Comments on the Summary of Political Winning-Over Work
(July 16, 1959)

Comrade Peng Dehuai[1]:

This document[2] is good and should be issued to all bandit-suppression areas for implementation accordingly. The Qamdo area, in particular, urgently needs such methods. If you agree, please hand it over to Shangkun for handling.

Mao Zedong
July 16

1. In the Baima area, the political winning-over work in June was conducted on a large scale and with strong force, achieving relatively great results. The surrender of rebel armed forces increased day by day, and the confidence of cadres and the masses grew steadily.
2. In addition to propagating and embodying the Party’s policies, the political winning-over work in June yielded the following two points of experience:
   (a) The more conscientiously and skillfully the Party’s policy of quelling the rebellion is implemented, the greater the effect. In the deployment of troops, attention should be paid to exerting military pressure on the rebel armed forces to facilitate political winning-over.
   (b) Winning over the surrender of reactionary chieftains and dispatching surrendered chieftains to call for surrender will both lead to the increasingly rapid disintegration of the rebel armed forces.
3. In implementing the Party’s policy of quelling the rebellion, there still exist problems such as doubts about the Party’s policies, incorrect views on those who have surrendered, and unclear distinctions between the treatment of captives and those who have surrendered. In order to carry out political work on a large scale, all subordinate units, upon receiving this document, should immediately organize study, overcome deviations, and correct mistakes.

On July 16, 1959, the General Office of the CPC Central Committee forwarded the brief summary of the 1st Cavalry Division of the Lanzhou Military Region and Mao Zedong’s comments to the Party committees of Gansu, Qinghai, Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces, the Tibet Work Committee, and the Party committees of the Lanzhou, Chengdu, Kunming, and Tibet Military Regions.

--- Notes

[1] Peng Dehuai, then serving as a member of the Military Commission of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Minister of National Defense.
[2] Refers to the brief summary of the political winning-over work of the 1st Cavalry Division in June, forwarded on July 10, 1959, by the Political Department of the Lanzhou Military Region of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Its main contents are: