A Directive on the Report Concerning the Work of Suppressing Counterrevolutionaries

(February 8, 1951)

Comrades Yibo, [1] Lantao, Gao Gang, Xiushan, [1] and to inform Shushi [2] and the Shandong Sub-Bureau:

Having read the telegram of February 5 from the Shandong Sub-Bureau to the East China Bureau and the Central Committee, [3] I am extremely pleased. The principles and methods adopted by Shushi and the Shandong Sub-Bureau are entirely correct. In areas of North China and the Northeast where conditions are similar to the rampant activities of local despots, bandit chieftains, secret societies, and special agents as described by the Shandong Sub-Bureau in this telegram, it is imperative to apply the same handling. All those who should be executed must be executed, all those who should be sentenced to imprisonment must be sentenced to imprisonment, and all those who should be placed under surveillance must be placed under surveillance. It is imperative to thoroughly purge the reactionary forces, so that the people's spirit may be uplifted and political power may be consolidated.

Mao Zedong
February 8

[1] Yibo, namely Bo Yibo, then First Secretary of the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Lantao, namely Liu Lantao, then Third Secretary of the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Gao Gang, then Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. Xiushan, namely Zhang Xiushan, then Deputy Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
[2] Shushi, namely Rao Shushi, then First Secretary of the East China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
[3] The Shandong Sub-Bureau of the CPC Central Committee proposed in its telegram that Shandong, being an old base area, had a relatively stable social order, but in the past, the suppression of landlords, local despots, bandits, and special agents had been insufficient, and the masses were dissatisfied with the boundless leniency shown. Therefore, it remained absolutely necessary to seize the present opportunity to resolutely suppress a number of landlord despots, bandit chieftains, heads of reactionary sects and secret societies, and special agent elements truly hated by the masses. In order to win mass sympathy for the various suppressions and reduce unnecessary social disturbances, methods of suppression in batches, by locality, and by organ would be adopted, along with appropriate propaganda before and after the actions.