Active Air Defense to Protect Shanghai
(February 17, 1950)
Shaoqi[1], Comrade, immediately relay to Comrade Rao Shushi[2]:
Your telegram of the Chou-wen day has been received. Active air defense, to protect Shanghai, proper and reliable measures have already been devised and will be implemented shortly. Factories in Shanghai should not be forcibly dispersed; maintain operations as much as possible. However, the above air defense measures must be kept strictly secret, in order to annihilate the enemy in one stroke. We are departing for home[3] tonight.
Mao Zedong
9:00 a.m., February 17

[1] Shaoqi, namely Liu Shaoqi.
[2] Rao Shushi, then serving as First Secretary of the East China Bureau and Political Commissar of the Third Field Army and East China Military Region.
[3] Refers to Mao Zedong and his delegation returning home after concluding their visit to the Soviet Union.