The Importance of Carrying out a Reporting
System
(August 22, 1948)
To the Northeast China Bureau:
We received your telegram of August 19. Your self-criticism this time was useful; this way, you can extricate yourselves from a passive situation and gain the
initiative. Without the kind of serious self-criticism on these matters that you have
now made, it would be impossible to extricate yourselves from a passive position
and gain the initiative. It would also be impossible to overcome certain types of
empiricism, guerrilla-ism, lack of discipline, and anarchy that are totally unsuited
to the present large-scale war but that still exist to a serious extent. As a result, it
would be impossible to overcome these kinds of harmful phenomena where they
similarly exist in various departments and Party committees (primarily in the military) under your leadership. Not only should you do this sort of self-criticism (as
you have already done) but all central bureaus, local offices, military regions, and
front committees should likewise carry out this kind of self-criticism (which they
have not yet done). For the most part, they and their subordinates have the same
kind of shortcomings and errors as those pointed out in your August 19 telegram.
Because of this, we decided to forward your August 19 telegram as well as this
Central Committee telegram to them, and we demand that they carry out a formal
self-criticism regarding these matters. The nature of this problem is critical: Only
by solving this problem can we make the transition from small-scale, regional
guerrilla warfare to large-scale, nationwide regular warfare, and from a localized
victory to a nationwide victory. At present, this is the central link of many other
links, and if we can solve the problem of this link, then all other links can readily
be worked out. The Central Committee has just drafted a resolution regarding the
specific stipulations for the reporting system.1 It will be discussed jointly once
Rao [Shushi], Deng [Xiaoping], He [Long], Xu [Xiangqian], Bo [Yibo], and Nie
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong wenji, Vol. 5, pp. 125–26, where it is reproduced
from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.
[Rongzhen]2 are all present, and will then be sent to you and all the other regions.
We hope you can send us the documents you drafted on the work system and
reporting system as soon as possible.
The Central Committee

--- Notes

1.  The “Central Committee Resolution on the Reporting System for all Central
Bureaus, Local Offices, Military Regions, and Front Committees to the Central Committee” was passed by the Politburo in September 1948.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-141


2.  Rao Shushi was secretary of the East China Bureau of the Central Committee of
the Chinese Communist Party and political commissar of the East China Military Region.
Deng Xiaoping was first secretary of the Central Committee’s Central Plains Bureau and
political commissar of the Central Plains Military Region. He Long was commander of the
Shaan-Gan-Ning-Jin-Sui (Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia-Shanxi-Suiyuan) Joint Defense Force.
Xu Xiangqian was first deputy commander of the North China Military Region. Bo Yibo
was second secretary of the Central Committee’s North China Bureau and political commissar of the North China Military Region. Nie Rongzhen was third secretary of the North
China Bureau and commander of the North China Military Region.