Forwarded Comment on Comrade Li Jingquan's[1] Letter Regarding the Grain Issue
(May 9, 1961)

Comrade Li Jingquan's letter[2] is hereby distributed to all central bureaus and the party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and regions for reference.

Mao Zedong
2:00 a.m., May 9, 1961, in Shanghai.

[1] Li Jingquan, then serving as First Secretary of the Southwest Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and First Secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee.
[2] Refers to Li Jingquan's letter to Mao Zedong dated May 8, 1961, on the grain issue. The letter stated: On the grain issue, during my talks and discussions with cadres and commune members in Nanchong and Neijiang, the reactions I heard were relatively strong. The main concerns were the low grain ration standard and the demand for increased grain rations; implementing the "three fixings" for grain according to the distribution methods used during the advanced cooperatives; after distributing grain rations based on population, distributing the surplus grain according to labor work points; and announcing and fixing the state procurement tasks as early as possible. Given the considerable grain difficulties our province has faced over the past two years, the emergence of these demands is very natural and also reasonable. This needs to be resolved during the spring crop distribution to benefit the spring planting production and strive for a good grain harvest this year. Our principle for grain distribution is: the production brigade uniformly controls the grain, all levels share responsibility for storage, supplies are provided according to a low standard, distributed to households in installments and batches, production teams that exceed targets appropriately increase grain rations, and incentive grain is distributed according to work points.