Comments on the Military Commission’s Plan to Establish a Central Blood Bank in Shenyang [1]
(March 6, 1953)

Comrade Peng [2] is requested to pay attention to this matter, urge the relevant authorities to review it, and draft a reply telegram. Whether it is necessary to establish such a massive blood bank should be carefully considered.

Mao Zedong
March 6

[1] This comment was written on an excerpt report from the First Office of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which forwarded the Northeast Bureau’s relay of the Shenyang Municipal Committee’s plan for mobilizing blood donations in support of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea. The excerpt report stated:
The Central Military Commission has decided to establish a large-scale central blood bank in Shenyang. Based on the needs of the frontlines in the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, it is proposed to begin mobilizing blood donations from government agencies, military units, and schools, with a planned target of 300 donors per day, collecting 60,000 milliliters of blood. The Shenyang Municipal Committee requested that blood donation mobilization be integrated with ideological education on resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea, strictly adhering to the principle of voluntariness during mobilization, and opposing purely task-oriented approaches and coercive command practices.

[2] Peng refers to Peng Dehuai, who was then Vice Chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission.