Commentary on the Report of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee Transmitting the Spirit of the Beidaihe Conference [1] (September 1, 1960)

Comrade Shangkun [2]: Please forward this document [3] to all Central Bureaus, the party committees of provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, and to the various ministries and party groups at the central level, for their reference. Do not send it to Xinjiang or Heilongjiang. Mao Zedong, 1:00 a.m., September 1, 1960. Printed from the manuscript.

Notes [1] Refers to the CPC Central Committee Work Conference held in Beidaihe from July 5 to August 10, 1960. [2] Shangkun is Yang Shangkun, who at that time served as an alternate member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee and Director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee. [3] The report submitted by the CPC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee to the Central Committee and to Mao Zedong on August 29, 1960, concerning the transmission of the spirit of the Beidaihe Conference, stated: On August 20, we convened a working conference of the provincial party committee to convey and discuss the spirit of the Central Committee’s Beidaihe Conference. The main points were as follows: (1) With regard to the Bucharest Conference, it was generally believed that this was a major conspiracy meticulously planned by the modern revisionists led by Khrushchev—a step in their overall scheme to undermine our Party. However, since truth was on our side and our delegation had adopted a correct line of struggle, they were ultimately defeated. (2) Participants analyzed the social and historical roots of modern revisionism, concluding that the existence of a privileged stratum with high incomes within the Soviet Union, the substantial proportion of individual farming in the countryside, the presence of prosperous middle peasants, the emphasis on material incentives, the failure to carry out a thorough ideological and political revolution, the pursuit of pleasure, and the pervasive bourgeois influence in the cultural sphere, together with widespread pro-American and peace-loving tendencies, had created a breeding ground for modern revisionism. Moreover, the Soviet Union and certain European countries had long been deeply influenced by revisionists such as Bernstein and Kautsky; although efforts had been made in the past to combat these tendencies, they had never been completely eradicated, and whenever conditions were favorable, they would flare up again. (3) It was felt that the struggle against modern revisionists would be prolonged, complex, and arduous. Nevertheless, modern revisionists were destined to fail; they could never assume the role of guiding the international revolutionary movement. The center of gravity of the revolution had shifted to Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and the leadership of the international communist movement had passed to China. Our Party should therefore shoulder the responsibility of leading the international communist movement. (4) Attendees expressed their determination to transform righteous indignation into strength, to strive for self-improvement, to rely on self-reliance, to build the country through diligence and frugality, and to resolutely implement the Central Committee’s directives on safeguarding grain and steel supplies and on launching campaigns to increase production and practice economy, so as to ensure the fulfillment of foreign trade targets and to press ahead toward the forefront of science and technology, thereby delivering even more powerful blows to imperialism and modern revisionism. (5) We have instructed cadres throughout the province to intensify their study of relevant documents and to make thorough ideological preparations. At this meeting, three leading groups were formed to disseminate, in early September and across three separate areas, the seven documents prescribed by the Central Committee to party members at or above the level of county party secretaries.