Reply Letter to the Report by Dong Biwu [1] et al. on the Joint Office of Five Organs and the Implementation of the Three-Anti Campaign (December 30, 1951)

After Comrades Dong Biwu and Luo Ruiqing [2] have reviewed this, please forward it to Comrade Peng Zhen [3] for handling:

(1) The report dated December 29 concerning the joint office of the five organs and the progress of the Three-Anti Campaign [4] has been received and is noted.

(2) Please provide additional information on who exactly are the individuals referred to in item 1 of Article 4 as those “using democratic personages to achieve victory,” including their full names. Also, explain how they employed these democratic personages in this endeavor. Such persons have already forfeited the stance expected of a serious Communist Party member and must be subjected to appropriate disciplinary measures within the Party, commensurate with the gravity of their actions. Please deliberate and determine the specific penalties—inviting the individuals concerned to participate—and submit your recommendations to the Central Committee for approval.

(3) Similarly, please supply further details regarding the Party members mentioned in item 2 of Article 4 who have adopted a liberal attitude toward the Three-Anti Movement, specifying their full names. These comrades should be given a fixed deadline—for example, ten days—to earnestly mobilize the masses, in accordance with the Central Committee’s resolutions, to wage a vigorous campaign against corruption, waste, and bureaucracy. Failure to do so will necessitate their removal from office. Should there be concrete evidence of personal corruption, they must also be expelled from the Party; in particularly serious cases, they are to be handed over to the courts for prosecution.

(4) As for the democratic personages referred to in item 3 of Article 4—who advocate for “one anti” while rejecting the other two—please furnish their identities, including their full names.

(5) With regard to all other parts of the report, I concur.

Mao Zedong, December 30, 1951. Printed from the original manuscript.

Notes  [1] Dong Biwu was at that time a member of the Central People’s Government, Vice Premier of the Administrative Council, and Director of its Political and Legal Committee.

[2] Luo Ruiqing was then Minister of Public Security of the Central People’s Government.

[3] Peng Zhen was a candidate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Deputy Director of the Political and Legal Committee of the Administrative Council.

[4] This refers to the report dated December 29, 1951, submitted by Dong Biwu, Peng Zhen, and Luo Ruiqing to Zhou Enlai, with copy to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee, concerning the preliminary situation regarding the establishment of a joint office among the five central political and legal organs and the initial mobilization for the Three-Anti Campaign. The report consists of four main points. Points 1, 2, and 3 discuss the arrangements, advantages, and difficulties associated with the joint office of the Political and Legal Committee, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Justice, and the Legislative Affairs Commission. Article 4 addresses the internal Party problems that have surfaced during this process of establishing the joint office and launching the initial phase of the Three-Anti Movement. These issues include: (a) Certain factionalistic tendencies within the Party, which often unwittingly reinforce the power-oriented mindset of non-Party figures, thereby undermining the unified leadership required for effective internal work. In the past, there were frequent instances where departments, rather than basing their interactions on practical needs, simply cited the “Organic Law of the Government” to create disputes over working relationships, leading even to talk of “using democratic personages to secure victories.” (b) A rather serious prevalence of liberal attitudes: some remained passive observers toward the Three-Anti Movement, while others insisted that their own areas of responsibility were at odds with this central campaign. They failed to publicize or implement decisions made by Party groups and committees if those decisions did not align with their personal views, each department acting independently without regard for the overall picture; even when ostensibly agreeing in principle, whether or not to carry out such decisions remained uncertain. (c) Some leaders among the democratic personages in certain departments were only willing to support the anti-corruption component of the Three-Anti Campaign, showing little enthusiasm for the other two—namely, combating waste and bureaucratic inefficiency.