Comments and Revisions
(January 10, 1955)

Comrade Shaoqi:
On page six, one item (III) has been added. Please review it. In addition, there are some other revisions.[2]
Mao Zedong
January 10

[1] Refers to the seventh item added by Mao Zedong when reviewing the draft directive of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on united front work, i.e., Part Two of this piece.
[2] In addition to adding the seventh item to the draft directive of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on united front work, Mao Zedong also changed two instances of “Chairman Mao” in the draft to “Comrade Mao Zedong.” Furthermore, after the third item of the draft directive, which stated: “The plenary sessions of the local committees of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in all provinces and municipalities shall convene at least once a year. Major issues concerning the political life of the state and the united front, particularly regarding the transformation of capitalist industry and commerce, the candidate lists for deputies to the people’s congresses and members of the people’s councils, and the various lists of the local committees of the CPPCC, shall be brought to appropriate meetings for consultation,” he added the following passage: “Such consultative meetings on major issues shall be held at least four times a year, that is, on average once every quarter; in addition, there shall also be some consultative meetings on a number of individual issues.”

It must be pointed out that while emphasizing the task of strengthening the people’s democratic united front, we must not forget the principle of both uniting and struggling. The erroneous political and ideological tendencies existing among democratic personages must be analyzed, and pointed out to them at appropriate times and in appropriate ways. In some cases, criticism should be raised or discussions conducted, so as to achieve the aim of helping them raise their ideological level and correct their mistakes. The notion that in the people’s democratic united front we can seek only unity and not struggle is completely wrong. Our task is: to oppose both the “Left” deviation of closed-doorism and the Right deviation of peacefully coexisting with erroneous ideas.