Commentary on Liu Lantao’s Report〔1〕 Concerning the Detection of Two Major Cases in North China (March 2, 1952)

To All Central Bureaus and Military Region Commands: Comrade Liu Lantao has forwarded two reports〔2〕 for your reference. Please pay close attention to similar large-scale cases of this nature. Such major cases may exist in every province, particularly in the major cities.

Mao Zedong March 2 Based on the manuscript copy.

Notes 〔1〕 Liu Lantao was at that time the Third Secretary of the CPC North China Bureau and Deputy Political Commissar of the North China Military Region of the People’s Liberation Army.

〔2〕 These refer to two reports dated March 2, 1952, from Liu Lantao to Mao Zedong concerning the “Three Antis” and “Five Antis” campaigns in North China. The first report described a recent major case of collective embezzlement amounting to approximately 2 billion yuan, uncovered at the Hebei Provincial Cooperative General Association. Headed by the director of the operations department, the scheme involved collusion with the head of the accounting section and the chief accountant, as well as complicity with warehouses and supply-and-marketing teams across various localities. By failing to record shipments in the books, they managed to transport and sell entire trainloads of white cloth and grain, thereby engaging in collective embezzlement. The second report detailed how the Hua Sha Bu Branch Company in Chahar Province had broken up an extensive network of economic traitors and the core organization behind it—known as “Chang Ji Hao.” Established in 1950 under the guise of managing enemy property and conducting speculative trading, “Chang Ji Hao” covertly placed twenty-three former employees within state-owned enterprises as informants, forming intelligence cells that came to control the heads of price departments in six major companies. Through the theft of economic intelligence, fraudulent bank loans, short-selling and other manipulative practices, and the trafficking of narcotics, gold, and silver, the group amassed illicit profits totaling 7.8 billion yuan by the end of 1951.