Regarding the Instructions on Carrying Out the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries and Purging Work in the Military System
(May 21, 1951)

To the East China, Central-South, South China, Southwest, Northwest, and North China Greater Military Regions:

Hereby the Northeast Military Region’s May 18 Instructions on Carrying Out the Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries and Purging Work in the Military System [1] are issued to you for reference. These are the guidelines and methods formulated in accordance with the recent directives of the Central Committee. Except for the point concerning timing, all regions should proceed accordingly.

Mao Zedong
May 21

[1] The main contents of the instructions of the Northeast Military Region Committee of the Chinese Communist Party are:
(1) Regarding counterrevolutionary elements already arrested, forces should immediately be organized to strengthen interrogation work. Through interrogation, verify existing materials, discover new materials, and clarify specific criminal facts. Then, based on the severity of their offenses, draft lists and opinions, and carry out differentiated handling. However, the use of torture to extract confessions is strictly prohibited.
(2) Regarding counterrevolutionary elements and suspicious elements for whom materials exist but who do not yet meet the conditions for arrest, the collection of materials should continue, along with research and analysis. If verified through investigation, they may be dealt with according to different circumstances by adopting measures such as transferring them out of important departments, retaining them in the unit for continued examination, concentrating them for labor, management, and training under the military region for continued examination, or purging them.
(3) The troops should carry out a focused, step-by-step, and targeted examination to uncover the various counterrevolutionary elements who have infiltrated the army and to clarify the status of those with unclear backgrounds, so as to purify the interior.