Commentary by the Central Committee on the North China Bureau’s Report Concerning the Investigation and Handling of the Major Corruption Case Involving Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan (November 30, 1951) To all Central Bureaus, with copy to sub-bureaus and provincial, municipal, and regional party committees: Both Liu Qingshan, former secretary of the Tianjin Regional Party Committee in North China, and Zhang Zishan, the current secretary, are major corrupt officials. This has been discovered by the North China Bureau, which has already begun to take action. We believe the North China Bureau’s approach is correct. This case serves as a warning to the Central Committee, the central bureaus, the sub-bureaus, and the provincial, municipal, and regional party committees: we must pay serious attention to the fact that cadres are being corrupted by the bourgeoisie, leading to grave acts of corruption. It is essential to detect, expose, and punish such cases, treating them as a major struggle.

We are now transmitting to you for your study the report submitted by the North China Bureau to the Central Committee on November 29, 1951 [1]. We urge you to be vigilant in identifying similar incidents within your jurisdiction and to deal with them promptly.

Printed on November 30 by the Central Committee from Mao Zedong’s manuscript. It has been abridged and included in Volume V of the Selected Works of Mao Zedong. Note [1]: Refers to the report dated November 29, 1951, from Bo Yibo, First Secretary, and Liu Lantao, Third Secretary, of the CPC North China Bureau, addressed to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee, concerning the serious corruption and waste within the Tianjin Regional Party Committee. The report states: Recently, we uncovered widespread corruption, waste, and violations of state policies and regulations within the Tianjin Regional Party Committee and Administrative Office of Hebei Province. Preliminary investigations have confirmed that the current regional party secretary and administrative commissioner, Zhang Zishan, and the former regional party secretary, Liu Qingshan, successively misappropriated 2.5 billion yuan from local grain funds across the entire region, 400 million yuan worth of relief grain from Baodi County, and 140 million yuan in subsidies for cadres’ families. They also extorted an additional 2.2 billion yuan through exploitative practices at supply stations serving laborers working on the Chao-Bai River project. Furthermore, they embezzled a total of 4.5 billion yuan from surplus funds allocated for airport construction and from compensation payments made to residents for land and property. Under the guise of construction projects, they fraudulently obtained loans totaling 4 billion yuan from banks. Altogether, approximately 20 billion yuan of public funds were diverted into the regional party committee’s own production activities for speculative and illegal trading. Driven by the pursuit of exorbitant profits, they colluded with degenerate cadres to smuggle out 4,000 cubic meters of timber from Northeast China. They also conspired with private merchants such as Zhang Wenyi to purchase large quantities of tinplate in Hankou using 4.9 billion yuan, with the private traders pocketing substantial bribes and thereby undermining state policy. Zhang Zishan and Liu Qingshan led lives of extravagant waste and reckless spending. Even among the records that could be traced, it was found that the two had personally appropriated some 450 million yuan and distributed gifts—some amounting to as much as 10–20 million yuan—to superiors, subordinates, and their relatives and friends, totaling 130 million yuan. To destroy evidence, Zhang Zishan personally burned documents worth approximately 150 million yuan, along with 178 other related papers. Following our recent dispatch of inspectors to Tianjin who arrested several private merchants complicit with Zhang and Liu, Zhang Zishan has become extremely anxious and agitated. Based on their offenses and the nature of their crimes, after deliberation by the North China Bureau and approval by the Premier, it has been decided to arrest and prosecute Zhang Zishan without delay; Liu Qingshan will likewise be arrested upon his return to China.