Telegram to Peng Dehuai [1] et al. Approving the CPC Volunteer Army Committee’s Arrangements for Streamlining and Economizing (November 11, 1951) To Comrades Peng, Deng, and Chen [2], as well as to all members of the CPC Volunteer Army Committee: We have received your telegram of November 8 [3]. We deem the decisions made by the CPC Volunteer Army Committee to be entirely correct and urge that they be implemented forthwith.
In this way, while you are in Korea and we are at home, we can work in unison to carry out a large-scale, practical, and feasible campaign of streamlining and economizing.
Coupled with the domestic production-increase movement, all our work next year will proceed very smoothly, and we shall be fully confident of accomplishing our tasks.
Should the negotiations we are conducting with the enemy prove successful—there is a good chance they will—so much the better; even if they do not succeed, we remain firmly convinced that we can continue the war until final victory is achieved, without in the least hindering national defense construction or other developmental endeavors.
All lines of work will then be able to flourish vigorously.

Mao Zedong November 11 Based on the manuscript copy.

Notes [1] Peng Dehuai was at the time Commander and Political Commissar of the Chinese People’s Volunteers. [2] “Peng” refers to Peng Dehuai; “Deng” refers to Deng Hua, who served as Deputy Commander and Deputy Political Commissar of the Chinese People’s Volunteers; and “Chen” refers to Chen Geng, who was a Deputy Commander of the Chinese People’s Volunteers. [3] Refers to the report submitted on November 8, 1951, by the CPC Committee of the Chinese People’s Volunteers to Mao Zedong and the General Political Department of the Central Military Commission, concerning arrangements for streamlining and economizing.
The report stated: After hearing Deng Hua convey the Central Committee’s resolution to reduce the size of the armed forces, practice economy and increase production, thereby overcoming financial and economic difficulties and facilitating continued support for operations in Korea as well as for the building of a modernized national defense and military-industrial complex, the committee unanimously agreed that this policy of the Central Committee was entirely correct.
It then laid out specific measures regarding the reorganization of organizational structures and matters of economy: merging corps-, army-, and division-level direct-affiliated organs; reducing the number of administrative and support personnel; strictly regulating the allocation of vehicles and pack animals; decreasing the number of personnel in Korea by sending home surplus civilian laborers, unarmed artillery units, and elderly, infirm, or disabled personnel; intensifying attention to air-defense precautions; continuously improving methods of transportation, loading and unloading, storage, and distribution in order to minimize losses en route and at destination; calling upon all officers and men to take utmost care in safeguarding supplies, use them economically, and make the fullest possible use of captured materials and weapons; and enhancing shooting skills, achieving precise aiming, and rigorously curbing the wasteful expenditure of ammunition.