Commentary on the Report Concerning the Three-Anti Campaign at the Central School for Political and Legal Cadres [1] (March 5, 1952)

All party committees at various levels and leading Party groups in the governments are urged to step up their attention and thoroughly purge corrupt elements from the political and legal organs, particularly the judicial and public security systems, severely punishing the big tigers. Mao Zedong, March 5. Printed from the manuscript.

Refers to the report dated March 3, 1952, submitted by the Party Committee of the Central School for Political and Legal Cadres to the Executive Committee of the Political and Legal Sub-Group of the Leading Party Group, with a copy sent to the General Party Committee, concerning the progress of the Three-Anti Campaign.

The report states that the Three-Anti movement at the Central School for Political and Legal Cadres was conducted as an important political study program. The students were mostly leading cadres from county-level political and legal organs across the country. Judging from the available, albeit incomplete, materials, corruption among county-level political and legal cadres was widespread and serious. Such corruption took many forms, including the theft of state property; most prominent, however, were practices such as taking bribes in exchange for perverting justice, extortion, the illegal sale of firearms, the release of counterrevolutionary criminals, and the trafficking in opium, heroin, gold, and silver. At the outset of the campaign, we emphasized ideological self-awareness and the conduct of criticism and self-criticism, seeking to draw a clear line between friend and foe in thought; yet our understanding of the gravity of the enemy situation remained inadequate. After the Spring Festival, we focused on overcoming rightist tendencies and carrying out organizational rectification, while intensifying theoretical study, thereby laying the groundwork for launching the third phase of the campaign.