Words added to the Central Committee’s forwarded directive from the East China Bureau on suppressing counterrevolutionary uprisings and handling mass unrest incidents [1] (May 5, 1950): Under no circumstances are troops to open fire on the masses.
Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.
Note [1]: This sentence was inserted in parentheses after a passage in Item II of the East China Bureau’s directive, which read: “In cases where severe famine or an excessively heavy autumn tax burden has made life extremely difficult for the people, allowing counterrevolutionary elements to take advantage of the situation to incite them, thereby triggering non-armed, mass grain-rioting disturbances, the armed forces present should first do their utmost to dissuade the crowd, explaining that seizing grain is illegal and urging them to cease such actions.
If dissuasion proves ineffective, shots may be fired into the air to disperse the crowd.”