Do Not Indicate Your Attitude to Outsiders
without Authorization1
(January 26, 1949)
It was reported by the Central China Work Committee that comrades in a certain
prefectural-level Party committee in Central China answered probing and provocative questions by a foreign journalist from Guangzhou and a journalist from
Shanghai for a Chinese magazine without authorization and without requesting
instructions from the higher levels. It seems they were completely unaware that
they should request instructions in advance, or that they were aware but were
unwilling to request instructions, and as a result they allowed loopholes for the
enemy. This incident proves that you have not gone far or deep enough in your
struggle against the lower levels acting with a lack of discipline by not requesting instructions in advance. You must make an example of this incident to issue
a general order to all your subordinates so they will learn a lesson from it. You
should also appropriately punish the comrades in charge of that prefectural Party
committee. From now on, all local levels must refuse to entertain or answer
questions asked by any foreign or Chinese journalist of unclear background and
coming from the Guomindang-controlled regions. In the case of genuine revolutionary or sympathetic journalists, you must request instructions from the higher
levels regarding whether you should accept interviews from them. No lower-level
comrades can indicate their attitudes without authorization.
Our source for this text is Mao Zedong xinwen gongzuo wenxuan, p. 162, where it is
reproduced from Mao’s handwritten manuscript.
1.  Mao Zedong drafted this telegram on behalf of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to the East China Bureau, the Central China Bureau, and the Huaihai Front Line Committee.
DOI:  10.4324/9781315719436-232