Instruction on the Experience of the "Regulations on Punishing Counterrevolutionaries" [1]
(September 1, 1951)

Send to Comrade Luo Ruiqing [2] for attention, promote the Xi’an method.

Mao Zedong
September 1

This instruction was written on Issue No. 156 of *Internal Reference*, published on August 31, 1951. This issue of *Internal Reference* reported: In the process of clearing accumulated cases, Xi’an Municipality organized a group of counterrevolutionary elements, both unsentenced and already sentenced, to study the "Regulations on Punishing Counterrevolutionaries," and launched a campaign of confession and denunciation, which yielded great results. It calmed the emotional fluctuations of the unsentenced criminals, making them realize that the People's Government's sentencing is well-founded, well-grounded, well-supported, and well-evidenced, distinguishing between severity and leniency and treating cases differently. Many unsentenced criminals examined themselves against Article 14 of the "Regulations on Punishing Counterrevolutionaries," considering it their "only way out." After this study, the counterrevolutionary elements who had already been sentenced accepted the People's Government's sentencing of them with heartfelt conviction, and actively engaged in production during labor reform.

[2] Luo Ruiqing, then Minister of the Ministry of Public Security of the Central People's Government.