Agree to the Opinion on Handling Reactionary Elements Among Former Officers at the Hunan Military Academy[1]

(January 4, 1951)

Comrade Zihui,[2] and to be forwarded to Comrade Huang Kecheng:[3]

Comrade Huang Kecheng’s opinion of December 9 on handling the reactionary elements among former officers at the Hunan Military Academy[4] is, in my view, correct. I do not know whether you have already replied. If you have not yet replied, it would be appropriate to handle the matter in accordance with the opinion expressed in Huang’s telegram.

Mao Zedong
January 4

[1] This is a telegram from Mao Zedong to Deng Zihui, Third Secretary of the Central-South Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Second Political Commissar of the Central-South Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army.
[2] Zihui refers to Deng Zihui.
[3] Huang Kecheng was then serving as Secretary of the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee and concurrently as Commander and Political Commissar of the Hunan Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army.
[4] In his telegram to Deng Zihui and Mao Zedong, Huang Kecheng proposed that among the more than one thousand former officers at the Hunan Military Academy—most of whom were from Chen Mingren’s troops and other units that had come over to the revolution—there were individuals of various backgrounds, including resolute reactionary elements. He suggested that the cadets at the academy should not be dealt with in a hasty manner. Except for a very few particularly reactionary individuals who should be arrested and punished, it would not be appropriate to arrest or punish too many, as their crimes were all in the past.