To Comrade Wang Zhen [1], with copies to Comrades Zhongxun and Zongsun [2], and to all Central Bureaus and Major Military Regions:  (1) We have received Wang Zhen’s report of December 14 [3]. I find it entirely correct.  With the exception of the last item, it may be brought before the expanded meetings of the sub-bureaus and the production representative conferences of the military regions.

(2) Your plan includes utilizing the experience of collective labor within the army to pilot the establishment of ten collective farms run by peasants. This is an excellent plan.  In the draft resolution on developing agricultural mutual aid and cooperation that the Central Committee is about to issue, we have already added a provision calling for each province to conduct trials of one or several such collective farms.  Of course, at present these collective farms can only be few in number—perhaps one to a few per province.  In Xinjiang, since part of the land reclaimed by the army, along with certain irrigation works and buildings constructed by the military, has been turned over to the peasants, and if they can also be provided with machinery assistance, the peasants are likely to be very willing to take up this work.  We hope that you will report on your experiences in this regard as they occur.

(3) All military regions and localities that already operate state-owned farms or individual collective farms employing machinery for plowing and harvesting—for example, the peasant collective farm in Langfang, Tianjin County, Hebei—or those which are preparing to do so, are urged to regard this as a major undertaking, to devote serious effort to its management, and to regularly summarize their experiences and report them to the Central Committee.

(4) Please circulate Wang Zhen’s report to all major military regions and central bureaus for their reference.

Mao Zedong, December 17, printed from the manuscript.

Notes  [1] Wang Zhen was then Secretary of the Xinjiang Sub-Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Acting Commander and Acting Political Commissar of the Xinjiang Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army.  [2] Zhongxun refers to Xi Zhongxun, who at the time served as First Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Political Commissar of the Northwest Military Region of the PLA.  Zongsun refers to Zhang Zongsun (1908–1998), a native of Weinan, Shaanxi, who at the time held the post of First Deputy Commander of the Northwest Military Region of the PLA.  [3] This refers to Wang Zhen’s report dated December 14, 1951, addressed to Mao Zedong, Xi Zhongxun, and Zhang Zongsun, concerning the contents of the Xinjiang Military Region’s production conference and its production plan for the following year.  The report states that during the land reform to be carried out in the winter of 1952, the military region intends to turn over the small irrigation canals built by the scattered production units over the past two years, together with the tens of thousands of mu of cultivated land and the buildings constructed thereon, and to dispatch party members and cadres from the army to assist local peasants in organizing ten collective farms (each comprising 10,000 to 15,000 mu of land). Drawing on the army’s experience in collective labor, they will carefully pilot the establishment of peasant-run collective farms.  Meanwhile, apart from their garrison duties, the troops will concentrate on reclaiming and cultivating large-scale state-owned farms.