Ten trillion yuan for the capitalists. This could serve as another form of purchase, which might be more feasible. Workers pay dividends to support the capitalists. Both the workers and our Party members should be aware of this point. Isn’t this already going to great lengths out of benevolence? What the capitalists praise as “how wonderful new democracy is” refers precisely to this very point.
How many years will it take before private enterprises are nationalized? There may be differences in timing; it depends on their development—on their living standards, on societal conditions, and on public sentiment. At today’s government meeting, Li Zhuchen111 spoke with renewed enthusiasm about nationalization. We need to cultivate such a group of people. Once nationalization takes place, the capitalists’ future will be bright: they can become workers, earning wages to make a living.
The issue of arranging non-Party personnel is a matter of strategic policy. They can serve as deputies to the National People’s Congress, provincial people’s congresses, and municipal people’s congresses, as well as hold government positions.
Should we broadly maintain the existing United Front, or shrink it—perhaps significantly?
(Zhou Enlai: The proportion of Communists and the most reliable allies must constitute an overwhelming majority. This share has increased compared with the past. It is they who should hold power and manage affairs. The role of the bourgeoisie, democratic figures, and those who rose up has diminished relative to before. Within this smaller minority, capitalists may have somewhat more representation than previously, while other groups should have less.)
A small number of particularly unsavory individuals can still be accommodated within United Front organizations. The rationale is that there is no harm in finding them suitable placements. We must correctly understand the issue of impurity in the composition of United Front organizations. During the Ruijin period, the organization was at its purest, but it had one major drawback: though formally pure, it isolated itself, leading to an unstable regime that ultimately required relocation. When the base moved to Yan’an, the organization became less pure, yet this very impurity demonstrated flexibility. I do not believe the claim that the Communist Party lacks flexibility. From Yan’an onward, as the organization grew increasingly impure, life improved. By the time the capital was moved to Beijing, many opposed this trend, especially the younger generation. We should encourage them to read “Water Margin.” Over ninety percent of the inhabitants of Liangshan Marsh were not working people. Liangshan Marsh exemplified an excellent united front, much like how the Qing dynasty, despite being Han Chinese, managed to wield considerable power.
[I]
Li Zhuchen, at that time a member of the Central People’s Government Committee and vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

With a few exceptions, non-Party personnel should, whenever possible, be arranged to serve as deputies to the People’s Congress and to hold government posts; however, caution should be exercised when assigning them to managerial roles. This does not affect the Communist Party’s and its sympathizers’ grip on power.
Our country remains led by the working class, with the worker-peasant alliance as its foundation. The leadership of the working class ensures the success of socialist transformation.
Within the United Front, the worker-peasant alliance—the alliance between the working class and the laboring masses—is beyond dispute. This first alliance will endure for a long time. Only when agriculture is entirely transformed into state-owned farms will the distinction between workers and peasants exist purely in terms of occupation, with no qualitative difference between them. The second alliance involves the bourgeoisie among the laboring masses. The fundamental problem of the United Front lies in the question of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie is a hostile class, but unlike other hostile classes, it is capable of cooperating with us. Failure to distinguish clearly between adversaries who can and cannot cooperate will lead to errors in line.
In 1949, it was inappropriate to propagate the general line of the transitional period in the countryside. At that time, the principal contradiction in rural areas was between the peasant class and the feudal landlord class, not between socialism and capitalism. The democratic revolution with a bourgeois character was, in essence, a revolution of the peasant class against the landlord class. For the Chinese nation as a whole, the primary revolution was against imperialism. Now, new contradictions have emerged: new forms of capitalism are taking root in the countryside, and over fifty percent of district and township cadres possess surplus grain. Of course, they are not capitalists, but without advancing socialism, capitalist tendencies will continue to grow. Therefore, it is essential to vigorously promote the general line and agricultural collectivization. Similarly, in cities it was also inadvisable to propagate the general line of the transitional period. State-owned enterprises had only just begun to take over, and neither state-owned nor cooperative economic models had yet been fully established to serve as examples or demonstrate clear advantages. Now is indeed the right time—and the possibility exists—to vigorously promote both the general line and state capitalism.
Comments on Hu Qiaomu’s[I] request regarding Kaifeng[哆0chairing Central Committee meetings during his temporary absence
(December 10, 1953)
Reviewed by Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Chen, Gao, Deng Xiaoping, Peng Zhen, and Yang Shangkun; returned to Liu Shaoqi for handling.
(1) During Qiaomu’s temporary absence, it is necessary for Kaifeng to attend Central Committee meetings.
(2)
The textual issues remain to be discussed.
mouth
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Ten
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Mao
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Ten
[ I]
Hu Qiaomu, at that time Deputy Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and secretary to Mao Zedong.
[2]
Kaifeng, at that time also Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Publicity Department.
[3]
On December 7, 1953, Hu Qiaomu submitted a letter to Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi stating:
First, “Given that I am about to leave Beijing and temporarily step down from my duties at the Publicity Department, Comrade Kaifeng seems to have a genuine need to regularly attend Central Committee meetings.” He continued, “Since the Publicity Department is responsible for providing daily guidance on publicity work, particularly newspaper editorials, while Comrade Peng Zhen currently pays very little attention to the department’s affairs, I hope the Central Committee will give this matter special consideration.” Second, two documents—one concerning minority scripts and the other on Chinese character reform—have already been circulated. Regarding the minority scripts, it is proposed that the Administrative Council issue a directive; he hopes this can be approved at the upcoming Central Committee meeting. As for the character reform issue, it is more complex, and he requests that the Central Committee provide a preliminary guiding principle on the proposed reforms.
Comments on the United Front Work Department’s request report for convening a personnel arrangement conference[I]
(December 12, 1953)
The National People’s Congress will not convene until next year’s May session; holding such a meeting now would be premature. It would be more appropriate to schedule it for late spring or early summer next year.
Mao Zedong
December 12th
This refers to a request report dated January 17, 1953, submitted by the CPC Central United Front Work Department to Liu Shaoqi, with copy to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee. The report stated that, in order to comprehensively study specific plans across the central government and various provinces and municipalities for arranging democratic figures when implementing the system of people’s congresses, it was proposed to convene a personnel arrangement conference in January 1954. The agenda would include reviewing the proportion of democratic figures in provincial and municipal people’s congresses, government committees, and United Front organizations, along with detailed personnel arrangements; furthermore, it would outline preliminary proposals regarding the proportion, list, and selection regions/units of democratic figures for the National People’s Congress and the Second CPPCC.