Comments on the Issue of Sending Students and Trainees to the Soviet Union [1] (April 27, 1957)

Comrade Chen Yun [2]: Please study this matter together with the relevant personnel, exercise strict control, reach a unified solution, and designate a single agency to assume overall management. In the future, we should send fewer people, but those sent must be highly qualified. As for those already in the Soviet Union who display poor moral character or whose academic level is too low, might it be considered to recall them? Mao Zedong April 27

Published according to the manuscript. Notes [1] These comments were written on a report dated April 18, 1957, from the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee concerning certain ideological problems among Chinese personnel stationed in the Soviet Union and certain issues in the dispatch of students and trainees. The report stated that, at present, the ideological state of our personnel in the Soviet Union is generally sound, and their work and studies are conducted in a positive manner. However, following the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Polish–Hungarian events, a degree of radical sentiment has emerged among a considerable number of personnel, primarily students. Many students have lost confidence in continuing their studies in the Soviet Union, and there has been a growing demand for repatriation to pursue studies and internships in China. The report pointed out that the main problems in the dispatch of students and trainees are: (1) The sheer number involved—among graduate students in the Soviet higher-education system, those sent by China’s own higher-education authorities account for approximately one-third, and they tend to be concentrated in specific institutions, creating difficulties for supervisors and academic departments; as a result, some students have been forced to change their original fields of study. (2) Personnel are being sent to study disciplines that can be cultivated domestically or that do not fall within the Soviet Union’s areas of expertise. (3) The quality is inadequate: some individuals lack the requisite professional foundation, Russian-language proficiency, physical fitness, and ideological and moral standards. (4) There is no unified coordinating body for dispatching these individuals, making it impossible to exercise effective control or to reallocate them as needed. In light of these issues, the Chinese Embassy in the Soviet Union recommended that the State Council designate a specific agency to take charge of all such dispatch activities and that future selections be made on the principle of “fewer in number but of higher quality,” based on China’s needs and the Soviet Union’s strengths. [2] Chen Yun was then Vice Chairman of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.