Comments on the Southwest Bureau’s Regulations on Strengthening Leadership over Government Work[I]
(April 26, 1953)
[I] Refers to the report submitted by the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on April 11, 1953, to the Party groups of the Southwest Administrative Committee, all departments and commissions of the Southwest Bureau, and copied to the Central Committee, regarding the regulations on strengthening leadership over government work and the system of requesting instructions and submitting reports within the government system. The report states: We believe that strengthening the system of requesting instructions and submitting reports within the government system at the level of the greater administrative region, and strengthening leadership over government work, is very important for better ensuring the correct implementation of the principles, policies, plans, and tasks stipulated by the Central Committee, as well as for avoiding the occurrence of various phenomena of disorganization and lack of discipline. To this end, the following regulations are hereby formulated: (1) In order to strengthen direct leadership over the work of various government departments, it is decided to abolish the Party core group executive council of the Administrative Committee, and to improve and strengthen the work of the Party groups and Party group sub-groups of the various commissions, bureaus, academies, and banks. The Party groups for finance and economics, culture and education, politics and law, ethnic affairs, and supervision shall all be directly under the leadership of the Southwest Bureau. (2) All government Party groups and Party group sub-groups shall strictly implement the following system of requesting instructions and submitting reports: Each Party group and Party group sub-group shall submit a regular comprehensive report to the Southwest Bureau once a month. Major issues and specialized problems arising in work shall be reported separately to the Southwest Bureau as special topic reports. The content of reports shall focus on major issues in work and issues related to policies, and shall strive to be concise and to the point. Requests for instructions and reports shall be strictly separated and not mixed together. Issues requiring instructions must be submitted as separate special topic requests for instructions, and the stipulation that "each request for instructions is limited to one special topic" shall be strictly enforced. All major issues and policy-related directives must first be reviewed and approved by the Central Bureau; for important matters, the Southwest Bureau shall report to the Central Committee for instructions. (3) In order to strengthen leadership over government work, in addition to the Southwest Bureau strengthening unified leadership, comrades of the Southwest Bureau shall implement a system of division of responsibilities. Issues requiring discussion by the Southwest Bureau shall be submitted by the comrades in charge of the respective divisions to the Standing Committee meeting of the Southwest Bureau for discussion. Relevant professional departments must make serious preparations in advance and provide necessary reference materials to the comrades of the Southwest Bureau.


Volume 33 of the Complete Works of Mao Zedong
Premier Zhou:
This document may be forwarded to all central bureaus, sub-bureaus, and provincial and municipal Party committees, instructing them to follow suit and implement similar measures for the greater administrative region administrative committees and provincial and municipal governments, with a view to carrying out a unified reform. Please consider and handle as appropriate.

Mao Zedong
April 26