To All Comrades:
A Comment on the Directive Concerning the Number of Tigers to Be Struck
(30 January 1952)

The documents of the North China Bureau and the Shanxi Provincial Committee are both very good. The North China Bureau proposes that a province like Shanxi should have one thousand to one thousand three hundred tigers, large and small, of which there should be one hundred to over one hundred and thirty large tigers. I believe this number is only a minimum estimate, and in reality it may greatly exceed this figure. Tigers in society, that is, in industrial and commercial circles, are not yet included. It is requested that all provincial, municipal, and regional Party committees, in accordance with their own conditions, each draw up a budget for striking tigers and report it to the central bureau and the Central Committee. The several items of experience in striking tigers of the Shanxi Provincial Committee are also very good.

Mao Zedong
30 January

[1]
[2]
1. Utilize and control private merchants whose crimes are not serious and who are willing to repent, and secretly help us investigate other lawless merchants.
2. Dispatch female comrades to do work among the family members of large and medium embezzlers.
3. Concentrate forces to break the "offensive and defensive alliances" among embezzlers and between embezzlers and private merchants; this is a decisive step in catching large and medium tigers.

--- Notes

The document of the North China Bureau refers to the directive of the North China Bureau of the CPC Central Committee dated 30 January 1952, stating that Shanxi Province should catch 1,000 to 1,300 tigers, of which over 10 percent should be large tigers. The document of the Shanxi Provincial Committee refers to the report of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee to the North China Bureau dated 28 January 1952, on the achievements in the anti-corruption struggle in Shanxi Province.


The experience in striking large and medium tigers summarized in the report of the CPC Shanxi Provincial Committee to the North China Bureau on 28 January is as follows: