Comment on the Telegrams Concerning the Guoyang Incident
(May 19, 1951)

To the Central-South Bureau, the South China Sub-Bureau, the Southwest Bureau, the Northwest Bureau, the North China Bureau, and forward to sub-bureaus, provincial Party committees, regional Party committees, municipal Party committees, and prefectural Party committees:

Please examine whether there exist in the counties under your jurisdiction serious phenomena similar to those in Guoyang County in northern Anhui [1]. If such phenomena exist, they must be dealt with resolutely; otherwise, it would be very dangerous. We hereby forward to you three telegrams [2] from the East China Bureau, the Party Committee of the Northern Anhui Region, and the Fuyang Prefectural Party Committee concerning the Guoyang Incident for your reference. We consider the opinion of the East China Bureau to be correct.

The Central Committee
May 19

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[1] Refers to the serious problem of counter-revolutionaries and impure elements having infiltrated the Party and government organs of Guoyang County in the Northern Anhui Region. According to statistics from the Fuyang Prefectural Party Committee of the CPC, a total of 83 counter-revolutionaries and impure elements had infiltrated the Party in Guoyang County, among whom 34 were bandits, local despots, special agents, and Chiang Kai-shek puppet elements with blood debts and criminal records.

[2] The three telegrams are: the report of the Fuyang Prefectural Party Committee of the CPC, dated April 28, 1951, to the Party Committee of the Northern Anhui Region on the handling of the counter-revolutionaries who had infiltrated Guoyang County; the report of the Party Committee of the Northern Anhui Region of the CPC, dated May 7, 1951, to the Fuyang Prefectural Party Committee and copied to the East China Bureau on its opinions regarding the Fuyang Prefectural Party Committee’s handling of the Guoyang Incident; and the telegram of the East China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, dated May 15, 1951, to the Party Committee of the Northern Anhui Region, the Shandong Sub-Bureau, the Party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and regions, the Party committees of the military regions, and copied to the Central Committee on the handling of the Guoyang Incident. The telegram from the East China Bureau pointed out: (1) The determination to suppress the counter-revolutionaries who had infiltrated the ranks was insufficient, as manifested in the failure to resolutely impose the death penalty on those bandits, local despots, and special agents with numerous blood debts. (2) Intra-Party problems must also be dealt with seriously. Those who directly shielded the enemy, such as the county magistrate, should all be expelled from the Party and handed over to the public security organs for trial according to law. (3) In handling this incident, attention should be paid to summing up experience, circulating a notice to the entire Party, and conducting education. From now on, earnest attention should also be paid to the examination work within the organizations in that locality.