(On the Revision of the Central Directive Draft) [1]
(January 21, 1952,
February 3, 1952)

Comrade An Ziwen [2]:
Please consider adding an editorial note to this document [3] and forwarding it nationwide.

Mao Zedong
January 21

[1] The text printed in Song typeface in the second part of this piece consists of words added and revised by Mao Zedong.
[2] An Ziwen, then Deputy Director of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and member of the Central People’s Government Economy Inspection Committee.
[3] Refers to the notice issued on January 16, 1952, by the Organization Department of the Central-South Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to the sub-bureaus, provincial and municipal Party committees, railway Party committees, and organization departments of directly affiliated Party committees, and reported to the Organization Department of the Central Committee, regarding changing the Party rectification report into a Three-Anti report. The notice stated that since the launch of the Three-Anti Movement across the region, Party rectification study sessions in organs at or above the prefectural and specialist levels had become difficult to carry out as originally planned. In rural areas and industrial and mining sites, due to the heavy workload of land reform and democratic reform, large-scale training of Party members was also impossible. It was therefore decided that the monthly Party rectification work report due before the 25th would be changed into a Three-Anti report during the Three-Anti Movement. The notice also required organization departments at all levels to pay special attention during the Three-Anti Movement to collecting specific materials on the performance of every Party member and cadre, and to identifying non-Party activists with relatively high political consciousness, relatively clean personal histories, and relatively correct ideology, in preparation for Party rectification and Party building.

(3) The Three-Anti Movement is also one of the best methods for understanding and educating cadres. The leading organs of Party committees, governments, mass organizations, and military units at all levels should, in the course of the Three-Anti struggle, conduct a profound examination and assessment of the cadres under their command. A group of corrupt and degenerate elements who have abandoned the proletarian standpoint must be expelled from the Party without hesitation, and a group of serious bureaucrats, as well as those who are arrogant due to past merits, unwilling to make progress, passive and sluggish, and utterly incompetent, must be removed from their leading posts (some of whom should also be expelled from the Party). There should be no sense of regret about expelling these people from the Party or removing them from their posts—this is utterly unregrettable. It would be a mistake not to have the resolve to expel and remove them. The liberalist thinking that previously existed within our Party toward such bad elements must be resolutely overcome. At the same time, a group of outstanding individuals of virtue and talent must be boldly and resolutely promoted to leading posts in various fields of work. This is a serious task in the organizational building of the Party, and it is hoped that Party committees at all levels will pay attention to it.