Instructions on Issuing the Regulations on Punishing Counterrevolutionaries and Trying Counterrevolutionary Criminals
(January 28, 1951)

1
Comrades Liu, Zhou, Chen, and Peng Zhen:
This document involves military and court jurisdiction. It should be passed at a meeting of the Central People’s Government Council and promulgated in the name of the Chairman. Beforehand, a forum should be convened with members of the CPPCC Standing Committee, government council members, and personnel from the courts, the Ministry of Justice, the Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security to obtain consent. At this forum, someone should report on the recent situation of suppressing counterrevolutionaries.

Mao Zedong
January 28

2
This is how it should be during the period of military control.

Published based on the manuscript.

Notes
〔1〕 These are two instructions written by Mao Zedong on Liu Shaoqi’s letter concerning several issues in drafting the Regulations on Punishing Counterrevolutionaries. The second instruction was written in response to a sentence in Liu Shaoqi’s letter: “It is still better to try counterrevolutionary criminals according to the current method, under the jurisdiction of local military tribunals.”
〔2〕 Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Chen refers to Chen Yun, then Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the Government Administration Council. Peng Zhen, then Alternate Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of the Government Administration Council.
〔3〕 Refers to the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Punishing Counterrevolutionaries (revised draft). On February 21, 1951, Chairman Mao Zedong of the Central People’s Government issued an order formally promulgating these regulations.