Marginalia on Chen Zhengren’s Letter of Opinion on the Third Draft of “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People”
(June 8, 1957)

Comrade Chen Boda⑵:
Please review this document⑶. If it cannot be finalized tonight, you may submit it to me by 2:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon.
Mao Zedong
June 8

[1] Chen Zhengren was at that time Deputy Minister of the Central Committee of the CPC in charge of rural work.
[2] Chen Boda was then Director of the Political Research Office of the CPC Central Committee and Mao Zedong’s secretary.
[3] Refers to the letter dated June 7, 1957, written by Chen Zhengren to Mao Zedong, offering his views on the third draft of “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People.” In the letter, he suggested adding the four characters “during the revolutionary period” before the sentence stating that “large-scale mass class struggles have come to an end.” He further explained: “As I understand it, this means that the two revolutions—the New Democratic Revolution and the Socialist Revolution—have basically been won; the revolutionary phase (including social reform) has essentially concluded, and we have entered the period of socialist construction. However, class struggle still persists. Such struggle manifests not only as a prolonged ideological struggle but also as political and other forms of struggle (such as economic struggle).” The subsequently published article “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People” adopted this suggestion.