Central Committee’s Comment on the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee’s Report Concerning the Province-Wide Conference of Cadres at Three Levels [1] (August 30, 1959) To all provincial, municipal, and regional party committees; to comrades in Beijing; and to the party leadership groups of various ministries and commissions.

The guiding principles for the competition have been set forth very correctly, and the whole country should follow this approach.

Printed by the Central Committee on August 30 based on Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft.

To be read by Comrades Liu and Peng Zhen [2], handled by Shang Kun [3], following the example of Guizhou.

Printed by Mao from the handwritten draft. Notes

[1] In this report dated August 28, 1959, sent by the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee to the Central Committee and the Shanghai Bureau, it is stated that the provincial committee convened a conference of cadres at the provincial, prefectural, and county levels on August 23, primarily to convey and study the Communiqué of the Eighth Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee and its resolution on launching a campaign to increase production and economize. The meeting also set the main targets for increasing industrial and agricultural output in the province for 1959 and focused on discussing how to boost morale, strive for excellence, launch a labor competition movement, and further intensify the campaign to increase production and economize. During the discussion, participants agreed that the most important task at present was to launch a socialist labor competition—a mass movement to learn from, catch up with, and surpass the advanced. Participants particularly emphasized the following points: (1) The labor competition is not merely a matter of working methods; it is a concrete manifestation of implementing the General Line. Therefore, the ideology of the General Line must be firmly established throughout the competition. (2) The competition must be conducted on a mass scale, with specific targets and measures effectively communicated and implemented among the masses. (3) The competition should uphold a communist spirit of mutual encouragement and common progress.

[2] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Peng Zhen was then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a secretary of the Secretariat.

[3] Shang Kun refers to Yang Shangkun, who at that time served as an alternate secretary of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat and director of the Central Office.