Comment on Wu Lengxi’s [1] Submission of the Eighth Plenary Session’s Publicity Plan and Brief Reports on the Survey of People’s Communes (August 31, 1959) Telephoned Comrade Wu Lengxi: Have read your letter [2] and its attachments [3]; very good.
Printed by Mao Zedong on August 31 based on his handwritten draft.
Notes [1] Wu Lengxi was then president of the Xinhua News Agency and editor-in-chief of the People’s Daily. [2] In a letter dated August 31, 1959, Wu Lengxi informed Mao Zedong that both the People’s Daily and the Xinhua News Agency had drawn up preliminary publicity plans for the Eighth Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee and had already begun implementing them.
The People’s Daily’s editorial plan now included two additional articles: one arguing that China could catch up with Britain within about ten years, and another explaining why right-wing opportunism constitutes the principal danger at present.
In addition, we have been successively adding more theoretical articles expounding on the General Line, the Great Leap Forward, and the people’s communes, which will be published on the seventh page.
As for the survey of people’s communes, work is currently being carried out vigorously.
The provinces are very enthusiastic about this effort, with most secretaries personally taking charge and dispatching large teams to the field, intending to select and send us some exemplary materials.
We too have organized a team of more than fifty people to provide support.

[3] Refers to the preliminary publicity plan of the People’s Daily concerning the resolutions of the Eighth Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee, the Xinhua News Agency’s reporting plan for covering the same plenary session, and the first five issues of the brief reports on the survey of people’s communes submitted by Wu Lengxi.