Commentary on the East China Military Region’s Instructions Regarding the Three-Anti Campaign in Companies, Battalions, and County-Level Armed Units (March 4, 1952) To All Major Military Regions and the Chinese People’s Volunteers: This document [1] is very good. You should, in light of your own circumstances, issue similar instructions. Mao Zedong March 4 Based on the manuscript for publication.

Refers to the East China Military Region’s instructions of March 2, 1952, concerning the Three-Anti campaign in companies, battalions, and county-level armed units.

The instructions state: In addition to eradicating corruption, waste, and bureaucracy, the objective of the Three-Anti campaign at the company level should also explicitly include overcoming warlordism, strengthening solidarity between officers and men, bolstering morale, and enhancing combat effectiveness.

The campaign at the company level must adhere to a steady and prudent approach, with education as the primary means. The rationale and policy guidelines should be repeatedly explained to all personnel. With regard to specific policies, exposure of wrongdoing should be thorough, while disciplinary measures should be lenient; the principle of “greater leniency toward soldiers than toward cadres” and “greater leniency in companies than in organs” should be followed, so as to narrow the scope of punishment, win over the majority, and facilitate educational purposes.

The instructions further prescribe three different approaches for three distinct types of units. They also set forth matters requiring attention during the campaign, such as ensuring that the Three-Anti campaign remains subordinate to current coastal defense and combat tasks, that it does not undermine unit discipline, that suicide, self-inflicted injury, desertion, and sabotage by counterrevolutionary elements be strictly prevented, and that policies be rigorously implemented to guard against coerced confessions.