Comments on the Report of the Northwest
China Bureau Regarding Carrying out the
Central Committee’s Instructions on Land
Reform and Consolidation of the Party
(June 26, 1948)
The Northwest China Bureau’s June 22nd plan is correct. All the bureaus and
branch offices should quickly work out a plan for this year according to the specific situations in their regions, and after holding various levels of cadre meetings
in July and August, they should finish assigning the work for their regions in
September. When cadres arrive at villages, they must carry out land reform or
campaigns to reduce rent and interest, or they must consolidate the Party and build
the government according to the process and methods in the Central Committee’s
May 25th directive.1 In their work in the coming year, they should not only avoid
the serious political errors of recent years and keep them from happening again
but they should also take full advantage of the seasons to hold meetings (but not
too many) in the villages during autumn, when peasants have more free time, and
in winter, when peasants have the least to do, and finish up all work that can and
must be done. In the past, there was a habit of holding high-level and mid-level
cadre meetings in autumn and winter to assign work for the whole year in all
the regions. But this practice did not consider the seasons of the peasants and it
severely hindered work in the villages. This situation must be changed from this
year onward. The time spent on cadre meetings at all levels must be shortened.
You must adhere to the methods in the second part of the second item in the
Central Committee’s May 25 directive. There should not be too many people
attending the meetings, and an outline should be prepared in advance. The past
practice of often holding cadre meetings for as long as one to two months must
be changed.


Our source for this text is Jiefang zhanzheng shiqi tudi gaige wenjian xuanbian (Beijing: Zhonggong zhongyang dangxiao chubanshe, 1981), p. 349.


1.  See “Directive of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party on the
Work of Land Reform and Party Consolidation in 1948,” May 25, 1948, in this volume.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-131