Comment on the "Briefing on the Rectification Situation"[1]
(June 6, 1957)
Shangkun,[2] print and distribute for all Central Committee members in Beijing to read.
Completely a rumor, but it is worthy of attention.
Mao Zedong
June 6
[1] This comment was written on a letter to Mao Zedong from Lu Dingyi, then head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, dated June 5, 1957, which submitted the "Briefing on the Rectification Situation in Institutions of Higher Education." The "Briefing" said that a student at Peking University had written an article titled "My Worries and Appeal," which spread the rumor that a split had begun in the Party Central Committee, that Chairman Mao's "ming" policy had met with opposition from 90% of the people within the Party and a counterattack from conservative forces within the Party, and that some people wanted to force Chairman Mao to step down. After this article was mimeographed, it was distributed both on and off campus, causing a great shock.
[2] Shangkun refers to Yang Shangkun, then an alternate secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and director of the General Office of the Central Committee.