Comments on a Briefing from Hebei Province Concerning the Campaign to Eliminate the Four Pests and Promote Public Health (February 4, 1958)

Comrade Wu Lengxi [1]: This document [2] may be published and broadcast; please submit it to Ye Zilong [3] for his review. Mao Zedong February 4

Based on the manuscript. Notes [1] Editor-in-chief of the People’s Daily. — Wu Lengxi, who at that time served as President of the Xinhua News Agency; [2] refers to a briefing dated January 31, 1958, issued by the General Office of the CPC Hebei Provincial Committee regarding the progress of the campaign to eliminate the four pests and promote public health. The briefing stated that, judging from the current situation, the province’s campaign to eradicate the four pests and improve sanitation had reached a peak. In many areas, the entire Party and all the people were mobilized to launch a vigorous offensive against the four pests, and in just ten days remarkable results had been achieved. According to incomplete statistics, a total of 48,963 task forces had been organized throughout the province, eliminating more than 40,000 rats and over 6.9 million sparrows, removing more than 14.73 million cartloads of garbage, and excavating 6,414 jin of fly pupae. Moreover, a large number of “four-no” villages had emerged. First, Party committees at all levels had established “four-no townships.” The main lessons learned in achieving these results were: (1) the campaign was integrated with ongoing production activities and the rectification movement through unified planning, and leading cadres personally took charge of implementing it; (2) leaders set an example by actively participating; (3) lively, dynamic, and inspiring methods were employed to carry out vigorous political mobilization among the masses; (4) the leading role of Party members, Youth League members, and young people was fully brought into play; (5) thanks to socialist education, the masses’ consciousness had been raised, and they now felt a strong urge and desire to eradicate the four pests; (6) technical guidance was strengthened. The briefing further noted that, in order to push the campaign to an even higher level, the provincial committee called for several more intensive campaigns around the Spring Festival, followed by sustained routine efforts, with the aim of making Hebei Province essentially a “four-no province” within three to five years. This briefing was later developed into a news report and published in the People’s Daily on February 5, 1958, under the title “Hebei Province’s Task Forces for Eradicating the Four Pests Are Waging All-Out War Against Them; A Province-Wide Search Operation Will Be Launched Before the Spring Festival.” [3] Ye Zilong, who at that time served as Mao Zedong’s secretary.