Central Telegram to the East China Bureau on the Issue of Arrests and Shop Seizures in the Five-Anti Campaign (February 20, 1952)

East China Bureau: Your reply of February 19 to the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee’s report of February 15 [1] is correct. In cities where the Five-Anti Campaign has truly been launched, where cadres are highly enthusiastic and eager to make many arrests and seal numerous shops—such as Jinan and Nanjing—it is necessary, in accordance with the Central Committee’s instructions, to exercise appropriate restraint. In cities where the campaign has not yet been initiated—such as Qingdao, Wuxi, and Shanghai—there is no need to emphasize restraint; rather, efforts should continue to criticize rightist tendencies and to stress the importance of vigorously carrying forward the struggle.

Issued by the Central Committee on February 20, based on Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

Notes [ ]: In its telegram of February 19, 1952, replying to the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee’s Five-Anti report of February 15, the CPC Central Committee’s East China Bureau pointed out that the significant achievements Nanjing had attained in the Five-Anti Movement within a relatively short period were mainly due to thorough preliminary investigation and policy publicity, to adherence to the principle of relying on workers and shop clerks, uniting small and medium-sized businesses, and dividing and isolating law-breaking capitalists; to a clear distinction between leniency and strictness in implementing policy; and to taking advantage of internal contradictions among the bourgeoisie to win over the majority to our side. All of this was commendable. However, the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee’s suggestion that approximately 2 percent of shops might be destroyed during the campaign and that the number of arrests could exceed 0.5 percent was inappropriate. Nanjing should pay particular attention to the work of dividing and disintegrating law-breaking capitalists, so as to unite and win over the vast majority while concentrating its forces on striking at the very few most heinous reactionary capitalists.