Forwarded Comment on Luo Ruiqing’s[1] Report on the Inspection of the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries Work in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Jiangxi
(February 25, 1951)

Comrades Shushi, Zihui, Jianying, Xiaoping, Zhongxun, Yibo, and to be forwarded to the branch bureaus, all provincial Party committees, major municipal Party committees, and responsible comrades of district Party committees:

Below is Comrade Luo Ruiqing’s report on the inspection of the suppression of counterrevolutionaries work in the three provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Jiangxi.[2]

[1] Luo Ruiqing, then serving as Minister of the Ministry of Public Security of the Central People’s Government.
[2] Refers to Luo Ruiqing’s report of February 23, 1951, on the suppression of counterrevolutionaries work in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Jiangxi, submitted to the Ministry of Public Security for transmission to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee. The report put forward four points of noteworthy experience:
(1) Where the suppression of counterrevolutionaries involves figures within the united front, handle them according to the following principles: For those whose crimes are heinous, evidence is conclusive, and whom the masses bitterly hate, resolutely suppress them in consideration of the demands of the masses; at the same time, carry out thorough work among united front figures, persuading the relevant democratic personages so that they are sincerely convinced. For those whose crimes are few or who have rendered certain meritorious service, and whom the masses can also be persuaded about, then persuade the masses to give consideration to the united front, exempt them from conviction, and in some cases exempt them from the death penalty, but still sentence them to imprisonment.
(2) All district-wide and county-wide local tyrants must be completely executed; a part or the majority of township-wide local tyrants must be executed. Without this, the problem cannot be resolved, and moreover, some local tyrants must be executed first, otherwise the masses will not dare to rise up.
(3) With regard to scattered bandits, adopt the method of suppressing bandits by integrating the masses, militia, armed forces, and work teams, and thoroughly eliminate them. For bandit chieftains and local tyrants who have fled to other counties or provinces, they must be executed with the spirit of pursuing them to the ends of the earth. Only in this way will no future calamities be left behind, and the misgivings of the masses can also be thoroughly dispelled.
(4) Judging from the experience of Jiangxi and certain other places, we have still left some gaps through which counterrevolutionaries can escape and hide: first, fleeing from the countryside to the cities; second, fleeing from land to the waterways; third, fleeing to border areas; fourth, hiding inside our own organs, schools, factories, and mines. It is difficult to close up all these gaps at once, but it is extremely necessary to consciously adopt appropriate steps to eliminate the dead corners where counterrevolutionaries escape and hide.

Please pay attention to the experience mentioned therein and adopt it. All central bureaus and provinces must also send capable leading comrades to go out on inspection tours of the suppression of counterrevolutionaries work in their respective areas, to help the local comrades sum up experience and strengthen leadership.

Mao Zedong
February 25