Comments on the Issuance of Two Reports on Conditions in the Countryside
(March 18, 1961)
To be circulated to all comrades [1]. Both of these materials [2] are worth reading. Work in Hebei Province has shown considerable improvement. However, Jiahe County is too large, with a population of over 900,000; it should be divided into two counties. The people’s communes are also too big—there are only twenty-three, each with more than 40,000 people, which is excessively large. The rectification campaign in Jiahe has not yet been fully implemented; the masses are still unaware of the Twelve Points [3], and efforts to rectify the communes should be stepped up.
Mao Zedong
March 18
Printed from the manuscript.
Notes
[1] Refers to the comrades who were then attending the Central Committee Working Conference in Guangzhou.
[2] Refers to the two documents, “Comrade Yang Fangzhi on His Observations in the Countryside” and “New Developments in the Rural Areas of Hebei Province and the Beijing Suburbs,” published in Issue No. 80 of the Briefing on Current Situations, compiled by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee on March 11, 1961. These two materials reflect that during the Spring Festival, rural residents had well-organized living arrangements and high morale for production, while also pointing out certain specific problems that still exist in current rural work.
[3] Refers to the CPC Central Committee’s Urgent Directive Letter of November 3, 1960, Concerning Current Policy Issues in Rural People’s Communes, which consists of twelve points. See Note [1] on page 38 of this volume.