Comments on Zhou Yang’s [1] Speech Draft for the Eighth National Congress of the CPC
(September 21, 1956)
To Comrade Zhou Yang:
I have just read this document and find it acceptable. However, the quotations attributed to me seem somewhat excessive; it would be better to reduce them a bit.
Mao Zedong
September 21, 5:00 a.m.
[1]
Zhou Yang, at that time Deputy Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Chinese Writers Association.
[2]
Refers to Zhou Yang’s speech draft delivered at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. When published in the People’s Daily on September 26, 1956, it was titled “Let Literature and Art Play a Tremendous Role in the Great Cause of Socialist Construction.”

September 1956:
Delegations from more than 50 communist and workers’ parties were invited to attend the Eighth National Congress of the CPC as observers.
The photo shows Mao Zedong delivering a speech at a banquet welcoming the fraternal delegations attending the Eighth National Congress of the CPC.
In September 1956, state leaders including Mao Zedong received foreign guests.

Archival photograph
In September 1956, Mao Zedong met with Enver Hoxha, First Secretary of the Labor Party of Albania.
Also in September 1956, Jacques Duclos, a member of the Political Bureau of the French Communist Party, presented Mao Zedong with newspapers from the period of the Paris Commune.
Archival photograph
In September 1956, Jovan Veselinov, head of the delegation of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia and a member of its Central Committee, presented a gift to Mao Zedong.
In September 1956, Mao Zedong met with Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and examined the gifts he had brought.
In September 1956, Mao Zedong met with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, General Secretary of the Romanian Workers’ Party.
Archival photograph
In September 1956, Mao Zedong met with Dolores Ibárruri, Chairwoman of the Spanish Communist Party.
In September 1956, Mao Zedong was at a banquet.