Supplementary Directive with Comment
(April 23, 1951)

To all Central Bureaus, and forward to Sub-Bureaus, Provincial Party Committees, Regional Party Committees, and Party Committees of Large and Medium Municipalities:

The attached Supplementary Directive on the Work of Suppressing Counterrevolutionaries [1] issued by the Central-South Bureau on April 17 is hereby forwarded to you for reference. This directive deals entirely with propaganda work, stipulating concrete methods and a concrete timetable. All localities are requested to follow suit in handling the matter.

Mao Zedong
April 23

[1] The main contents of this supplementary directive are: (1) All provincial, municipal, and regional Party committees, prefectural Party committees, and county Party committees shall, without exception, establish committees for propaganda work on suppressing counterrevolutionaries within seven days of receiving this telegram. (2) Where the work of Party committees at all levels assigning official reporters has already been established, each reporter shall deliver five reports on suppressing counterrevolutionaries to the masses during the months of April and May. Where the work of assigning reporters has not yet been established, it shall be established immediately and the provisions of this article shall be carried out. (3) Suppressing counterrevolutionaries shall become one of the main propaganda contents of all mass organizations (workers, youth, women, cultural organizations, etc.) before May Day. (4) In places without radio broadcasting, attention shall be paid to convening public trial meetings, accusation meetings, and grievance-telling meetings with broad mass participation before executing counterrevolutionary elements guilty of heinous crimes. (5) The Central-South People’s Publishing House shall, within the shortest possible time (not exceeding ten days), compile the Regulations on Punishing Counterrevolutionaries of the Central People’s Government into a popular reader, produce paper molds, and distribute them to all provinces for reprinting. The publishing departments of all provinces shall also organize the compilation of popular readers within the shortest possible time. (6) Party newspapers in all localities shall closely coordinate and provide full reporting and propaganda. United Front Work Departments must also organize all democratic parties and democratic personages to write articles or make broadcasts. (7) All provincial Party committees are requested to consider whether the current method of executing small batches continuously is appropriate, or whether it is more advantageous to carry out executions in large batches at an appropriate time, so as to concentrate relatively greater strength to conduct a widespread and thorough propaganda campaign. (8) Hereafter, in addition to issuing proclamations for executions, attention shall also be paid to simultaneously publishing in newspapers or posting the verdicts of those sentenced to imprisonment and those released, so as to demonstrate the complete spirit of combining suppression with leniency.