According to this source. this comment was written by Mao on a document drafted by
the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the CPC. See text Feb.
18, 1952, note 13. Xuanji further notes that “Chairman Mao Zedong criticized the
head of this department for his error in regarding the national bourgeoisie as an intermediate class.” From April 1950 to March 1965 the head of the United Front Work
Department was Li Weihan.

After the landlord class and the bureaucratic bourgeoisie are toppled, the
principal internal contradiction in China is the contradiction between the
working class and the national bourgeoisie.’ Therefore we should no longer
call the national bourgeoisie an intermediate class.

Note

1 See text March 12, 1950, note 3.