Commentary on the Report
(January 4, 1957)


To Shangkun III: Please note that this document is to be distributed orally to the secretaries of the provincial and municipal party committees upon their arrival in Beijing.
Mao


This document should be reviewed by Qiaomu; then return it to Shangkun for handling.
[I]


Shangkun refers to Yang Shangkun, who at the time served as an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee.
[2]


This refers to the report forwarded by the CPC Central Committee on January 4, 1957, from the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee dated December 22, 1956, concerning the situation and arrangements for launching a campaign to increase production and practice economy. The report stated that bureaucratism and subjectivism within the provincial-level organs were quite serious, and extravagance and waste had also increased compared with the past. Prominent manifestations included an extremely bloated organizational structure, resulting in an excessive number of meetings, documents, periodicals, long-distance telephone calls, administrative and service personnel, and frequent disputes over jurisdiction among different departments. Consequently, leading cadres remained aloof from the grassroots, unable to go down to the lower levels to address problems directly; matters were passed up and down through multiple layers, leading to prolonged delays in resolution. Moreover, there was excessive and rigid control over the work of subordinates, which dampened the initiative of grassroots officials. Therefore, it was imperative to streamline institutions and improve leadership and working methods. The report laid out a comprehensive plan for Jiangsu Province’s campaign to increase production and practice economy: first, to carry out extensive and in-depth publicity and education on increasing production and practicing economy; second, to halt the addition of new projects to capital construction and all other expenditures, and to freeze existing institutional setups and staffing levels; third, to conduct investigations and studies to formulate reorganization plans, with provincial-level organs taking the lead. In endorsing the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee’s report, the Central Committee pointed out the following: Existing staffing levels should be frozen; no organ may, for the time being, establish new units or recruit additional personnel. Furthermore, until suitable placement arrangements have been found, no personnel subject to streamlining should be removed from their current posts. All localities are urged to pay particular attention to these two directives.