Amendments and Comments on the “Draft Constitution of the Communist Party of China”〔1〕 (August–September 1956) I. Article 37: The Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Party shall elect the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, its Standing Committee, and the Secretariat of the Central Committee; it shall also elect one Chairman, several Vice-Chairmen, and one General Secretary of the Central Committee. Printed according to the issue of People’s Daily dated September 27, 1956. (Includes a copy amended by Mao Zedong.) II. To Comrade Deng Xiaoping〔2〕: I have reviewed both sets of revisions and approve them. I only believe that three characters should be added to Article 3 of the Party Constitution〔3〕; please make the final decision. Mao Zedong, 10 September, 10:00 p.m.

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Three characters were added to Article 3. Printed according to the manuscript. Notes 〔1〕 This section (I) consists of Mao Zedong’s amendments made while reviewing Article 37 of the “Draft Constitution of the Communist Party of China,” submitted by Deng Xiaoping on August 5, 1956. The text typeset in Song typeface represents words added by Mao Zedong. Section (II) is Mao Zedong’s commentary on the revised draft of the “Draft Constitution of the Communist Party of China.” 〔2〕 Xiaoping refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at that time served as Secretary-General of the CPC Central Committee and was in charge of drafting the “Draft Constitution of the Communist Party of China.” 〔3〕 Article 3 of the “Draft Constitution of the Communist Party of China,” concerning the rights of party members, stipulates in its first paragraph: “At Party meetings or in Party publications, [members] shall participate in free and practical discussions on practical issues related to Party policy.” Mao Zedong added the three characters “theory and” before “practical issues.”