We Must Handle Propaganda Work with a
Serious Scientific Attitude1
(June 3, 1948)
Each area’s leading bodies (including the two levels of the central office and the
district Party committee) for newspapers, news agencies, and other extremely
important propaganda organs have given up leadership responsibility, or, although
they have not yet given up leadership, they have not held it tightly whereby they
allow many incorrect viewpoints to spread widely and their propaganda work is
far from serious. We must resolutely rectify this situation. One method of rectifying it is for each central office (sub-bureau), and district Party committee (provincial Party committee), with regard to its own newspaper, to have a comrade who
completely understands the Party’s correct path and correct policies take a broad
look at the propaganda work and correct erroneous viewpoints every day before
publication. Each area’s leading comrades must take a serious scientific attitude
in handling propaganda work.
Mao Zedong
June 3
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, p. 101, where it is reproduced from
Mao’s original manuscript.
1.  Mao Zedong forwarded this remark written in the report of the Central Propaganda
Department to the East China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of China on May 30, 1948.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-125