Notice from the Central Committee on Issues Such as Increasing the Number of Prominent Rightist Elements Subject to Named Criticism〔1〕  (July 9, 1957)  I  To All Provincial, Municipal, and Autonomous Regional Party Committees, and to the Party Leadership Groups of Various Central State Organs:

Two matters are hereby notified as follows:  (1) The struggle against the rightists is deepening.
The list of confirmed rightist core elements has doubled〔2〕; nationwide, it now comprises not 40,000 but approximately 80,000 individuals.
For example, Beijing has around 8,000 such elements, while Shanghai numbers over 700, including rightists among university students (all 50 core rightist elements among teachers and students at Tsinghua University). These are all rightist core figures who have been subjected to named criticism within various circles.
The current problem is that those publicly named and criticized in the newspapers account for only about three percent of the total.
In Shanghai, for instance, there are more than 7,000 rightist core elements, yet fewer than twenty have been named in the press—less than three percent.
The same few names keep appearing, leaving readers thoroughly weary.
Therefore, it is necessary to incrementally add more names in stages, eventually bringing the proportion up to around ten percent of the total.
The remaining ninety percent of rightist core elements should be subjected to named criticism within their respective work units, without publication in the newspapers.
The ten percent to be named in the press should include prominent rightist figures among students.
Anyone to be named must be supported by solid evidence; preferably, they should also have a history of misconduct and have long been unpopular.

(2) Sixteen philosophers and social scientists in Beijing have already launched a counteroffensive against the rampant attacks by rightists in the academic sphere.
This kind of counteroffensive in Beijing should be expanded, and other localities should follow suit.
Among natural scientists as well, whenever there are brazen political and academic assaults backed by accurate facts, a counterattack should be organized.

The Central Committee  July 9, 1957  Printed from Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft.

II  To the Central Committee:  A draft notice has been prepared.
Please consult with Peng Zhen and Li Weihan〔3〕; if deemed feasible, please promptly decide to issue it.
Mao Zedong  July 9  Printed from the handwritten draft.

Notes  [1] Part (I) of this document is a notice drafted by Mao Zedong on behalf of the CPC Central Committee concerning issues such as increasing the number of rightist core elements subject to named criticism in the newspapers; Part (II) is a personal letter from Mao Zedong to the Central Committee regarding this notice.  [2] Prior to this notice, in its directive of June 29, 1957, on winning over and uniting the middle elements, the CPC Central Committee estimated: “As for the number of rightists and ultra-rightists—those in Beijing’s thirty-four institutions of higher learning and several dozen government organs who need to be named and criticized across various levels—the figure is roughly 40,000; nationwide, it is also approximately 40,000.”  [3] Peng Zhen was then a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee.
Li Weihan was then Minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee.