Comments by the CPC Central Committee on the Hebei Provincial Party Committee’s Report Concerning Plans for Agricultural Collectivization and Increased Grain and Cotton Production (September 9–10, 1955) To Liu, Zhu, Chen, Deng, Peng Zhen, Zi Hui, and Bo Da [1]: Please review. Shang Kun [2] is to transmit this by telegram; a separate printed copy is to be distributed as previously instructed. Mao Zedong, September 9. Printed from the manuscript.

To the Shanghai Bureau, the party committees of all provinces and municipalities directly under the central government, and the party committees of autonomous regions: We are now forwarding one copy of the Hebei Provincial Party Committee’s report dated September 1, concerning plans for agricultural collectivization and increased grain and cotton production [3], for your reference. The Central Committee deems the Hebei Provincial Party Committee’s policy to be correct. Of particular note in this report is that, in addition to the collectivization plan, it also sets out a province-wide plan for increasing agricultural output. You are requested to give this matter careful study. The Central Committee requires that all provincial, municipal, and autonomous regional party committees uniformly follow the Hebei approach—(the Anhui Provincial Party Committee had already been paying attention to this issue several years earlier, but failed to include this section in its most recent collectivization report)—and, after thorough deliberation, formulate comprehensive plans for increasing agricultural production within their respective areas, reporting them to the Central Committee without fail. This is of paramount importance. The Central Committee, September 10, 1955, printed from Mao Zedong’s manuscript.

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Notes [ ] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhu refers to Zhu De. 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. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, then Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Peng Zhen was at the time an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Zi Hui, i.e., Deng Zihui, held the posts of Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Department of Rural Work and Vice Premier of the State Council. Bo Da, namely Chen Boda, was Deputy Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Department of Rural Work. [2] Shang Kun refers to Yang Shangkun, who at the time served as Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.


[3] The report of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee states that from August 17 to 30 of this year, the provincial party committee convened its Fourth Congress of Representatives, which focused primarily on discussing the province’s three-year plan for agricultural collectivization and measures to achieve increases in grain and cotton yields. It was decided that over the next three years the province would develop between 25,000 and 30,000 new cooperatives during the current winter-spring period, bringing the proportion of farming households participating in cooperatives to around 50 percent of the total; by the end of 1956 this figure would rise to approximately 60 percent, by the end of 1957 to 70–75 percent, and by 1958 to over 80 percent, thereby completing agricultural collectivization throughout the province. During the current winter-spring season, priority will be given to developing cooperatives in cotton-producing areas, suburban districts, regions where less than 50 percent of households have joined cooperatives, and certain villages that have yet to establish any cooperatives. In order to make adequate preparations for this expansion, we emphasize the need to unify the understanding of cadres, criticize and rectify rightist tendencies, carry out extensive propaganda and educational work among grassroots party members and the general public, analyze the class and stratum composition of rural areas, vigorously develop mutual-aid teams, intensify training of leading personnel, and at the same time thoroughly reorganize and consolidate existing cooperatives, aiming to ensure that more than 90 percent of them can increase production. The meeting also determined the requirements for increasing grain and cotton yields in the province during the final three years of the First Five-Year Plan, reviewed the implementation of the previous two-year program for boosting grain and cotton output, examined future measures to further enhance production, and unanimously concluded that, provided we cultivate firm confidence in overcoming natural disasters, adopt a long-term perspective on agricultural production, engage in comprehensive planning, and tap all available potential, achieving increased output is entirely feasible.