Reply Telegram Regarding the Pace of Development
(December 4, 1955)
To the Gansu Provincial Party Committee, with copy to the Shanghai Bureau, all provincial and municipal party committees, and the party committees of autonomous regions:
Telegram No. Ill dated December 2, 1955 has been received. As for a situation like that in Gansu, our view is as follows: this winter and next spring, development should proceed in two waves, bringing the total proportion of cooperative households to slightly over forty percent of all farming households; if it can be done without undue strain, then a bit more than fifty percent would also be acceptable. Any further increase might not be appropriate. It would be very good if, in the second half of 1956, another surge could raise the figure to around eighty percent of all farming households. However, your telegram states: “It is entirely possible to achieve a level of approximately seventy-five percent of all farming households within a single wave this winter and spring.”
[1]
Refers to the Gansu Provincial Party Committee’s telegram dated December 2, 1955, addressed to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee, concerning the pace of agricultural collectivization throughout the province. The telegram reads:
“The Central Committee’s instruction of November 30 regarding the planned pace of agricultural collectivization in our province is entirely correct. Our province’s plan for the development of agricultural collectivization was indeed too modest, which indicates that our leadership still lags far behind the objective situation. We have now decided to convene the Sixth Enlarged Meeting of the Provincial Party Committee on December 5 to undertake a new round of planning. Based on the current actual progress of collectivization across various localities, it is entirely feasible to increase the number of households joining cooperatives to about seventy-five percent of all farming households in a single wave this winter and spring. At the same time, we must ensure not only a large quantity but also high quality.”

Around forty percent, or perhaps fifty percent, would be appropriate.
The Central Committee
December 4, 1955
Liu, Zhou, Zhu, Chen, Peng Zhen, Xiaoping, Zi Hui[I) — read and filed;
Shangkun121 Office.
[l]
Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Zhu refers to Zhu De. Chen refers to Chen Yun, who at that 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 was Deng Xiaoping, then Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council. Zi Hui was Deng Zihui, who at that time held the post of Minister of the CPC Central Committee’s Department of Rural Work and also served as Vice Premier of the State Council.
[2]
Shangkun refers to Yang Shangkun, who at that time was Deputy Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the Central Office.