Telegram on Conducting the Three-Anti Movement in Counties, Districts, and Townships
(February 4, 1952)

To all central bureaus, and forward to sub-bureaus, provincial, municipal, and district party committees, and prefectural committees; to all greater military regions and the Volunteer Army, and forward to all levels of military regions and armies:

(1) The plan reported in the February 1 telegram from the Party Committee of the Central-South Military Region, which calls for striking 106 big tigers and 357 small tigers among the units directly under the Central-South Military Region, is in our view appropriate. This is a preliminary budget, which may be increased at any time according to circumstances. The Central-South Military Region is requested to urge all levels of military regions and armies under its jurisdiction to promptly formulate their own tiger-striking plans and report them to the Central Committee. The Central-South Military Region’s plan is issued for reference by all localities. (2) All central bureaus, sub-bureaus, provincial committees, district party committees, municipal committees, and prefectural committees, as well as all greater military regions, the Volunteer Army, and all levels of military regions and armies under their jurisdiction, which have not yet drawn up a tiger-striking budget, must do so within three days of receiving this telegram and report it to the Central Committee. They must also be prepared to voluntarily increase their budgets at any time and report to the Central Committee at any time. (3) When provincial and prefectural levels draw up such budgets, they may include the possible numbers of big and small tigers to be struck at the county, district, and township levels; however, the implementation of the Three-Anti Movement and tiger-striking across the country in February should generally be limited to the prefectural level and should generally not extend to the county, district, and township levels. It is appropriate to wait until the Three-Anti Movement at the levels of the central bureaus, sub-bureaus, provincial committees, and prefectural committees is basically completed and tiger-striking has basically achieved victory, thereby freeing up hands, deploying backbone cadres, organizing large numbers of Three-Anti work teams, and training them in clear policies and methods—just as land reform work teams or party rectification work teams were dispatched to the countryside for land reform and party rectification—before dispatching them to carry out the Three-Anti Movement. Otherwise, major errors may occur. Comrades are earnestly requested to pay attention to this point. In some provinces and districts where the Three-Anti Movement has already been launched at the county and district levels, it need not be halted, but the focus in February should still be on the provincial and prefectural levels, concurrently covering some county-level units. In March, the Three-Anti Movement at the county level should be completed, and preparations should be made to send cadres to the districts and townships to assist county-level leadership in conducting the Three-Anti Movement at the district and township levels. It is proposed that the Three-Anti Movement at the district and township levels nationwide be basically completed in April and May. If this can be achieved, it will be a great victory. The Northeast Bureau has stipulated that "at present, the county and district levels should only rely on their own forces to initiate confessions and accusations, and wait until the provincial and municipal levels are finished before drawing out forces to thoroughly resolve the problems." This is permissible. The policy of the North China Bureau is also the same. We hold that in all places where land reform has already been completed or where party rectification is underway, a number of personnel from the original land reform work teams and party rectification work teams should be immediately transferred to the provincial capital for training and transformed into Three-Anti work teams. No one suspected of corruption is permitted to participate. They shall await orders (orders from the central bureaus and provincial committees) to go to the countryside to conduct the Three-Anti Movement. However, it is absolutely necessary for the central bureaus, sub-bureaus, provincial, municipal, and district party committees, and prefectural committees to immediately dispatch a small number of work groups to select a few districts and townships to conduct investigations into corruption and waste and to carry out typical experiments in the Three-Anti Movement. We await your opinions on these work steps.

(4) The county-level organs of Wuzhi County in Pingyuan Province have preliminarily uncovered 18 tigers of over 10 million yuan, among which there is one big tiger of over 100 million yuan. If the county continues to search and seize, this number may be exceeded. This matter should draw serious attention from party committees at all levels. Anyone who claims that there are no tigers or very few tigers at the county level should be refuted with the evidence from Wuzhi County. (5) According to a preliminary investigation of nine villages in Xianghe County, Hebei Province, village cadres with corrupt practices accounted for as much as 72 percent of the total village cadres in some cases, as little as 13 percent in others, with an average of 23 percent. Among nine branch secretaries, seven were corrupt; among nine village heads, eight were corrupt. Among them, one village cadre alone embezzled over 10,000 jin of public grain, making him a small tiger. Anyone who claims that there is no or very little corruption among rural cadres, or that although there is corruption in the villages there are no tigers (this is not to say, of course, that every township necessarily has tigers), should be refuted with the evidence from Xianghe County. (6) According to Comrade Gao Gang’s[1] report of January 26, the entire Northeast planned to catch 500 big tigers. Yesterday (February 3), it was reported that this number had increased to 2,000. The system directly under the Military Commission acknowledged catching 100 big tigers a few days ago and yesterday added 150 more, totaling 250. Together with the 300 from other systems at the central level, the total is 550. In addition, there is the experience of North China already communicated to you.[2] From this, it can be estimated that every small province should have several hundred big and small tigers, and every medium-sized and large province should have one to two thousand to three thousand big and small tigers. According to the calculations of the North China Bureau, big tigers should account for over 10 percent of this total. These figures include personnel from the Party, government, military, mass organizations, and education sectors, but do not include the private industrial and commercial sector or private schools. The experience of the Northeast, North China, and the central level can serve as a reference for you in formulating your tiger-striking budgets.

Mao Zedong
February 4

--- Notes

[1] Gao Gang, then Secretary of the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Commander and Political Commissar of the Northeast Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army.
[2] Refers to the decision forwarded by Mao Zedong on February 4, 1952, from the North China Bureau concerning the suspension from office for self-examination of certain leading cadres in Hebei Province and the tiger-striking plan, which stipulated that Hebei Province strike 2,300 small tigers and 200 big tigers.