Comments by the Central Committee on the South-Central Bureau’s Report Concerning the Strategy and Deployment for the Five-Anti Campaign (February 23, 1952) To the South-Central Bureau, all Central Bureaus, with copies forwarded to sub-bureaus and provincial, municipal, and district party committees:  (1) We approve the South-Central Bureau’s report of February 19 concerning the strategy and deployment for the Five-Anti Campaign [1].  (2) This report is hereby circulated to all Central Bureaus for reference.  (3) We request that each provincial party committee conduct a meticulous study of the Five-Anti movement in its provincial capital and draw appropriate conclusions, so as to provide correct guidance for the Five-Anti struggle both in the provincial capital and throughout the province’s other cities, ensuring that the campaign does not deviate significantly across the country.  (4) Since the Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaigns are being carried out simultaneously and it is essential to avoid errors in both, with the exception of a few typical pilot projects, the Three-Anti campaign at the county, district, and township levels, together with the Five-Anti campaign in county seats and towns within the county area, must be resolutely postponed until after spring plowing has been completed.  (5) As there is currently no experience available regarding how to conduct the Five-Anti campaign in medium-sized cities outside the provincial capitals—such as Sipingjie, Shijiazhuang, Suzhou, Hengzhou, Hanzhong, and Zunyi—we instruct the provincial and regional party committees to direct the respective prefectural committees to undertake careful studies and submit their plans for approval. Such work is to be carried out in a well-organized manner, with the sole aim of achieving success and preventing failure. Furthermore, each Central Bureau and provincial party committee should dispatch personnel to assist one or two prefectural committees in studying the Five-Anti deployment in one or two medium-sized cities, and we earnestly hope that they will promptly report their findings to the Central Committee by telegram. Issued by the Central Committee on February 23, based on Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

Footnote [1]: The report of the South-Central Bureau of the CPC Central Committee dated February 19, 1952, on the Five-Anti campaign analyzes the abnormal conditions prevailing in the economic life of the South-Central region during the concurrent Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaigns, along with their underlying causes, and proposes measures to address these issues. It was decided to restore the operational capacity of state-owned enterprises; without compromising either the Three-Anti or Five-Anti campaigns, the South-Central regional and provincial levels would initially allocate one-fifth of their resources to this task, gradually increasing this proportion to one-quarter by early March. The Three-Anti campaign at the county and district levels was firmly postponed, while the lower-level economic networks were to continue functioning. Bold efforts should be made to purchase local produce and to resume processing and order-based production as much as possible. With regard to the capitalists, the Five-Anti campaign was to be intensified, with particular attention paid to countering their passive resistance and attacks on shop assistants. At the same time, in order to maintain normal economic activity, reduce unemployment, and ensure smooth exchanges between urban and rural areas, the Five-Anti campaign was to be conducted strictly in accordance with the Central Committee’s policy of narrowing the scope of repression and winning over the majority. To ensure the accurate implementation of the Five-Anti policy, the issue of coordinated operations between the Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaigns needed to be properly resolved, so as to prevent such chaotic situations as individual organs independently sending inspection teams to shops to audit accounts or summoning capitalists to government offices for struggle sessions.