( August 18, 1955 )
Comrades Luo Ruiqing, Deng Xiaoping, Yang Shangkun, and Wang Dongxing[1] are to read this. The matter of enemies spreading poison merits attention. Please strengthen your attention to the defense issues of the central organs.
Mao Zedong
August 18
[1]
This comment was written on the report dated August 13, 1955, from the Political Department of the Guangzhou Military Region of the Chinese People's Liberation Army to the General Political Department, the Border Defense Department of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, and the Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau, concerning serious poisoning incidents among troops stationed in Guangzhou. The report stated that during the August 1st Army Day period, over 1,500 people in 24 mess units of the troops stationed in Guangzhou suffered poisoning successively. During investigations, various units discovered some suspicious leads and suspicious individuals. Preliminary analysis indicated that some of these incidents were caused by poisoning by counterrevolutionary elements, while others were caused by food spoilage. Each unit is, based on specific circumstances, seeking truth from facts to separately ascertain the nature of the problems and handle them accordingly.
[2]
Luo Ruiqing was then serving as Director of the First Office of the State Council and concurrently Minister of Public Security. Deng Xiaoping was then serving as Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council. Yang Shangkun was then serving as Deputy Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Director of the General Office of the Central Committee. Wang Dongxing was then serving as Director of the Security Bureau of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.