Jingquan and Zhongxun [1], with a copy to Shaoqi and Yibo [2]: The situation differs among three types of areas: the old liberated areas existing before Japan’s surrender; the semi-old liberated areas, which comprise those regions captured within two years following Japan’s surrender up to the nationwide counteroffensive last September; and the new liberated areas gained since the start of the counteroffensive. Accordingly, the content and sequence of implementing the Land Law should vary, and the organizational forms of the Poor Peasants’ Groups and the Peasants’ Associations likewise seem to require differentiation. Please telegraph your views on these distinctions.


In the semi-old liberated areas, the Land Law should be fully implemented: land is to be thoroughly redistributed, Poor Peasants’ Groups and Peasants’ Associations are to be established, with the former serving as the leading core. Within the associations, active poor peasants should constitute two-thirds, while middle peasants account for only one-third—there can be no dispute about this.


However, in the old liberated areas—for example, the old districts in Jin-Sui with populations of 900,000 or 450,000, or the Shaan-Gan-Ning region, home to roughly one to 1.2 million people—land has generally already been equitably divided; that is, the Land Law has largely been put into practice. Here, the task is not another round of equal distribution but rather land readjustment to fill gaps and make up deficiencies. Middle peasants form the vast majority of the rural population. If we were to organize Poor Peasants’ Groups and Peasants’ Associations in precisely the same manner as in the semi-old areas—where middle peasants are in the minority and poor peasants predominate, and where land issues remain fundamentally unresolved—and artificially attempt to have the Poor Peasants’ Group assume an identical leadership role throughout the countryside, with active poor peasants holding a two-thirds majority on the association’s executive committee, would such an arrangement prove workable? Might it risk alienating the middle peasants? And if not, what alternative organizational form should be adopted? Could we forego establishing a full-fledged Poor Peasants’ Group, instead organizing merely small groups of poor peasants under the umbrella of the Peasants’ Association? Or might it still be appropriate to set up a Poor Peasants’ Group (provided there is more than one such group), yet confine its function solely to safeguarding the interests of the small minority of poor peasants in the village, rather than assigning it the all-encompassing leadership role characteristic of the semi-old areas? As for the Peasants’ Association and the village government, active poor peasants may serve as chairman of the association or as village head/chairman of the government, provided they enjoy the consent of the middle peasants—a prerequisite condition. Yet it is not imperative that this be so; the primary responsibility for these posts should rest with middle-peasant activists who hold sound political convictions and conduct themselves impartially. Moreover, while active poor peasants must have representation on the committees of both the Peasants’ Association and the village government, their share ought to remain a minority—for instance, one-third—while middle-peasant activists should constitute the majority, say two-thirds. In the semi-old areas, by contrast, poor peasants would hold two-thirds and middle peasants one-third.


Please advise, Jingquan and Zhongxun, within a few days on how best to address these matters, and Yibo, kindly submit your own views as well.


Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript, Chouyu edition.


Notes [1] Jingquan refers to Li Jingquan (1909–1989), from Linchuan, Jiangxi, who at the time served as Secretary of the Jin-Sui Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Political Commissar of the Jin-Sui Military Region.
Zhongxun refers to Xi Zhongxun, born in 1913 in Fuping, Shaanxi, who at the time held the positions of Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Deputy Political Commissar of the Northwest Field Army, and Political Commissar of the Joint Defense Force of Shaan-Gan-Ning and Jin-Sui.
[2] Yibo refers to Bo Yibo, who at the time was Deputy Secretary of the Central Bureau of the CPC in Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan and First Deputy Political Commissar of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Military Region.