Report on the Campaign to Eliminate All Hidden Counter-Revolutionaries
Comment
(July 4, 1955)
To the Shanghai Bureau, all provincial and municipal Party committees,
All ministries and commissions of the Central Committee, and all Party groups in state organs:

The special report dated June 30, 1955, from the Party Committee of the Beijing State Organs on launching the campaign to eliminate all hidden counter-revolutionaries (enclosed as a document) is hereby forwarded to you for reference. If similar deviations exist in your areas, please take care to correct them.

To be reviewed by Liu and Deng.¹
Shang Kun² to transmit by telegram.

The Central Committee
July 4, 1955
Mao Zedong
July 4

[1]
This report indicates that among the 53 units under the Party Committee of the State Organs, 36 have already had leading comrades deliver mobilization reports to all cadres in their organs on eliminating all hidden counter-revolutionaries, while the remaining units are actively making preparations. In units where open mobilization has been carried out, the masses have shown high fighting spirit, and the rampant arrogance of the counter-revolutionaries has been dealt a heavy blow. However, shortcomings still exist in the campaign, the main ones being that the development of the campaign across different units is extremely uneven, and the leadership of the campaign is still lagging behind the development of the struggle situation. Therefore, the following issues urgently need to be resolved at present: First, resolutely overcome the right-leaning, complacent mentality and indifferent attitude toward the campaign that still exist among some leading cadres, as this is the main obstacle to the current development of the campaign. Second, resolutely overcome the tendency in certain units of not actively mobilizing the masses and not daring to boldly allow the masses to carry out ideological struggles in small group meetings. Third, establish responsibility at every level, set up command structures for the struggle from top to bottom, and each ministry and bureau must establish a five-person group organization, using them as the core, so that the broad ranks of activists are gathered around the leading core.

[2]
Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, who was then Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council.
[3]
Shang Kun refers to Yang Shangkun, who was then Deputy Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Director of the General Office of the Central Committee.