Comments on a Letter [1]
(July 13, 1959)

To be printed and distributed for reference by all comrades.

Mao Zedong
July 13

[1]
This letter, dated July 4, 1959, from Wang Qinglin, a cadre of the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, states that in Rizhao County, Shandong Province, the "communist wind" did not blow strongly last year, and the Great Leap Forward has given the county an entirely new look. Last year saw a great agricultural harvest, and domestic fowl and livestock also increased substantially. At present, the masses are full of drive for production, and a high tide in summer production has been set off. One characteristic here is that every production team operates a fair amount of vegetable plots, fully supplying the needs of the commune members. After the summer harvest, the vast majority of production teams have implemented a food supply system, and the mess halls have not collapsed, though a few are not run well enough. According to reports from cadres at the county, commune, and team levels, the following problems still exist here:
(1) The Central Committee's directive on private plots has not been earnestly implemented, and private plots have still not been distributed to commune members to this day.
(2) Summer grain rations have not yet been fully distributed to households.
(3) The masses show great enthusiasm for raising pigs but are dissatisfied with not being able to eat meat for long periods.
(4) County and commune cadres feel that there are too many documents and meetings at present, leaving them no time to go down to the grassroots level and very little time for study, making it impossible to improve.