Notes by Mao Zedong on Li Fuchun’s Report〔1〕 Concerning the Recent Work of the State Planning Commission and Other Units (September 2, 1959)

Telephoned Li Fuchun: I have read both this document〔2〕 and the previous one〔3〕. I approve the arrangements for their meeting.

Mao Zedong, September 2, printed from the manuscript.

Notes 〔〕  Li Fuchun was at the time a Secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Director of the State Planning Commission.

〔2〕  In this report to Mao Zedong dated September 1, 1959, Li Fuchun stated that ten days had passed since their return from the Lushan Conference. Apart from instructing the State Planning Commission and various ministries to begin work on next year’s plan, the main task had been to convey and discuss the resolutions of the Lushan Conference. Starting on August 26, the Party leadership groups of the State Economic Commission, the Construction Commission, the Science and Technology Commission, and the State Planning Commission held joint meetings to examine the question of the right-opportunist anti-Party clique. On the afternoon of the 30th, an enlarged meeting of the four commissions’ Party leadership groups was convened, with the central focus being to achieve thorough ideological understanding—especially to overcome the confusion among cadres of the State Planning Commission, to grasp the General Line, to uphold the General Line, and to implement it in the process of correcting shortcomings and mistakes in their work. Around September 15, they aimed to first draw up an outline of next year’s plan (preparing three different proposals, all taking steel as the leading sector, for comparison). In the struggle against right-wing opportunism and in the work of formulating next year’s plan, cadres of the State Planning Commission were urged to clarify both the issue of direction and that of methods; only then could their thinking be unified, their methods improved, and the plan properly drawn up.

〔3〕  Refers to the self-criticism report submitted by Jia Tuofu, Deputy Director of the State Planning Commission, to the CPC Central Committee in August 1959.