A Critique Concerning the Inspection of the Leadership Work of the Health Department of the Central Military Commission

The extremely serious bureaucratism that has been committed. According to Bai Xueguang's report, it appears that the Health Department of the Central Military Commission can be said to have basically no leadership whatsoever over the health work of the entire army. This is completely intolerable and must be addressed immediately. Proposals: (1) Request Comrades Peng and Huang to take charge, discuss this once at a regular meeting of the Central Military Commission, invite the Director and Deputy Directors of the Health Department of the Central Military Commission and Comrade Bai Xueguang to the meeting, decide on a resolution plan, and put it into effect. (2) The positions of Director and Deputy Directors of the Government Health Department and the Health Department of the Central Military Commission should not be held concurrently; other suitable comrades (not necessarily comrades who have studied medicine) should be sought to serve as Director and Deputy Directors of the Health Department of the Central Military Commission. The above is submitted to Comrades Peng and Huang for their consideration and handling.

Because Bai Xueguang's exposure has made me wonder whether there is much difference between the leadership work of the Government Health Department and that of the Health Department of the Central Military Commission. I suspect that the leadership work of the Government Health Department may be just as much of a mess as that of the Health Department of the Central Military Commission—neither political leadership nor serious professional and technical leadership is visible; it is just that there is no one like Bai Xueguang who has made such a systematic and well-founded exposure, so we still do not know. Please ask Comrades Xi and Qiao to refer to Bai Xueguang's report, conduct a serious inspection of the work of the Government Health Department, see how much better it is compared to the Health Department of the Central Military Commission, and decide on a resolution plan for the existing problems and put it into effect.

Departments without leadership, without politics, and that do not seriously manage professional work—bureaucratic yamens devoted solely to eating, being officials, and acting as overlords. Besides the Health Department of the Central Military Commission, there may be other such departments. Please, in this struggle against bureaucratism, tear off all pretenses, thoroughly destroy and overhaul these, change their appearance, and establish organs that can truly work.

Mao Zedong
April 3, 1953