Comment on Chen Yun’s Report
(April 14, 1950)

Source: XHYB, II:1 (May 15, 1950), 99. Other Chinese Text: RMRB (Apr.
15, 1950), 1. Available English Translation: NCNA, Daily Bulletin, 13 (Apr.
21, 1950), 3-4.

These comments were made at the Seventh Meeting of the Central People’s Govern-ment Council, which was held on April 13, 1950. It followed the report made by Chen
Yun, who was vice-premier of the GAC of the Central People’s Government and
chairman of the Financial and Economic Affairs Commission. Chen’s report is known
by the title “Report on the Financial Condition of the Nation.”’

The Financial and Economic Affairs Commission of the Government

Administrative Council has achieved very significant results in the past six

Months in the work of adjusting the budget and stabilizing the prices of goods.

ee Policies of the Financial and Economic Affairs Commission are correct,

should yet there are still some shortcomings in its work, and attention
be paid to correcting these.

The financial situation of our country has begun to change for the better.
sit late a very good phenomenon. However, for the financial and economic
tiong On as a whole to take a fundamental change for the better, three condi-

Must be met. These are: the completion of land reform, the reasonable



adjustment of existing industries and commercial concerns, and major reduc- a
tions in the military and governmental expenditures of the state. We should 4
strive to realize these step by step, and they can indeed be completely realized. Then fundamental changes for the better can take place. Within the next -
few months, the emphasis in the work of the organs of the government that are 4
in charge of finance and the economy should be on the adjustment of the 4
interrelationship between public and private enterprises and between the various departments within each public or private enterprise and on exerting as 4
much effort as possible to overcome the state of anarchy. The stipulation in }
the Common Program [which states]: ;
The state shall coordinate and regulate the state-owned, cooperative,
individual peasant and handicraft, private capitalist, and state capitalist [sectors of the economy] in their spheres of operations, supply of
raw materials, marketing, labor conditions, technical equipment, policies of public and general finance, etc. In this way all sectors of the
social economy can, under the leadership of the state-owned
economy, carry out division and coordination of labor and play their
proper parts [in promoting the development of the social economy as a
whole]!
must be fully implemented. Only then can it serve the interests of the rehabilitation and development of the entire people’s economy. Certain confused |
ideas that have already arisen in this area must be straightened out.

Note

1. Here we have followed Theodore Chen’s translation of the corresponding paragraph in the q
Common Program, Article 26. See T. Chen (1967), p. 41. Parts that have not been cited by Mao §
here are in brackets to provide contextual meaning. For the Common Program, see text Sept. 21,
1949, note 3. ‘