Comment on the Report on the Cooperative and Mutual Aid Movement
(October 17, 1951)
Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Chen, Peng Zhen, Chen Boda, Hu Qiaomu, Yang Shangkun[1]:
Please read this document[2]. After reading, ask Shangkun to print it as a booklet and distribute it to all central bureaus, sub-bureaus, and provincial, municipal, and district party committees. At the same time, distribute it to all central departments, all party groups of the central government, all comrades attending the current central conference, and all Communist Party members attending the National Committee.

Mao Zedong
October 17

[1] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Zhu refers to Zhu De. Chen refers to Chen Yun, then Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier of the Government Administration Council, and Director of the Financial and Economic Committee. Peng Zhen, then Alternate Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee. Chen Boda, then Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee. Hu Qiaomu, then Deputy Director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee. Yang Shangkun, then Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.
[2] Refers to the report on the production cooperative and mutual aid movement in the rural areas of Northeast China submitted to Mao Zedong on October 14, 1951, by Gao Gang, Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

To all central bureaus, all central sub-bureaus, all provincial, municipal, and district party committees, and all prefectural party committees:
Herewith, Comrade Gao Gang’s report on the production cooperative and mutual aid movement in the rural areas of Northeast China is issued to you for reference, and it may be published in internal party journals. The Central Committee holds that the policy[1] proposed by Comrade Gao Gang in this report is correct. All party committees in areas that have already completed the task of land reform should study this issue, lead the peasant masses to gradually form and develop various types of agricultural production mutual aid and cooperative organizations based on private property, and at the same time, must not slight or exclude those individual peasants who are unwilling to participate in this movement. Every province and region must establish state-run factories for producing new-type farm tools, so that peasants may purchase and use such tools. Provinces, special districts, and counties must each establish at least one publicly-run farm to serve as a model. The Central Committee has already drafted a directive (draft) on developing the agricultural production mutual aid and cooperative movement, which will be issued to you shortly.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
October 17, 1951

[1] In his report, Gao Gang proposed that the guiding policy for the rural production cooperative and mutual aid movement should be to actively support and develop it according to the masses’ voluntariness and needs, and to gradually guide it from lower to higher forms. The key here lies in the actual effectiveness of our leadership over the cooperative and mutual aid teams, that is, whether agricultural productivity has been raised, more grain has been harvested, and the peasants’ income has been increased. All types of cooperative and mutual aid teams must achieve relatively good results to actively mobilize and attract individual farming households to voluntarily join various types of cooperative and mutual aid teams, but voluntariness must be emphasized, and there must be no coercion or discrimination against individual farming households. Assistance must likewise be given to individual farming households in solving their difficulties in production and livelihood. The people’s government should grant preferential treatment to mutual aid teams in all respects, especially in farm tools, technical guidance, and supply and marketing. To better lead the development of cooperative and mutual aid teams, it is necessary to cultivate backbone members for the cooperative and mutual aid teams. Party and government organizations at the provincial, county, and district levels should train activists, disseminate experience, raise consciousness, consolidate organizations, and regularly send personnel to guide and inspect the work of the cooperative and mutual aid teams. Rural party branches and party members should become the core of the cooperative and mutual aid teams.