on. All these are incorrect. Imperialism throughout the world
and the rule of the reactionary Chiang Kai-shek clique in China are already
rotten and have no future. We have reason to despise them and we are confident
and certain that we shall defeat all the domestic and foreign enemies of
the Chinese people. But with regard to each part, each specific struggle
(military, political, economic or ideological), we must never take the enemy
lightly; on the contrary, we should take the enemy seriously and concentrate
all our strength for battle in order to win victory. While we correctly point
out that, strategically, with regard to the whole, we should take the enemy
lightly, we must never take the enemy lightly in any part, in any specific
struggle. If, with regard to the whole, we overestimate the strength of our
enemy and hence do not dare to overthrow him and do not dare to win victory,
we shall be committing a Right opportunist error. If, with regard to each
part, each specific problem, we are not prudent, do not carefully study and
perfect the art of struggle, do not concentrate all our strength for battle
and do not pay attention to winning over all the allies that should be won
over (middle peasants, small independent craftsmen and traders, the middle
bourgeoisie, students, teachers, professors and ordinary intellectuals, ordinary
government employees, professionals and enlightened gentry), we shall be
committing a "Left" opportunist error.

In combating "Left" and Right deviations within the Party, we must decide
on our policy according to specific circumstances. For example, the army
must guard against "Left" deviations in times of victory and guard against
Right deviations in times of defeat or when we are unable to win many battles.
In land reform, Right deviations must be combated where the masses have not
yet been aroused in earnest and the struggle has not yet unfolded, and "Left"
deviations must be guarded against where the masses have been aroused in
earnest and the struggle has already unfolded.

II. SOME CONCRETE PROBLEMS OF POLICY IN THE LAND REFORM AND MASS
MOVEMENTS

1. The interests of the poor peasants and farm labourers and the forward
role of the poor peasant leagues must be our first concern. Our Party must
launch the land reform through the poor peasants and farm labourers and must
enable them to play the forward role in the peasant associations and in the
government organs of the rural districts. This forward role consists in forging
unity with the middle peasants for common action and not in casting aside
the middle peasants and monopolizing the work. The position of the middle
peasants is especially important in the old Liberated Areas where the middle
peasants are the majority and the poor peasants and farm labourers a minority.
The slogan, "the poor peasants and farm labourers conquer the country and
should rule the country", is wrong. In the villages, it is the farm labourers,
poor peasants, middle peasants and other working people, united together
under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, who conquer the country
and should rule the country, and it is not the poor peasants and farm labourers
alone who conquer the country and should rule the country. In the country
as a whole, it is the workers, peasants (including the new rich peasants),
small independent craftsmen and traders, middle and small capitalists oppressed
and injured by the reactionary forces, the students, teachers, professors
and ordinary intellectuals, professionals, enlightened gentry, ordinary
government employees, oppressed minority nationalities and overseas Chinese,
all united together under the leadership of the working class (through the
Communist Party), who conquer the country and should rule the country, and
it is not merely some of the people who conquer the country and should rule
the country.

2. We must avoid adopting any adventurist policies towards the middle peasants.
In the cases of middle peasants and persons of other strata whose class status
has been wrongly determined, correction should be made without fail, and
any of their belongings that have been distributed should be returned, as
far as that is possible. The tendency to exclude middle peasants from the
ranks of the peasants' representatives and from the peasants' committees
and the tendency to counterpose them to the poor peasants and farm labourers
in the land reform struggle must be corrected. Peasants with an income from
exploitation should be classified as middle peasants if such income is less
than 25 per cent of their total income, and classified as rich peasants if
it is more.[1] The land of well-to-do middle peasants
must not be distributed without the owner's consent.

3. We must avoid adopting any adventurist policies towards middle and small
industrialists and merchants. The policy, adopted in the past in the Liberated
Areas, of protecting and encouraging the development of all private industry
and commerce beneficial to the national economy was correct and should be
continued in the future. The policy of encouraging landlords and rich peasants
to switch to industry and commerce, adopted during the period of rent and
interest reduction, was also correct; it is wrong to regard such switching
as a "disguise" and therefore to oppose it and confiscate and distribute
the property so switched. The industrial and commercial holdings of landlords
and rich peasants should in general be protected; the only industrial and
commercial holdings that may be confiscated are those of bureaucrat-capitalists
and of real counter-revolutionary local tyrants. Among the industrial and
commercial enterprises which should be confiscated, those beneficial to the
national economy must continue to operate after they have been taken over
by the state and the people and must not be allowed to break up or close
down. The transactions tax on the industry and commerce which are beneficial
to the national economy should be levied only to the extent that it does
not hamper their development. In each public enterprise, the administration
and the trade union must set up a joint management committee to strengthen
the work of management in order to reduce costs, increase output and see
that both public and individual interests are benefited. Private capitalist
enterprises should also try out this method in order to reduce costs, increase
output and benefit both labour and capital. The workers' livelihood must
be appropriately improved, but unduly high wages and benefits must be avoided.

4. We must avoid adopting any adventurist policies towards students, teachers,
professors, scientific workers, art workers and ordinary intellectuals. The
experience of China's student movements and revolutionary struggles has proved
that the overwhelming majority of these people can take part in the revolution
or remain neutral; the die-hard counter-revolutionaries are a tiny minority.
Our Party should, therefore, adopt a careful attitude towards students, teachers,
professors, scientific workers, art workers and ordinary intellectuals. We
should unite with them, educate them and give them posts according to the
merits of each case, and only a tiny number of die-hard counter-revolutionaries
among them will have to be appropriately dealt with through the mass line.

5. On the question of the enlightened gentry. Our Party's co-operation with
the enlightened gentry in government bodies (consultative councils and
governments) in the Liberated Areas during the War of Resistance Against
Japan was entirely necessary and also successful. Those enlightened gentry
who went through hardships and tribulations together with our Party and actually
made some contribution should be given consideration according to the merits
of each case, provided that this does not interfere with land reform. Those
who are fairly good politically and are competent should remain in the higher
government bodies and be given appropriate work. Those who are fairly good
politically but are not competent should have their livelihood assured. As
for those who are of landlord or rich peasant origin but who have not incurred
the people's deep resentment, their feudal landholdings and feudal property
should be distributed according to the Land Law, but it should be seen to
that they do not become targets of mass struggles. Those who have sneaked
into our government bodies, who have in reality always been evil, who can
be of no use to the people and who have incurred the extreme hatred of the
broad masses, are to be handed over to the people's courts to be tried and
punished like local tyrants.

6. We must distinguish between the new rich peasants and the old rich
peasants.[2] The encouragement given to new rich
peasants and well-to-do middle peasants during the period of rent and interest
reduction proved effective in reassuring the middle peasants and in developing
agricultural production in the Liberated Areas. After the equal distribution
of land, we must call on the peasants to develop production so that they
will be well-fed and well-clothed, and advise them to set up organizations
for mutual aid and co-operation in agriculture, such as labour-exchange teams,
mutual-aid teams and work-exchange groups.[3] In
the equal distribution of land the new rich peasants in the old Liberated
Areas should be treated like well-to-do middle peasants, and their land should
not be distributed without the owner's consent.

7. Among those landlords and rich peasants in the old Liberated Areas who
changed their mode of living during the period of rent and interest reduction,
the landlords who have engaged in physical labour for five years or more
and the rich peasants whose condition has been reduced to that of middle
or poor peasants for three years or more may now have their class status
changed in accordance with their present condition, provided their behaviour
has been good. Those who still possess a large amount of surplus property
(not a small amount) should hand over the surplus in accordance with the
peasants' demands.

8. The heart of land reform is the equal distribution of the land of the
feudal classes and of their property in grain, animals and farm implements
(rich peasants hand over only their surplus property); we should not
overemphasize the struggle to unearth hidden wealth[4]
and in particular should not spend too much time on this matter lest it should
interfere with the main work.

9. In dealing with landlords and rich peasants we should distinguish between
them in accordance with the Outline Land Law.

10. Within the framework of the principle of equal distribution of land,
we should also distinguish among the big, middle and small landlords, as
well as between those landlords and rich peasants who are local tyrants and
those who are not.

11. After the people's courts have given the handful of arch-criminals who
are really guilty of the most heinous crimes a serious trial and sentenced
them and the sentences have been approved by appropriate government organizations
(committees organized by local governments at county or sub-regional level),
it is entirely necessary for the sake of revolutionary order to shoot them
and announce their execution. That is one side of the matter. The other side
is that we must insist on killing less and must strictly forbid killing without
discrimination. To advocate killing more or killing without discrimination
is entirely wrong; this would only cause our Party to forfeit sympathy, become
alienated from the masses and fall into isolation. Trial and sentence by
the people's courts, a form of struggle provided in the Outline Land Law,
must be carried out in earnest; it is a powerful weapon of the peasant masses
for striking at the worst elements among the landlords and rich peasants;
it also avoids the mistake of beating and killing without discrimination.
At the proper time (after the land struggle has reached its height), we should
teach the masses to understand their own long-term interests -- to regard
those landlords and rich peasants who do not persist in wrecking the war
effort or the land reform and who number tens of millions in the country
as a whole (as many as 36 million out of a rural population of about 360
million) as a labour force for the country and to save and remould them.
Our task is to abolish the feudal system, to wipe out the landlords as a
class, not as individuals. In accordance with the Land Law we must give them
means of production and means of livelihood, but not more than to the peasants.

12. We must criticize and struggle with certain cadres and Party members
who have committed serious mistakes and certain bad elements among the masses
of workers and peasants. In such criticism and struggle we should persuade
the masses to adopt correct methods and forms and to refrain from rough actions.
This is one side of the matter. The other side is that these cadres, Party
members and bad elements should be made to pledge that they will not retaliate
against the masses. It should be announced that the masses not only have
the right to criticize them freely but also have the right to dismiss them
from their posts when necessary or to propose their dismissal, or to propose
their expulsion from the Party and even to hand the worst elements over to
the people's courts for trial and punishment.

III. ON THE PROBLEM OF STATE POWER

1. The new-democratic state power is the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal
state power of the masses of the people led by the working class. Here, the
masses of the people include the working class, the peasantry, the urban
petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie who are oppressed and injured
by imperialism and by the reactionary Kuomintang regime and the classes it
represents, namely, the bureaucrat-capitalist class (the big bourgeoisie)
and the landlord class. The main body of the masses consists of the workers,
peasants (soldiers being chiefly peasants in uniform) and other working people.
The masses of the people form their own state (the People's Republic of China)
and establish a government (the Central Government of the People's Republic
of China) to represent this state. The working class through its vanguard,
the Communist Party of China, exercises the leadership in this state belonging
to the masses of the people and in its government. The enemies this People's
Republic and its government oppose are foreign imperialism and the Kuomintang
reactionaries at home and the classes they represent -- the bureaucrat-capitalist
class and landlord class.

2. The organs of state power of the People's Republic of China are the people's
congresses at different levels and the governments at different levels which
these congresses elect.

3. In the rural areas in the present period, we can and should, in accordance
with the demands of the peasants, convene village peasant meetings to elect
the village governments, and convene district peasant congresses to elect
the district governments. Since the governments at or above county or municipal
level represent not only the peasants in the countryside but also the people
of all strata and occupations in the towns, county seats, provincial capitals
and big industrial and commercial cities, we should convene people's congresses
at county, municipal, provincial or border region levels to elect the governments
at corresponding levels. In the future after the revolution triumphs throughout
the whole country, the central government and the local governments at all
levels should be elected by the people's congresses at corresponding levels.

IV. THE PROBLEM OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THOSE WHO LEAD AND THOSE WHO
ARE LED IN THE REVOLUTIONARY UNITED FRONT

The leading class and the leading party must fulfil two conditions in order
to exercise their leadership of the classes, strata, political parties and
people's organizations which are being led:

(a) Lead those who are led (allies) to wage resolute struggles against the
common enemy and achieve victories;

(b) Bring material benefits to those who are led or at least not damage their
interests and at the same time give them political education.

Without both these conditions, or with only one, leadership cannot be realized.
As an example, the Communist Party, in order to lead the middle peasants,
must lead them to struggle resolutely together with us against the feudal
classes and achieve victories (destroying the landlords' armed force and
dividing up their land). If there is no resolute struggle or if there is
struggle but no victory, the middle peasants will vacillate. Furthermore,
we must allot part of the land and other property of the landlords to those
middle peasants who are relatively poor and must not damage the interests
of the well-to-do middle peasants. In the peasant associations and the village
and district governments we must draw the activists among the middle peasants
into the work and must provide suitable quotas for them (for instance, one-third
of the committee members). Do not make mistakes in determining the class
status of middle peasants and be fair to them in regard to the land tax and
civilian war service. At the same time, give the middle peasants political
education. If we do not do all these things, we will lose the support of
the middle peasants. In the cities, the same holds true for the working class
and the Communist Party in exercising their leadership of the middle bourgeoisie,
democratic parties and people's organizations oppressed and injured by the
reactionary forces.

NOTES


1. For the criteria for class identification in the rural
areas, see "How to Analyse the Classes in the Rural Areas", Selected
Works of Mao Tse-tung, Vol. I, and "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese
Communist Party", Chapter 2, Section 4, Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung,
Vol. II.

2. The new rich peasants were those who had developed
from middle peasants or poor peasants in the revolutionary base areas. The
old rich peasants were those who had already been rich peasants before the
revolutionary base areas were established. The old rich peasants generally
and to a great degree had the character of feudal and semi-feudal exploiters.
See "The Present Situation and Our Tasks", Note 6, p. 175 of this volume.

3. Labour-exchange teams and work-exchange groups were
organizations for mutual aid and co-operation in agriculture, "Labour-exchange"
or "work-exchange" was a means by which the peasants adjusted labour-power
among themselves and took such forms as the exchange of man-workdays for
man-workdays, ox-workdays for ox-workdays and man-workdays for ox-workdays.
Peasants who joined labour-exchange teams contributed their labour-power
or animal-power to cultivate the land of each member-family in rotation or
collectively. In settling accounts the workday was taken as the unit of exchange;
those who contributed more man-workdays or animal-workdays were paid for
the difference by those who contributed less.

4. This refers to the valuables buried by the landlords.

Transcription by the Maoist Documentation Project.