Notes and Reply from the Central Committee on the Beijing Municipal Party Committee’s Report on the Suppression of Counterrevolutionary Activities (November 22, 1950) I. To All Central Bureaus, with Copy to Their Affiliated Sub-bureaus, Provincial Committees, Major Municipal Committees, and Regional Party Committees: (1) With regard to the implementation of the Central Committee’s directive issued on October 10 concerning the suppression of counterrevolutionary activities, several Central Bureaus have already submitted reports, while others have not yet done so. Among the Sub-bureaus, Provincial Committees, Major Municipal Committees, and Regional Party Committees, some have reported, but the majority have not. The Central Committee hopes that all those—Central Bureaus, Sub-bureaus, Provincial Committees, Major Municipal Committees, and Regional Party Committees—which have not yet submitted their reports will each prepare a special report on this subject before the end of this year; no further delay is permitted. (2) The report of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee [1] is very good and is being circulated to you for reference. November 22, Central Committee II. To the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, with Notification to the North China Bureau: Your report dated November 19 concerning the suppression of counterrevolutionary activities has been received. The content is

excellent. It is requested that you implement it immediately, and that the North China Bureau forward it to all provincial and municipal committees in North China for their guidance and execution. November 22, Central Committee. Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript. Notes [1] Refers to the report submitted by the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee on November 19, 1950, regarding past measures taken to suppress counterrevolutionary elements and future plans. The report outlines the situation and achievements in Beijing since liberation in dealing with counterrevolutionaries through execution, imprisonment, and supervision, and summarizes the experience gained in the campaign to suppress counterreactionaries. These experiences mainly include: rigorously implementing the Central Committee’s policy of combining repression with leniency toward counterrevolutionaries, as well as the principle of striking accurately, steadily, and decisively; taking appropriate steps to prioritize tasks according to importance and sequence—first targeting spies, then reactionary political parties and organizations, and finally various feudal reactionary forces; and, specifically for spies, following the procedure of “top-down rather than bottom-up, major figures before minor ones, military action before intelligence gathering, and operations before information collection.” The report also sets out future plans for suppressing counterrevolutionary activities, identifying the current priority as clearing up cases involving Kuomintang spies and foreign agents, as well as handling reactionary secret societies. Furthermore, it specifies eight criteria for sentencing counterrevolutionary leaders to death, along with principles and policy guidelines for dealing with imperialist elements and reactionary secret societies.