Annotation on the Issuance of Four Documents[1]
(June 15, 1960)

These four items may be read; they are to be retrieved after reading. Things develop according to their own inherent laws, independent of the will of imperialism, the reactionaries of various countries, the revisionists, and the semi-revisionists. If the revolutionary workers, revolutionary peasants, revolutionary national bourgeoisie, and revolutionary intellectuals, under the leadership of a revolutionary party, come to understand the laws of objective things (class oppression and national oppression), thereby adopt correct methods of struggle, unite to the maximum extent all forces that can be united, and engage in resolute struggle—if this is what they do—then their struggle will certainly be victorious. This is true of class struggle, and it is also true of the struggle for production. In short, in their own practice, people must meticulously seek out the inherent laws of objective things, not laws subjectively fabricated by themselves, and utilize these laws which are reflected from the objective into the subjective, that is, transform objective truth into subjective truth, so as to transform the objective world and realize their ideals. Otherwise, it is impossible. All reactionaries and opportunists invariably divorce themselves from the masses of the people and violate objective laws; hence, sooner or later, they are bound to fail. Is there any doubt about this? None whatsoever. Victory the world over is ours.

Mao Zedong
June 15, 1960

[1] This is an annotation written by Mao Zedong for the issuance of four materials: "On the Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization," "New Current Developments in the Soviet Union," "The Full Reprint of a Soviet Article in the Fifth Issue of the Romanian *Class Struggle*," and "Some Scattered Reactions to Three Articles." These four documents were issued to the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held in Shanghai from June 14 to 18, 1960. The first document stated that the recently held meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the member states of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization had reassessed the situation in China, believing that China would become one of the nuclear powers five years earlier than the West's predicted 1970, and that the entire world nuclear balance would be changed accordingly. The national independence movements in Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and other places would more readily accept China's influence and develop further. Regarding the Sino-Soviet contradictions, the meeting believed that although they indeed existed, they should not be overemphasized and could currently only be regarded as a reference factor in formulating China policy, not as a basic point of departure. How to deal with China was the central topic of this meeting. The United States advocated strengthening military anti-communism and anti-China efforts, expressing that "it is better to act sooner rather than later," and proposed establishing a general headquarters and staff for the Southeast Asia Treaty Group to unify command and instigate various anti-communist subversive activities. However, these adventurous ideas of the United States were firmly opposed by Britain, France, Canada, and other countries. Some countries even advocated negotiating with China as soon as possible and bringing China into the United Nations. The United States was extremely isolated at the meeting and agreed not to pass a resolution that "all countries must not recognize China." The second document stated that on June 10 and 12, the Soviet press successively published an article by Shevlyagin commemorating the 40th anniversary of the publication of Lenin's *"Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder* and an article by Makovsky with the same content. This was a major new development at the time. These two articles signified that the Soviet Union was shifting from the previous period's justifications to launching a counterattack against our country, attempting to diminish the influence of our Party. They believed they had already grasped the banner of anti-imperialism and anti-revisionism and had created favorable conditions for criticizing so-called "modern leftism," so they seized upon some of Lenin's phrases as a theoretical basis to label our country with the hat of "modern leftist opportunism" and to put pressure on other fraternal parties that shared common ground with China. By doing so, the Soviet Union meant that it would engage in a series of debates with us over a period, and there was also the possibility of overt public criticism. Its aim was to diminish, both internally and externally, the influence of our country's three articles commemorating Lenin's birthday and to compensate for the loss of prestige in the previous period. The third document stated that the fifth issue of this year's *Class Struggle*, the theoretical journal of the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, had reprinted in full the article "On the Old Stand of Revisionism" from the eighth issue of the Soviet journal *Communist*, and on June 5, *Scânteia* also published a commentary on this article. This commentary mainly quoted the Soviet article to criticize Yugoslav revisionism, using the opportunity to express its own stance, while also presenting its own views on some issues. Some formulations in the Soviet article were not adopted, and some harsh phrases were either avoided or replaced with milder wording, leaving more room for maneuver compared to the Soviet approach. The fourth document stated that recently, the military attaché of the Polish Embassy in Czechoslovakia said that the several articles published by the Chinese comrades to commemorate Lenin's birthday had sparked much discussion in Poland and were considered very important and very good. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade of Czechoslovakia said that currently, the anti-American struggle of the people in Asia, especially in Japan, was being conducted very well, and he believed it was mainly influenced by China, and that U.S. imperialism today feared China even more than it feared the Soviet Union. A Czech translator working at the Chinese Embassy in Czechoslovakia, after reading Liu Changsheng's speech at the World Federation of Trade Unions Council meeting on June 8, said that the speech's emphasis on not harboring illusions about imperialism and opposing the lulling of the people's vigilance were all truths.

From June 14 to 18, 1960, the enlarged meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee was held in Shanghai. The picture shows Mao Zedong speaking at the meeting.