Comment on the Telegram from Xi Zhongxun[1] Regarding the Need for Cadres Entering Tibet to Do Good Work Among Nationalities
(January 13, 1952)

Please ask Comrades Li Weihan and Liu Geping[2] to discuss and reply. Comrade Xi Zhongxun’s opinions[3] are worthy of attention.

Mao Zedong
January 13

Published according to the manuscript.

Notes

[1] Xi Zhongxun was at that time Second Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Northwest Military and Administrative Committee.
[2] Li Weihan was at that time Director of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission of the Central People's Government. Liu Geping was at that time Vice Chairman of the Nationalities Affairs Commission of the Central People's Government.
[3] The main opinions put forward by Xi Zhongxun in his report to Mao Zedong on January 10, 1952 were: Our cadres entering Tibet should do good work among nationalities according to the actual situation, and prevent overly hasty and overly high demands. Land reform should not be carried out for the time being in the Tibetan-inhabited areas of the interior; it is best for the land of Lamaist monasteries to remain untouched at present, and in particular, the premature expropriation of the land of Buddhist monasteries is not to our advantage; the slogan "oppose evil despots" should not be raised in pastoral areas, and land reform should not be carried out in semi-agricultural, semi-pastoral areas.