Telegram to Xi Zhongxun [1] Concerning the Inspection and Report on the Actual Situation of the Five-Anti Campaign in Xi’an City (February 24, 1952) Comrade Xi Zhongxun: Based on their examination of the People’s Daily of Xi’an’s editorials published on February 5 and 7, comrades from the Central Propaganda Department have sent a telegram [2] to the Propaganda Department of the Northwest Bureau, voicing criticism. I am unclear about the actual situation of the Five-Anti Campaign in Xi’an City and do not know whether the Central Propaganda Department’s criticism is appropriate. I would appreciate it if you could inspect the work in Xi’an City and telegraph me your views [3]. Mao Zedong February 24 Printed from the manuscript. Notes [1] Xi Zhongxun was at that time the Second Secretary of the Northwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. [2] Refers to the directive issued by the CPC Central Propaganda Department on February 23, 1952, to the Propaganda Department of the Northwest Bureau regarding rightist errors that had occurred in Xi’an’s People’s Daily. The Central Propaganda Department criticized the People’s Daily’s report of February 5 on the enlarged meeting of the Xi’an Municipal Consultative Committee and the outline for propaganda on the Five-Anti Campaign adopted at that meeting, as well as its report and editorial of February 7 on the enlarged meeting of the Xi’an Federation of Industry and Commerce concerning the Five-Anti Campaign, holding that these reports and statements

contravened the principles set forth in the Central Committee’s successive directives and manifested serious rightist tendencies: namely, the view that the Five-Anti Campaign was not a class struggle to repel the bourgeoisie’s offensive but rather an internal affair of the bourgeoisie; that the force upon which this struggle should rely was not the working class but the bourgeoisie itself; that leadership of the struggle did not belong to the working class but to the bourgeoisie; and that the proper approach to conducting this struggle was not to mobilize the masses, but for one section of the bourgeoisie to oppose another. [3] In accordance with Mao Zedong’s request in the telegram, Xi Zhongxun submitted a report to Mao Zedong on February 28, 1952, examining the Five-Anti Campaign in Xi’an City. Xi Zhongxun stated: “The Central Propaganda Department’s criticism of the People’s Daily of Xi’an, issued on February 23, is entirely correct and highly necessary”; “The reports and statements in the People’s Daily of February 5 and 7 concerning two meetings in Xi’an, together with the remarks made by certain leading comrades in the city, indeed contain serious errors. This is mainly due to their one-sided understanding of certain tactics, which they then propagated, thereby distorting the fundamental nature and basic principles of the Five-Anti Campaign. Their outlook and line of argument are, in essence, of a rightist character and must be corrected.” With the assistance and guidance of the Northwest Bureau, Xi’an rectified the rightist tendencies that had emerged in the early stages of the Five-Anti Campaign.