Forwarded Comment on the Report on the Three-Antis Campaign by the Logistics Party Committee of the North China Military Region

(December 11, 1951)

To all departments of the Central Committee and the Military Commission, all leading Party members’ groups of the Central People’s Government, all Central Bureaus, all greater military regions, and to be relayed down to military regions at all levels and to the regimental level, as well as to the Party Committee of the Chinese People’s Volunteers:

(1) The report on the campaign against corruption, waste, and bureaucracy by the Logistics Party Committee of the North China Military Region [1] is hereby forwarded to you for reference. This is the second report from the military system reflecting the situation to the Central Committee in response to the Central Committee’s call to combat corruption, waste, and bureaucracy. The first report, submitted by Xu Guangda and others from the Armored Forces Command, has already been distributed to you.

(2) The situation of corruption, waste, and bureaucracy in various departments of the military system, especially in the logistics departments, is extremely serious. Many Party members, and even leading cadres, are buried in routine work, with their political and ideological development severely stunted and inner-Party life highly dysfunctional. As a result, many have fallen into the quagmire of corruption, waste, and bureaucracy. Many are deeply entrenched in departmentalism, caring only for their own small spheres while disregarding the overall situation. This state of affairs must be changed. Throughout the entire military system, with particular emphasis on the logistics departments, it is imperative to launch Party rectification and a rectification campaign, to wage a serious struggle against corruption, waste, and bureaucracy, and to call upon all officers and soldiers to participate in this struggle.

Mao Zedong
December 11, 1951
Published based on the manuscript.

Note
[1] Refers to the report on the issues of combating corruption, waste, and bureaucracy submitted on December 8, 1951, by the Logistics Department Party Committee of the North China Military Region of the Chinese Communist Party to Mao Zedong, the Military Commission, the General Political Department, and the Party Committee of the North China Military Region. The report stated that corruption and waste in the logistics departments were extremely serious. From December 1950 to the end of April 1951, we conducted a campaign against corruption and waste, uncovering a number of corrupt individuals and imposing sanctions on them through military law, administrative measures, and Party discipline. However, because the campaign was not carried out on a grand scale with full mobilization of the masses, and because the leadership’s thinking was limited to protecting the property of the motherland without particularly emphasizing the strengthening of all cadres’ class consciousness and the establishment of a firm proletarian ideology and stance, the implementation in some units was far from thorough. Some departments even failed to recognize the importance of the campaign, leading to a slackening of efforts after the campaign ended. In particular, leading cadres at all levels failed to link the issue to bureaucratic work styles and did not subject bourgeois ideology and various corrupt and degenerate elements to the necessary criticism and handling. Consequently, incidents of corruption, waste, and embezzlement followed by desertion continued to occur even after the campaign. In light of the above situation and the directives of the Central Committee, we have decided to launch a widespread, in-depth, and long-term campaign to increase production and practice economy within the logistics departments. First, over a period of two months, we will carry out a thorough and in-depth struggle against corruption, waste, and bureaucracy, conducting extensive education and mass mobilization on a grand scale. Starting with a top-down, level-by-level initiative to combat waste, we will then encourage voluntary confessions and call for the exposure of wrongdoing, moving into the struggle against corruption. Finally, we will proceed to an examination of bureaucracy at all levels of leadership.