Marginalia on a Dispatch [I]
(March 4, 1954)
This document is hereby submitted for the perusal of Comrades Lin Biao, Chen Boda, Hu Qiaomu, Tan Zheng, and Tao Zhu.
To be returned to Mao.
Mao Zedong
March 4th
[I] These are three marginal notes penned by Mao Zedong on a dispatch from the Associated Press, dated February 26, 1954, and transmitted from Tokyo. The dispatch speculates about the possibility of Mao’s withdrawal from the political stage and the question of succession; it also comments on Gao Gang, describing him as “astute” and noting that “he had earned the respect of local leaders for his successful administration of Manchuria…”
[2]
Lin Biao was then Vice Chairman of the People’s Revolutionary Military Commission and First Secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat. Chen Boda served as Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Propaganda Department. Hu Qiaomu also held the post of Deputy Minister in the same department. Tan Zheng was First Deputy Secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat, while Tao Zhu was a member of the CPC Central Secretariat’s Standing Committee and Fourth Secretary of the South China Bureau.

The Associated Press report concerning Japanese views on Gao Gang merits attention. Japanese intelligence agencies were well acquainted with Gao Gang, as U.S. and Japanese intelligence services maintained cooperative relations.
[1]
Gao Gang had previously held the positions of Member of the CPC Central Political Bureau, Secretary of the Northeast Bureau, Vice Chairman of the Central People’s Government, and Chairman of the State Planning Commission. In February 1954, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee exposed his conspiratorial activities aimed at opposing the Party and seizing power.

Archival photograph
1954: Mao Zedong and Tan Qilong in Shaoxing.
“Taste of Tea” (Chinese painting)