( August 3, 1955 )
Liu, Deng [1] :
Please have this printed and distributed to all members of the Political Bureau for discussion and approval at a Political Bureau meeting.
Mao Zedong
August 3
[1]

--- Notes



This is a comment written by Mao Zedong on the report dated August 2, 1955, from Peng Dehuai, member of the Central Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier of the State Council and Minister of National Defense, addressed to Liu Shaoqi and others.
[2]


Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, who was then Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.
[3]


Peng Dehuai’s report stated: Among active-duty officers, the list of those to be conferred the rank of major general and above has, from the winter of 1954 to the present, been repeatedly studied and subjected to solicitation of opinions by the Military Commission in accordance with the four conditions stipulated in the Officers’ Service Regulations (current post held, political quality, professional competence, length of service in the armed forces, and contributions to the revolutionary cause). As a result of the study, the list of senior generals
(10 persons)
has been adopted and finalized at a meeting of the Central Political Bureau; regarding the list of generals
(53 persons),
except for 3 former insurrectionary officers whose cases must be decided by the Central Committee, unanimous agreement has been reached on the remaining candidates; only the lists of lieutenant generals
(177 persons)
and major generals
(808 persons)
have undergone further significant reductions. These lists were approved at the Military Commission meeting on August 2 and are now submitted for review. With regard to the list of ranks of marshal, after study by the members of the Military Commission, it is held that Comrade Mao Zedong, being the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China and required to command the nation’s armed forces, should therefore be assessed as Generalissimo; the remaining 11 members of the Military Commission are assessed as marshals. For comrades on local Party committees who concurrently hold military posts, the principle is to assess the rank without conferring it, but for certain individual comrades, for the sake of accommodation, active-duty ranks are to be conferred as well. The total number of the above-mentioned persons to be conferred the rank of major general and above is 1,063. Instructions are requested. The lists for field-grade and junior-grade ranks will be completely reviewed by the end of September. Once the Central Committee has approved the list of major generals and above, formal conferment can be uniformly carried out on October 1.