All-Class People’s Congresses Should
Be Held in All Counties and Cities with
Populations Exceeding Thirty Thousand
(August 26, 1949)
To the East China Bureau, and for the information of all sub-bureaus and field
army front committees:
We received the telegram sent on August 24.
	 1.	 In the past, you did not issue directions regarding the important issue of
holding all-class people’s congresses in cities, nor did you carry this out in
Shanghai. As a result, you placed yourselves in a passive position in terms
of this matter, which has caused significant losses to work in the cities. Now
you have held an all-class people’s congress in Shanghai, and there have
been positive results. You also issued directions to your subordinates on
August 24 and thus restored your right to take the initiative on this issue. The
Central Committee is very happy to see this. Aside from sending telegrams
to notify all other bureaus and field armies about this, we now request that
you seriously urge all cities with populations above thirty thousand to hold
similar all-class people’s congresses in September. They are to then publish
the proceedings of the meetings publicly in newspapers as well as to openly
broadcast them over the radio. It is impermissible for such congresses not
to be held or for the proceedings not to be published in newspapers or be
broadcast over the radio. This will bring the Party organizations close to the
all-class people’s congresses in cities with populations of more than thirty
thousand. This will enable you to unite people of all classes, overcome difficulties, restore and develop production, and overcome the trend of bureaucratization among many people in the Party leadership organs, who only
trust internal cadre meetings in which only a few people participate and who
distrust the people’s congresses. In the future, all cities with populations over
thirty thousand should hold an all-class people’s congress at least once a
month, with each congress lasting at most one or two days and in which at
most one or two issues are discussed and decided upon.
	 2.	 Every county should hold countywide all-class people’s congresses in
accordance with the recent telegram that the Central Committee sent to the
Central China Bureau and all other bureaus.1 All provincial Party committees, regional Party committees, and local Party committees are responsible
for leading these, and we should change the bad old habit of going for long
periods of time without holding all-class people’s congresses. These countywide all-class people’s congresses should be held in all regions, whether
Newly Liberated or old Liberated Areas. In the Newly Liberated Areas, such
congresses can be held two or three weeks after they [the areas] are occupied,
and there is no need to wait for the establishment of village peasant associations. One of the key objectives of holding these congresses is to mobilize
the peasant masses.
	 3.	 The Northeast China Bureau, the North China Bureau, the Shandong Subbureau, the Northwest China Bureau, the Central China Bureau, and the
South China Bureau should all act according to the above two items. All front
committees of the field armies should take note, study, and lend assistance.
The Central Committee
reproduced from Mao Zedong’s handwritten manuscript.

--- Notes




1.  The directive that Mao Zedong issued to the Central Committee on April 25, 1949,
required all counties in the new and old Liberated Areas to convene all-class people’s representative assemblies for two to three days every one or two months, with peasant associations, workers’ associations, the cultural and education sector, the industry and commerce
sector, and the Party, government, and military all sending representatives to discuss work
throughout the county. Large counties were to have 200 or more representatives, medium sized counties 100 or more representatives, and small counties dozens of representatives.