A Note on the Issue of Reducing Full-Time Military Athletes[1]
(March 21, 1953)

Comrade Xiao Xiangrong:

I agree with all items. Only regarding the issue of whether the number of athletes can be reduced from 3,000, please ask Comrades Xiao Ke and Xiao Hua[2] to discuss it once with the relevant government personnel in charge of this matter, study it, formulate an overall plan, and submit it to Premier Zhou, Vice Chairman Peng, and myself for review.

Mao Zedong
March 21

[1] This note was written on the report regarding the 16th routine meeting of the Central Military Commission, submitted to Mao Zedong on March 13, 1953, by Xiao Xiangrong, Director of the General Office of the People's Revolutionary Military Council. The report addressed the issue of the chief of staff serving as the primary acting commander in units below the army level, the staffing of the Military Training Department, the issue of military sports, and the transfer of responsibility for military pension and compensation work to the logistics departments. Regarding the issue of military sports, the report stated that Xiao Ke proposed that military sports fall under the military training departments and should be integrated with military training content. However, given the current situation, the Military Training Department, which oversees military sports, lacks such capacity, while within the General Political Department system there are 3,000 full-time athletes. The meeting decided that the General Political Department and the Military Training Department should study this issue and propose a solution. It also requested the Chairman to consider whether the military needed 3,000 full-time athletes, as local authorities also had 3,000 full-time ball sport athletes, which together constituted a very large number.

[2] Xiao Ke, then Head of the Military Training Department of the People's Revolutionary Military Council. Xiao Hua, then Deputy Director of the General Political Department of the People's Revolutionary Military Council.