Mao Zedong’s Comment on Nie Rongzhen’s[1] Proposal to Keep the Former Central Hebei Hui Detachment Organized as a Local Ethnic Unit
(15 January 1952)

Approved. The proposed approach is to be carried out.[2]
Forward to Comrades Liu Geping and Li Weihan[3] for review, then return to Nie’s office for handling.

Mao Zedong
15 January

[1] Nie Rongzhen was then serving as Acting Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army.
[2] This refers to the proposal put forward in Nie Rongzhen’s report to Mao Zedong dated 15 January 1952 concerning the reorganization of the former Central Hebei Hui Detachment. The proposal suggested that during the second stage of the army-wide reorganization, the former Central Hebei Hui Detachment—which had been transferred in August 1950 to reinforce the 68th Army and had been deployed to fight in Korea—be withdrawn from the 68th Army and reorganized, following the model of the Shandong Hui armed forces, into a local ethnic unit.
[3] Liu Geping was then serving as Vice Chairman of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of the Central People’s Government. Li Weihan was then serving as Head of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee and Chairman of the Ethnic Affairs Commission of the Central People’s Government.