Chen Yun and Bo Yibo:

On Railway Construction and Other Issues

Telegram to Chen Yun and Bo Yibo[1]

(January 10, 1950)

(1) Your telegram of January 7[2] has been received. This report is very good, and I hope you will continue to provide such reports. (2) All the plans are sound. It is extremely necessary to use the army to construct the Tianshui-Lanzhou, Tianshui-Chengdu, Chengdu-Chongqing, Xuzhou-Kunming, Zhenyuan-Guizhou, Guizhou-Guangxi, and Hunan-Guangxi railway lines. I hope you will immediately begin making arrangements and proceed with the work. (3) Since October 1 of last year, under the leadership of the Central Financial and Economic Commission, many specialized meetings have been held. Apart from the three items—railways, steel, and agriculture—already mentioned in your January 7 telegram, I do not have at hand the key points of the results of the other meetings. Please write a report for me on each of these items within a few days. I wonder if you can find the time. If you are too busy, could you have your secretaries draft it and send it after your review? It need not be too detailed; a few hundred words per item will suffice.

Mao Zedong
January 10

Notes
(January 10, 1950)

To the Central Committee, and please forward to Liu, Deng, He[1], and the Northwest Bureau:

(1) I fully agree with the plan for advancing into Tibet outlined in Liu and Deng’s telegram of January 7. Now that Britain, India, and Pakistan have all recognized us, this is advantageous for the advance into Tibet. (2) According to Comrade Peng Dehuai[2], the four-month period for the advance is calculated from mid-May. Therefore, from mid-January to mid-May, there are still four full months of preparation time (in my previous telegram[3], I mistakenly wrote three and a half months). As long as Liu, Deng, and He intensify their supervision of Zhang Guohua[4] and the 18th Army and other units, there is still time to meet the schedule. (3) For the administration of Tibet, a Party leadership organ should be established. As for its name and the selection of its members, the Southwest Bureau is requested to draft a proposal and telegraph it to the Central Committee for approval. This leadership organ should be promptly determined, and it should be tasked with planning all matters and formulating an implementation plan to be submitted to the Southwest Bureau and the Central Committee for approval. The Southwest Bureau should inspect its work once every half month or every month. The first step is limited to three and a half months.

Notes

--- Notes

[1] Chen Yun was then Vice Premier of the Government Administration Council and Director of the Financial and Economic Commission. Bo Yibo was then Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Commission of the Government Administration Council.
[2] Refers to the report on several financial and economic matters sent by Chen Yun and Bo Yibo to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee on January 7, 1950.


[1] Liu, Deng, and He refer to Liu Bocheng, Deng Xiaoping, and He Long, who were then, respectively, Second Secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, Commander of the Second Field Army, and Chairman of the Southwest Military and Political Committee; First Secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Political Commissar of the Second Field Army and the Southwest Military Region; and Third Secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Commander of the Southwest Military Region.
[2] Peng Dehuai was then First Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Commander of the First Field Army and the Northwest Military Region.
[3] Refers to the telegram “The Task of Advancing into Tibet and Administering Tibet Is to Be Undertaken by the Southwest Bureau.”
[4] Zhang Guohua was then Commander of the 18th Army of the Fifth Corps of the Second Field Army.