Comrade Ding Yi:

This document [I] may be forwarded. Please investigate and report on which organ the Urban Construction General Bureau is subordinate to, and whether it is directly under the State Council.

Mao Zedong
August 12

[I] Refers to the briefing by the Office of the Central Ten-Person Group on August 10, 1955, regarding the exposure of numerous bogus engineers at the Urban Design Institute of the State Council’s Urban Construction General Bureau. The briefing stated that during the campaign to eliminate counter-revolutionaries, the Urban Design Institute, through mass accusations and historical investigations, discovered that many bogus engineers had infiltrated its ranks, among whom counter-revolutionary elements and bad elements were concealed. These individuals possessed inferior technical skills and had complex political and historical backgrounds. They infiltrated technical departments by means of forging personal histories and academic credentials, exaggerating and boasting about their abilities, and other methods. Meanwhile, some of our units, burdened with heavy capital construction tasks and urgently in need of technical personnel, recruited far and wide, indiscriminately accepting all regardless of authenticity. Upon hearing that someone had graduated from a university or technical college, they would grant them the position of engineer, thereby opening a convenient door for the infiltration of these bogus engineers.

On August 12, 1955, Lu Dingyi suggested to Mao Zedong that the above briefing be forwarded.

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Comments on the Briefing on the Exposure of Bogus Engineers by the State Council’s Urban Construction General Bureau and Revisions to the Central Committee’s Draft Comment

The notion of unilaterally accommodating senior intellectuals, refraining from touching them even when they have serious problems, is erroneous. The correct policy is: resolutely protect all good people; while as for genuine counter-revolutionary elements and other bad elements, it is imperative to mobilize the masses to meticulously uncover them and deal with them appropriately.

[I]

[I] This is a passage revised by Mao Zedong in the draft comment of the Central Committee, dated August 13, 1955, forwarding the briefing by the Central Ten-Person Group on the exposure of bogus engineers at the Urban Design Institute of the Urban Construction General Bureau. The text printed in Song typeface represents the words added and rewritten by Mao Zedong.

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