Minutes of the Zhengzhou Conference [I]
(March 5, 1959)

(1) Agreement with Comrade Mao Zedong's views.

(2) The following fourteen phrases were stipulated as the current policy for consolidating and building the people's communes. The fourteen phrases are:

Unified leadership, with the team as the basis;
Management by levels, with powers devolved downward;
Three-level accounting, each bearing its own profits and losses;
Distribution plans to be decided by the commune;
Appropriate accumulation, with rational adjustments;
Materials and labor, exchanged at equal value;
Distribution according to work, acknowledging differences.

(3) A draft of several regulations on the management system of people's communes (draft) was drawn up.

Written by Mao Zedong as the minutes for the enlarged meeting of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau held in Zhengzhou from February 27 to March 5, 1959.

(March 1959)
What does it mean to build socialism? A concentrated expression.

Should there be a line between collective ownership and ownership by the whole people? A line is still necessary. Comrade Stalin drew a line and pointed out three conditions, preconditions. That was correct; the shortcoming was that he did not elaborate specifically enough. The forty articles elaborated much more concretely. Many issues Stalin did not mention: simultaneous development, the whole Party and whole people running industry, mass movements, putting politics in command, rectification.

The problem of urban people's communes is very complex. Do not fear slowness, but adopt an active attitude.

On the peasant question: During the Great Leap Forward, peasant initiative was underestimated. Since the Great Leap Forward began, it remains a peasant question. Peasants were overestimated. Ultimately, is Anshan Steel the Elder Brother, or is Xushui the Elder Brother? It is still the working class, Anshan Steel is the Elder Brother. Some "theoreticians" always compromise when they encounter practical problems. They evade the things left behind by capitalism: commodity production and the law of value. The question lies in how we understand them, whether we see them as beneficial to our socialist construction. If beneficial, then we utilize them; let them serve us. We must utilize commodity production and the law of value.

Prematurely propagandizing ownership by the whole people means the state will requisition and allocate; it is essentially expropriating the peasants. The peasants will be unhappy. Who would be happy doing this? Taiwan, which fears no chaos under heaven.

Communes can also run industries that yield relatively high profits. (Stalin dared not give tractors to the collective farms.)

Some people treat peasants as workers; this is incorrect.

Do not fear commodity production. The question is to see what kind of economy it is linked with.

--- Notes

On February 27, 1959, an enlarged meeting of the Central Committee Political Bureau was convened in Zhengzhou. The meeting lasted seven days and concluded on March 5. Attendees totaled forty-seven: twenty from the Central Committee and twenty-seven first secretaries of provincial, municipal, and regional Party committees. The theme of the meeting was the issue of people's communes. Comrade Mao Zedong first presented his views, followed by several discussions. The results were as follows: