Forward the Telegram on the Experience of the Northeast Bureau in Searching for Leads on Corruption
(January 31, 1952)

All departments of the Central Committee and the Military Commission, all leading Party members’ groups of the Central People’s Government; all central bureaus, grand military regions, the Chinese People’s Volunteers, and forward to sub-bureaus, provincial, municipal, and district Party committees, military regions at all levels, and all armies:

According to a telegram from Comrade Gao Gang, the experience in the Northeast in “beating tigers” indicates that the following points should be noted with regard to leads on persons:

“(1) Persons who previously worked as merchants or factory owners and have now infiltrated our state organs or enterprises to hold posts (especially pay attention to those elements who still concurrently operate private industrial and commercial enterprises);

(2) Those whose families are industrial or commercial proprietors while they themselves work in our state organs or enterprise departments, among whom some are veteran cadres (especially pay attention to those whose family-run enterprises have developed extremely rapidly after they began working in state organs or enterprises);

(3) Those who have close relations with private industrial and commercial operators, lead corrupt lives, and are the subject of widespread public discussion;

(4) Those who control small household affairs, lead corrupt lives, and spend extravagantly without restraint;

(5) Purchasing personnel who frequently make purchases from a certain commercial firm or certain commercial firms (discoverable through auditing accounts and examining invoices);

(6) Cases discovered from purchasing or sales invoices where prices for the same materials during the same period differ excessively (comparisons can be made using invoices from different departments purchasing or selling the same equipment);

(7) Discover leads from materials obtained through internal accusations and confessions and accusations by external industrial and commercial operators;

(8) Study the fifty-six major corruptionists already uncovered, and draw from this the experience and lessons for ‘catching tigers.’”

Such opinions are very good. Please pay attention to them so as to facilitate the beating of tigers.

Mao Zedong
January 31