Comments on the Report on the Current Pig-Raising Movement

(December 16, 1959)

To the Party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, and to be forwarded to the Party committees of all prefectures, counties, and communes:

(1) The report of the Party Group of the Ministry of Agriculture dated December 12 is hereby issued to you.

(2) Party organizations at all levels should establish a livestock committee or group. At the four levels of province, prefecture, county, and commune, there should be a secretary who handles no other matters and is solely responsible for livestock affairs.

(3) In all areas where pig-raising conferences have not yet been held, except in regions inhabited by ethnic groups that forbid pig-raising, such conferences should be promptly convened at the provincial (municipal or regional), prefectural, county, and commune levels to sum up experiences and define tasks and methods. Such pig-raising conferences or livestock conferences should be held at least twice a year.

The Central Committee
December 16, 1959

[Note]
This refers to the report submitted by the Party Group of the Ministry of Agriculture on December 12, 1959, to the Central Committee and Mao Zedong on the current pig-raising movement. The report stated that since Mao Zedong’s letter on developing animal husbandry was conveyed within the Party, a mass movement for pig-raising and manure accumulation has been surging across the country. Fourteen provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions have already held pig-raising conferences or telephone conferences attended by county Party secretaries. In many places, the first secretary has personally taken command, and leading groups, committees, or offices have been established.

To be read immediately by Liu, Zhou, Deng, and Peng, and to be dispatched by telegraph by Shangkun.[1][2]
Mao Zedong
December 16

[1] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi. Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai. Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Peng refers to Peng Zhen, then a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a secretary of the Central Secretariat.
[2] Shangkun refers to Yang Shangkun, then an alternate secretary of the Central Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and director of the General Office of the Central Committee.
[3] On December 19, 1959, the Central Committee of the CPC approved and transmitted the report of the Party Group of the Ministry of Agriculture.