Central Directive Forwarding Luo Ruiqing’s [1] Report on Rectifying Rightist Tendencies in the South China Military Region’s Final Judgments in the Three-Anti Campaign
(May 9, 1952)

To the Party Committees of the Major Military Regions and the Chinese People’s Volunteers; to the Central Bureaus and Sub-bureaus; with copy forwarded to the provincial, municipal, and regional Party committees:

Comrade Luo Ruiqing’s report of April 25 concerning the rectification within the South China Military Region of rightist tendencies among many cadres during the final adjudication phase of the Three-Anti Campaign (2) is highly worthy of serious attention. Wherever similar deviations exist, they must be corrected without delay. All genuine embezzlers, suspected embezzlers, and those wrongly implicated must be rigorously and truthfully judged and thoroughly investigated in accordance with the Central Committee’s successive directives and government statutes. Not a single wrongdoer should be allowed to go unpunished, nor should any innocent person be unjustly condemned. As for stolen funds that can be recovered, every effort must be made to retrieve them without fail; however, innocent family members must not be harassed or held accountable, and no personnel should be dispatched to rural areas to pursue such recoveries.

[1]
Luo Ruiqing was at that time Minister of Public Security of the Central People’s Government and a member of the Savings Inspection Commission. He had been assigned by the Central Committee to assist with the Three-Anti and Five-Anti campaigns in the Central-South region.
[2]
In his report of April 25, 1952, addressed to Mao Zedong, the Central Committee, and the Central Military Commission, Luo Ruiqing stated that the Party Committee of the South China Military Region had reported on April 21: The military had an inadequate understanding of the work of recovering stolen property and rendering final judgments, failing to press the matter vigorously. As a result, a large number of “tigers” recanted their confessions, rightist tendencies spread widely, and there was a real danger that the achievements of the Three-Anti Campaign would be undermined. In actual adjudication work, leaders lacked clear guidance, simply allowing corrupt elements to “confess” at will and even adopting a wholly passive attitude toward the process. Taking advantage of this situation, the corrupt sought to retract their admissions and refused to return the ill-gotten gains. The root cause of these rightist leanings lay in an insufficient appreciation of the crucial link between recovering stolen property and securing complete victory in the Three-Anti Campaign, coupled with a one-sided, overly lenient interpretation of the spirit of Central Committee documents, which fostered a sentiment of indulgence and pity toward the corrupt.

The main manifestations of these rightist tendencies today are: seeking peaceful settlements that encourage recantation; failing to conduct thorough investigations; drawing hasty conclusions; and lacking confidence or initiative in pursuing the recovery of stolen funds. The South China Military Region is currently taking appropriate corrective measures to address these issues.

(Except in individual cases where substantial stolen assets are believed by public opinion in rural areas to warrant recovery, no strenuous efforts should be made to pursue sums that are clearly unattainable.) All military region party committees and local party committees at every level are urged to remain vigilant and ensure that the Three-Anti Campaign is brought to a complete and victorious conclusion, free from the influence of this half-hearted, tail-end rightist thinking. The two disciplinary principles outlined in Comrade Luo Ruiqing’s report (I) must be strictly observed throughout the Party to guarantee the success of the Three-Anti Campaign.

The Central Committee
May 9

According to Luo Ruiqing’s report, the two disciplinary principles are as follows: First, “Anyone who fails to act in accordance with principle and ‘releases the tiger back into the mountains’ shall, upon discovery, be regarded as shielding and condoning corruption and shall be subject to disciplinary sanctions.” Second, “Leaders who are lax and careless in handling the third phase of the campaign, thereby causing losses, shall likewise be held accountable.”