Comments on the Circulation of Beijing’s Experience in “Smashing Tigers” (January 28, 1952) To all Central Bureaus, with further transmission to sub-bureaus and party committees of provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions; to all military regions and the Chinese People’s Volunteer Army: Beijing’s experience in “smashing tigers” is very good.
Please take note and apply it appropriately.
At the central level, just a week ago, everyone acknowledged only a few dozen big tigers.
Over the past week, however, the reported number has increased day by day, reaching a total of four hundred—those already captured or deemed capture-worthy—by yesterday (January 27): two hundred from financial and economic departments, one hundred from military departments, and one hundred from political, legal, educational, and Party organs.
All of these are big tigers involving sums exceeding 100 million yuan; smaller tigers worth more than 10 million yuan have not yet been included.
The method adopted by the Beijing Municipal Party Committee is as follows: convene meetings of heads of various units, encourage self-reporting and public discussion, set specific targets for the number of tigers, and hold each head personally accountable for carrying out the task within a prescribed time limit, requiring written reports.
“If any unit’s head claims that there are no tigers in their unit, they must sign a document assuming responsibility before the Party and the government, after which higher authorities will dispatch teams to conduct re-inspections.”
It is said that this approach has proven highly effective; many units initially believed they had few or no tigers, only to discover numerous ones upon investigation.
Currently, Beijing’s government organs and enterprises have tentatively identified one hundred big tigers, while the industrial and commercial sectors have identified three hundred, for a total of four hundred.
It appears likely that the final tally will be even higher rather than lower.
Please refer to the experiences of both the central authorities and the Beijing Municipal Party Committee when setting your own targets for “smashing tigers.”
Mao Zedong January 28 Printed from the manuscript.