Commentary on the North China Bureau’s Urgent Directive Stipulating That All Provincial, Municipal, and Prefectural Party Committees Must Formulate Tiger-Hunting Plans and That Any Termination of the Three-Anti Campaign Requires Prior Approval (January 26, 1952)

Comrades: This document from the North China Bureau [1] should serve as a common guiding principle for all localities. We must not hastily bring the campaign to a close; rather, we need to consolidate and expand our gains. Enough with empty rhetoric—what matters is concrete achievement.

Mao Zedong January 26  Printed from the manuscript.

Refers to the urgent directive issued on January 26, 1952, by the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, requiring all provincial, municipal, and prefectural party committees to formulate tiger-hunting plans and stipulating that the termination of the Three-Anti Campaign must be subject to approval. The directive addressed the fact that in many localities very few corrupt elements had been exposed, yet the campaign was already being brought to a close, with the serious risk that it might peter out without achieving substantial results. It therefore decided:

(1) All provincial committees, prefectural committees, and municipal committees directly under the provinces must, on the basis of the mass Three-Anti movement, resolutely and swiftly shift gears to launch a full-scale offensive against the “big tigers.” They are to make an accurate assessment of the situation, carefully analyze all leads, draw up specific tiger-hunting plans, set definite targets for those who must be brought to justice and for those who are expected to confess, and, as circumstances develop, consider adding further targets. Moreover, this shall henceforth be taken as the primary criterion for judging whether sufficient effort has been made in the Three-Anti struggle.

(2) Before prefectural committees and municipal committees directly under the provinces can declare the Three-Anti campaign over, they must obtain approval from the respective provincial committee; likewise, county-level units may conclude the campaign only with the approval of their corresponding prefectural committee. Should any serious problems be discovered after the official conclusion, both the approving authority and the original requesting body will be subject to criticism or disciplinary action.

(3) All provincial committees are to immediately report to the North China Bureau on the results achieved thus far in the tiger-hunting campaign since the start of the Three-Anti drive, together with any new tiger-hunting plans they have formulated.