Comment on the Report by the Propaganda Department of the Shanxi-Hebei-Shandong-Henan Bureau on “Discovering a ‘Left’ Deviation in the Inspection of Newspapers”

(February 29, 1948)

The question of enlightened gentry is not a principled issue concerning the nature of the revolution, and the Central Committee has never pointed it out as such. The Central Committee has pointed out that those enlightened gentry from the landlord and rich peasant classes who support opposing Chiang Kai-shek and land reform and are willing to cooperate with us should not be abandoned, such as Li Dingming of northern Shaanxi, Liu Shaobai of the Shanxi-Suiyuan area,[1] and others, so as to divide the landlord class, which is beneficial to opposing Chiang Kai-shek and land reform.

[1] Li Dingming once served as Vice Chairman of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region Government. Liu Shaobai once served as Vice Speaker of the Provisional Senate of the Shanxi-Suiyuan Border Region.