Central Instructions Forwarding Bo Yibo’s Report〔1〕 on Shanghai’s Five-Against Campaign Strategy and Deployment (March 29, 1952) Comrade Bo Yibo, all Central Bureaus and Sub-bureaus, with copy to the provincial, municipal, and district Party committees: Comrade Bo Yibo’s report of March 25 concerning the strategy and deployment of the Five-Against Campaign〔2〕 is very good; all cities should follow this example. It is correct that in Shanghai the primary focus of the Five-Against Campaign has been placed on the 430,000 out of a total of 620,000 individuals involved. Above all, it is extremely important not to disrupt production. Any city that has been causing production disruptions must immediately change its approach. Issued by the Central Committee on March 29, based on Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft.

Notes 〔1〕 Bo Yibo was at the time Director of the Central People’s Government Commission for Economy and Inspection, and had been dispatched by the Central Committee to Shanghai to assist with the Three-Against and Five-Against campaigns.

〔2〕 Refers to the experience of the first phase and the arrangements for the second phase of the Shanghai Five-Against Campaign, as described in Bo Yibo’s report of March 25, 1952, addressed to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee. The lessons learned from the first phase of the Shanghai Five-Against Campaign are as follows: (1) The Five-Against Campaign must be integrated with production, and production must be maintained throughout. (2) The Five-Against policy should be fully explained to workers, shop assistants, senior staff, and capitalists, so that everyone understands the government’s position. (3) The Five-Against struggle should begin with a campaign of grievance-hearing, using it to mobilize the masses and build a united front. (4) The course of the Five-Against struggle is also a process of winning over senior staff; once they are brought over, the problem will be close to being solved. (5) We must learn to exploit contradictions and divide the capitalists. (6) Full use should be made of the Party’s influence and strength among capitalists, as well as of the role played by Party members, Youth League members, and other active elements among capitalists’ relatives and friends. As for the deployment of the second phase of the Five-Against Campaign: the second phase may commence as scheduled on April 1. It is proposed to select two thousand key households for inspection, while non-key households are to be mobilized by district, street, or industry, separately addressing capitalists and worker-employees. The Party’s leadership efforts should continue to be concentrated primarily on the key and large households, with only a portion of the forces allocated to general mobilization.