Central Directive with Comrade Bo Yibo’s [1] Comments on the Report of Experiences from the Second Phase of the Shanghai Five-Anti Campaign
(April 8, 1952)

Comrade Bo Yibo, the East China Bureau, all Central Bureaus and Sub-bureaus, and through them to the Party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions:

Comrade Bo Yibo’s report of April 6 concerning the experiences of the second campaign in Shanghai’s Five-Anti Movement [2] is correct.

[1]
Bo Yibo, then Director of the Central People’s Government Committee for Economy and Inspection, had been dispatched by the CPC Central Committee to Shanghai to assist in the Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaigns.
[2]
Refers to Bo Yibo’s report dated April 6, 1952, addressed to Mao Zedong and the CPC Central Committee, detailing the strategies and experiences of the second phase of the Shanghai Five-Anti Campaign. The report stated that the second phase began on April 1 and, over the preceding six days, had progressed extremely smoothly—almost precipitously—thanks to the initial breakthroughs achieved at 74 key enterprises and business establishments. Given that direct, face-to-face confrontation was too intense, often leading to deep personal animosities and undermining future efforts to maintain unity with the capitalist class, the strategy adopted for this second phase was: “Inspect a few; win over the majority; stand ready in force; achieve victory without fighting.” A key feature of this phase was the widespread application of the “winning without fighting” approach. The method involved first thoroughly gathering intelligence on the capitalists and keeping inspection teams under tight control, maintaining a show of strength while holding their positions. At the same time, part of the forces were deployed to individual factories and shops to work through the trade unions in organizing sessions of grievance-sharing and accusation, fully mobilizing the masses and winning over senior employees, thereby ensuring that all conditions for immediate action were in place. In addition, meetings of business owners were convened by industry and district to explain the policy, conduct group evaluations, and encourage mutual criticism and pressure. When the opportune moment arrived, those industrialists and merchants who had confessed more honestly were publicly commended and exempted from inspection, while inspection teams were sent only to those who remained obstinately uncooperative and refused to disclose information. This combination of diplomatic overtures followed by firm measures proved highly effective. Of the 2,000 key cases targeted in this second phase, it was anticipated that as many as 1,700—or even more—could be resolved without any need for formal inspection. The report further noted that another distinctive aspect of this phase was the active utilization of previously fully confessing but now repentant and eager-to-reform law-breaking capitalists. These individuals were assigned responsibility for overseeing entire industries or sectors within the city or district; owing to their insider knowledge, they were able to pinpoint critical weaknesses, thus playing a crucial role.

Indeed, these approaches should be widely emulated throughout the country. All cities are instructed to pay close attention to these new tactics in carrying out the Five-Anti Campaign.
The Central Committee
April 8