Commentary on the Report from the Secretariat of the Central Office Regarding the Handling of Letters from the Masses (May 16, 1951) To all Central Bureaus, with copy to Branch Bureaus, Provincial Committees, Regional Party Committees, Municipal Committees, Prefectural Committees, and County Committees; to the Party Leading Groups of the People’s Governments of the Major Administrative Regions,各省、市、区, Special Administrative Zones, and Counties; and also to the Party Leading Groups of the Various Departments of the Central People’s Government: It is imperative to attach great importance to correspondence from the people.
Letters from the masses must be handled appropriately, their legitimate demands satisfied, and this work regarded as a means by which the Communist Party and the People’s Government can strengthen their ties with the people.
We must not adopt a bureaucratic attitude of careless indifference and disregard.
If the volume of letters from the people is large and it proves difficult for one person to handle them, a specialized body consisting of an appropriate number of staff or a dedicated individual should be established to deal with these communications.
Should the number of letters be small enough to be managed by oneself or by secretarial personnel, no separate dedicated person need be appointed.
The following is a report from the Secretariat of the Central Office, which is specifically responsible for handling letters addressed to me from the people, concerning its work in processing such correspondence during the first three months of this year〔〕. It is being circulated for your reference.
I find the views expressed in this report to be correct.
Mao Zedong, May 16, 1951.
Printed from the manuscript.
Abbreviated and included in Selected Works on Mao Zedong’s Journalism.

Note 〔1〕 Refers to the report dated April 30, 1951, submitted by the Secretariat of the Central Office of the CPC Central Committee to Mao Zedong, detailing the handling of letters from the masses received between January and March.
The report provides a categorized statistical summary of nearly twenty thousand letters received, outlines the issues raised therein, and describes how they were dealt with.
It further notes: “There are still more than nine thousand letters—massly composed messages of tribute mobilized by local organizations—which continue to be sent here even now.
In view of this situation, it is impossible to reply to each letter individually; we plan instead to issue a general reply to those localities.”
The report continues: “Organizing the masses to write tributes en masse…” To this, Mao added the following comment: “Such mass tributes are undesirable; this practice should be discontinued in the future.”