Commentary on the Issue of Transmitting to Localities the Portion of Deng Zihui’s Report Concerning the Timing for Basically Completing Socialist Transformation in the Countryside[1] (May 19, 1953)

Comrade Deng Zihui: It is necessary to issue a notice on this matter[2] to all localities. Please consider appending a brief explanatory note and forwarding this telegram as is, or drafting a separate telegram; either way, please send a copy to me for review. Sincerely, Mao Zedong May 19

Based on the manuscript. Notes [1] Deng Zihui was at that time Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Department of Rural Work.

[2] This commentary was written on a telegram dated May 16, 1953, from the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to its subordinate organizations, outlining points to be observed when transmitting Deng Zihui’s summary speech at the Central Conference on Rural Work.

[3] In its telegram to subordinate organizations, the Northeast Bureau of the CPC Central Committee stated: When transmitting Deng Zihui’s summary at the Central Conference on Rural Work, with regard to the passage “It will take ten to fifteen years, or even longer, to basically complete socialist transformation in the countryside nationwide,” until further instructions are issued by the Central Committee on how to convey this point, it should be communicated only up to the level of county party secretaries. They should be instructed not to pass it down further or publicize it among the masses, so as to avoid causing unnecessary ideological confusion among certain sections of the population.