--- Notes



Telegram to Zhang Yunyi [1] et al. Regarding the Prohibition of Constructing Fortifications Everywhere (January 29, 1951) To Zhang, Mo, Li, and Lu [2], with copy to the Central-South Military Region, the Guangdong Military Region, and the East China Military Region:

We have received your telegram of January 25. The proposed plan for constructing border defense fortifications is entirely unsuited to our army’s operational requirements. Should the enemy attack—whether by sea or from Vietnam—we should allow it to land or to invade, rather than attempting to prevent such landings or incursions. In either case, we should let the enemy penetrate deep into the interior, without fear of losing Qinzhou, Lianzhou, Fangcheng, Longzhou, Nanning, or other cities; indeed, we should even permit it to enter these cities. Our forces should be deployed in depth, in areas permitting flexible maneuver, waiting until the enemy has advanced far before encircling and annihilating it. This has always been our army’s method of defeating the enemy—why have you forgotten it? Your plan to establish defenses and build fortifications everywhere, thereby assuming a passive, defensive posture that deprives our forces of initiative and the opportunity to destroy the enemy, is utterly wrong.

At present, the primary focus of your work should be rent reduction, return of deposits, suppression of bandits, elimination of local tyrants, and the gradual, steady implementation of land reform; together with severe repression of counterrevolutionaries and the wholesale execution of leading bandit chiefs, hardened criminals, local bullies, major sect leaders, and spy elements. These constitute the most important measures for consolidating national defense. With regard to Guangdong, apart from the necessity of constructing a fortress at Humen and essential fortifications and strongholds on certain islands at the mouth of the Pearl River, no other fortifications are to be built anywhere else, nor is the coastline to be held. Instead, when the enemy arrives, it should be lured deeper into our territory and then concentrated and destroyed. Similarly, in the East China region, fortifications and defensive works are to be erected only at specific, indispensable locations in Xiamen, Pingtan, Zhoushan, and Wusong (these are the sites definitely slated for construction); elsewhere, no fortifications are to be built under any circumstances. As for Guangxi, being situated on the mainland and far from Taiwan, with only a small number of fleeing bandits from Vietnam, there is absolutely nothing to fear, and therefore no fortifications should be constructed whatsoever.

Mao Zedong January 29 Based on the original verbatim record preserved in the Central Archives. Notes [1] Zhang Yunyi was then Commander and Political Commissar of the Guangxi Military Region of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. [2] Zhang refers to Zhang Yunyi; Mo refers to Mo Wenhua, then Deputy Political Commissar of the Guangxi Military Region; Li refers to Li Tianyou, then Deputy Commander of the Guangxi Military Region; and Lu refers to Lu Shaowu, then Chief of Staff of the Guangxi Military Region.