Central Committee Endorsement of the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee’s Report on Agricultural Production Cooperatives (August 16, 1955) To the Shanghai Bureau, the Party Committees of all provinces and municipalities directly under the central government, and the Party Committees of the autonomous regions:  We are now transmitting to you for your reference the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee’s report of August 12, 1955, concerning agricultural production cooperatives.
The Central Committee deems the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee’s policy to be correct.
With regard to the interrelationship between socialist industrialization and the socialist transformation of agriculture, it is imperative to emphasize their close linkage, rather than overemphasizing the former at the expense of the latter.
For unless the pace of the socialist transformation of agriculture is kept in step with that of socialist industrialization, the latter cannot be accomplished in isolation and will inevitably encounter enormous difficulties.
Yet at present there are still many within the Party who have not grasped this point.
As for the preparatory work involved in rectifying, establishing, and expanding cooperatives, the Liaoning Provincial Party Committee has pointed out that it should include: “carrying out ideological mobilization at each level, criticizing and overcoming rightist tendencies, and vigorously arousing and harnessing the enthusiasm and initiative of the broad ranks of cadres and the masses; formulating comprehensive plans for cooperative development at all levels, with particular emphasis on resolving the class-stratification issues at the village level (which corresponds to the township level; the northeastern provinces had not yet changed their administrative designations to ‘townships’); continuing to rectify and consolidate existing cooperatives, further implementing specific policies on cooperation; reviewing, clearing out, and purifying the organizations of the cooperatives; strengthening leadership over mutual-aid teams to lay a solid foundation for establishing new cooperatives; and closely integrating the work of rectifying and establishing cooperatives with the reinforcement of primary-level Party organizations.”
All of these measures are appropriate.
The Liaoning Provincial Party Committee has decided to convene a joint meeting of county and district Party secretaries throughout the province in early September to discuss the issue of collectivization.
Other provinces may, as they see fit, follow this example.
Since Liaoning does not have a prefectural-level Party committee, we consider it necessary to establish such an organ forthwith in order to strengthen leadership over the process of collectivization.
August 16, 1955  Reviewed by Liu, Chen, Peng Zhen, Xiaoping, Chen Yi, and Enlai [1]; transmitted by telegram to Shangkun [2]; also distributed as indicated above.
Printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.
Notes  [1] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi.
Chen refers to Chen Yun, who at the time served as Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.
Peng Zhen was then an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
Xiaoping is Deng Xiaoping, who at the time held the posts of Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.
Chen Yi was a Vice Premier of the State Council.
Enlai is Zhou Enlai.  [2] Shangkun is Yang Shangkun, who at the time was Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Central Office.