Comments on a Report from Fujian Province on the Campaign to Eliminate the Four Pests as the Center of the Patriotic Health Movement

(March 4, 1958)

Comrade Wu Lengxi[1]:

This document[2] may be published and broadcast. Return to Ye Zilong[3].

Mao Zedong
March 4
Based on the manuscript.

**Notes**
[1] Wu Lengxi, then Director of the Xinhua News Agency and Editor-in-Chief of *People’s Daily*.
[2] Refers to the report submitted on January 29, 1958, by the Fujian Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Fujian Provincial People’s Committee to the Central Committee, the State Council, and local and municipal Party committees on the progress of the patriotic health movement centered on eliminating the Four Pests. The report stated that since October 1957, the province had successively launched a patriotic health movement centered on eliminating the Four Pests in conjunction with the winter production campaign. On January 2 of this year, a mobilization rally for eliminating the Four Pests was held, with over a million people listening via radio broadcast. After the rally, the movement progressed rapidly, expanding from urban areas to rural villages. The key insights from the campaign were: (1) Extensive and in-depth mobilization of the masses, employing diverse methods of propaganda to ensure that every household was informed, with "every household mobilized and every individual taking action." (2) Leaders personally took charge, with Party secretaries assuming command. In most areas, leading Party, government, and military officials personally led cadres and the masses into the movement, boosting public confidence in eliminating the Four Pests. (3) Concrete plans were necessary, integrating concentrated campaigns with ongoing efforts.