Comments on the Suggestion Concerning Professional Meetings Requiring the Attendance of Leading Cadres [!]
(January 8 and 11, 1952)

Comrade Bo Yibo[2]:
(1) Please instruct the various ministries under your jurisdiction to pay attention to holding fewer of those meetings mentioned in the telegram from the Central-South Bureau;
[1]
(2) Regarding the matter discussed a few days ago about convening a meeting of cadres from the various greater administrative areas at the end of the month to report on the Three-Antis, please refrain from issuing the notice for now.

Mao Zedong
January 8

Please ask Zhou[1] to draft a reply; it seems it should be agreed to. And notify the various ministries.
It is suggested that henceforth, all national meetings convened by government ministries should be subject to the Premier’s approval.

Mao Zedong
January 11

[1] Zhou, refers to Zhou Enlai.

--- Notes

Mao Zedong’s first comment was written on the report submitted by the Central-South Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to the Central Committee on January 6, 1952.
The report from the Central-South Bureau stated that the three major movements—the Three-Antis, Land Reform, and Democratic Reform—were currently being carried out simultaneously, and the work was extremely intense. These three major movements all require the responsible leadership of chiefs at all levels and departments, who must personally take charge. However, the various ministries of the Central Committee hold numerous meetings, which also require the attendance of leading cadres, thereby greatly affecting the Three-Antis movement. It was therefore suggested that the Central Committee notify all ministries to hold as few meetings requiring the attendance of leading cadres as possible, or none at all, over the next two to three or four months. The second comment was written on the telegram sent by the Central-South Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai, and the Central Committee on January 10, 1952.
The telegram stated that Zhu Yi, Deputy Minister of the Central-South Ministry of Industry and concurrently Director of the Military Industry Bureau, had recently received a notice to attend a meeting in Beijing, but requested leave due to the intense nature of the Three-Antis movement.
The telegram once again raised the opinion expressed in the January 6 telegram, requesting the Central Committee to consider it, and suggested notifying all Central Committee departments to cancel or postpone the professional meetings originally scheduled for January and the first half of February. In accordance with the spirit of these two instructions by Mao Zedong, the Central Committee issued a notice to all Central Bureaus and Sub-Bureaus on January 14 of the same year, agreeing that, for a period in the future, as few professional meetings requiring the attendance of leading cadres as possible should be held, or none at all.
[2]
Bo Yibo was then serving as Deputy Director of the Financial and Economic Committee of the Government Administration Council and Director of the Economy Inspection Committee of the Central People’s Government.