Introducing the Experience of Anhui [1]

(March 9, 1959)

Comrade Zeng Xisheng’s report of 24:00 on March 8 was received on the morning of the 9th. The Anhui six-level cadre conference is scheduled to begin on March 9 and conclude on the 18th, two days earlier than Hubei. This is extremely good. The Anhui conference actually has more than ten thousand participants, including over a thousand from the wait-and-see faction. The scale is large, and there is no thinking of being afraid of ghosts. If Communists are afraid of ghosts, they simply do not look the part. This document is to be distributed to the Party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and regions, excluding Tibet, for reference.

Mao Zedong
12:00 noon, March 9, 1959

Note
This is a comment written to forward the report made by Zeng Xisheng, First Secretary of the CPC Anhui Provincial Committee, at 24:00 on March 8, 1959, to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee. The report mainly discussed the plan of the Anhui Provincial Committee to convene a six-level cadre conference and the situation regarding discussions among cadres at and above the county level on Mao Zedong’s speech at the Zhengzhou Conference. The title of this piece was drafted by Mao Zedong.

(March 9, 1959)
Comrade Xiaoping [2]:
This document should be sent by telephone tonight to the Party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and regions. Attached below is the Hunan report of the 8th [4].
Mao
13:00, on the 9th

Notes
[1] This is a comment written on the briefing report dated March 8, 1959, from the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee to the Central Committee on implementing the instructions of the Zhengzhou Conference. The title was drafted by Mao Zedong.
[2] Xiaoping, i.e., Deng Xiaoping, then General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council.
[3] Refers to Part II of this text.
[4] The briefing from the CPC Hunan Provincial Committee to the Central Committee on March 8, 1959, stated that a recent enlarged meeting of the provincial Party standing committee had been held to convey and discuss the directives of the Second Zhengzhou Conference. As this was an intense period for spring plowing, preparation for plowing, and tending to spring-harvest crops, implementing the spirit of the Zhengzhou Conference required both sharp and deep resolution of ideological issues and continued buoying of the momentum of the ongoing production leap forward campaign. To this end, the provincial committee decided:
(1) To arrange current production work in accordance with the central authorities’ spirit of dividing levels and delegating powers.
(2) With counties already holding meetings to convey this year’s agricultural production leap forward plans, first strike up the gongs and drums of production.
(3) To convene a provincial six-level cadre conference on March 13.
(4) For the provincial committee and each prefectural and municipal committee, immediately launch one or two pilot projects to ascertain the ideological state of cadres and the masses and propose concrete plans for implementing the spirit of the Zhengzhou Conference.