Forwarded Comment on the Report by the Beijing Municipal Committee on Conducting the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries with Great Fanfare and Through the Masses (April 2, 1951)

To all central bureaus, and forward to sub-bureaus, provincial party committees, party committees of large and medium-sized cities, district party committees, and prefectural party committees:

In suppressing counterrevolutionaries, whether in cities or in the countryside, it is imperative to act with great fanfare and carry out extensive propaganda, so that every household among the people is informed and understands. The methods adopted by Beijing are to be uniformly emulated by all localities.

The suppression of counterrevolutionaries must be strictly confined to the scope of bandit chieftains, habitual bandits, local tyrants, special agents, and leaders of reactionary secret societies, and must not include petty thieves, drug offenders, ordinary landlords, ordinary members of the Kuomintang and the Kuomintang Youth Corps, or ordinary Kuomintang military officers. Those sentenced to death must be those guilty of serious crimes. It is wrong to impose light sentences for serious crimes, and it is also wrong to impose heavy sentences for light crimes. Most importantly, the power to approve the lists of arrests and executions must be kept under the control of the prefectural party committee and the municipal party committee level.

It can now be said that the movement to suppress counterrevolutionaries has been launched nationwide. The attention of party committees at all levels should be focused mainly on the two points of meticulously examining the lists and extensively carrying out propaganda. By firmly grasping these two points, no mistakes will be made. The Beijing Municipal Committee has achieved great success precisely because it has grasped these two points.

Mao Zedong
April 2
(Published based on the manuscript)