(August 1958)
Party committees at all levels should get a clear picture of the situation: How many farm tools across the province or region need to be improved, and how many need to be fitted with ball bearings? They should draw up a plan specifying which types of tools should be upgraded first and which later, and set concrete deadlines for completion. Only in this way can leadership become more precise and effective, and the tool-improvement campaign will be better carried forward.
Sichuan
These were words quoted from Mao Zedong in a report by People’s Daily on a teleconference convened by the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee to arrange and inspect the rural tool-improvement campaign. The report stated that after the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued an instruction on July 13, 1958, urging the rapid launch of a farm-tool-improvement drive throughout the countryside, the movement gained even greater momentum nationwide. To further advance the campaign and examine any problems arising in its course, the Secretariat held two teleconferences with provincial party secretaries. In addition to reiterating the spirit of the joint directive from the Central Committee and the State Council, the Secretariat emphasized that the tool-improvement campaign was the central issue in China’s current agricultural production, and called on party committees at all levels to strengthen their leadership over it. Following these teleconferences, Mao Zedong spoke at length with Tan Zhenlin, a secretary of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat, to learn about the progress of the campaign. Expressing his satisfaction that party committees everywhere attached great importance to the tool-improvement effort, Mao then issued this instruction.