Note of Instruction Requesting Hu Qiaomu [1] to Read the Article “In a Period of Great Social Upheaval” (April 1957) To Comrade Hu Qiaomu: Please read this.
It is regrettable that the People’s Daily lacks an article of this kind [2].

Printed from Mao’s manuscript.
Notes [1] Hu Qiaomu was at the time an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong’s secretary. [2] Refers to the editorial “In a Period of Great Social Upheaval” published in the Ta Kung Pao on April 13, 1957.
The article stated that our country is currently undergoing a period of great change.
First, thanks to the decisive victory of socialist transformation and the tremendous development of socialist construction, our social system has undergone a fundamental transformation.
Second, such drastic changes in the economic system are bound to be reflected in the thoughts and consciousness of the broad masses of the people.
Third, our economic endeavors and other work must not remain at their present level of technology; they should—and inevitably will—achieve a high degree of development.
In this period of great upheaval, the times have placed upon us enormous historical tasks.
On the front of economic construction, we must properly organize and manage the people’s economic activities, which requires us to learn how to run socialist enterprises and also to gradually carry out the technological upgrading of the national economy.
On the ideological front, the people’s state of mind should be in line with the socialist economic base and capable of promoting the development of economic undertakings.