Notes on the Central Committee’s Draft Directive for Discussing and Piloting the Regulations Governing State-Owned Industrial Enterprises (September 17, 1961) To Comrade Peng Zhen [1]: I have read the Directive [2] and the General Provisions [3]; they are very good. There are only a few minor revisions to the Directive [4]. Mao Zedong, 3:00 a.m. on September 17, printed from the manuscript. Notes [1] Peng Zhen was at that time a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and a secretary of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee. [2] Refers to the CPC Central Committee’s draft directive on discussing and piloting the Regulations Governing State-Owned Industrial Enterprises. The draft directive states that the purpose of this regulatory draft is to systematically summarize our experience in leading industrial enterprises, particularly over the past three-plus years, and to formulate rules and regulations for enterprise management that are suited to China’s actual conditions and can better serve the Party’s general line and the Great Leap Forward. The discussion and trial implementation of this draft regulation are of great significance for summarizing the experience of managing state-owned industrial enterprises during the past three years of the Great Leap Forward, consolidating the achievements already made, and correcting shortcomings in the work; for implementing the policy of readjustment, consolidation, enrichment, and improvement; and for the future development of China’s industry. The Central Committee calls upon Party committees at all levels to

effectively lead the discussion and trial implementation of this draft regulation, so that, after soliciting opinions from all sides and summing up the experience gained from the trial phase, the regulation may be further refined. [3] Refers to the General Provisions of the “Regulations Governing State-Owned Industrial Enterprises (Draft),” which consist of six articles: First, state-owned industrial enterprises are socialist economic organizations owned by the whole people and also independent production and business units, having the right to conduct independent economic accounting in accordance with state regulations. Second, the fundamental task of state-owned industrial enterprises is to comprehensively fulfill and overfulfill the state plan, increase social output, and expand socialist accumulation. Third, state-owned industrial enterprises must strictly adhere to the socialist principle of thrift and conscientiously implement economic accounting. Fourth, unified leadership and tiered management constitute both the state’s principles for administering state-owned industrial enterprises and the internal management principles of these enterprises. Fifth, within state-owned industrial enterprises, it is necessary to promote democracy, follow the mass line, fully mobilize the masses, give full play to the enthusiasm and creativity of all workers, technicians, and staff members, enhance their sense of ownership and responsibility, and correctly combine centralized management with mass movements. Sixth, the organization of the Communist Party of China within the enterprise serves as the leading core of the enterprise’s work. In addition to the General Provisions, the “Regulations Governing State-Owned Industrial Enterprises (Draft)” comprises ten chapters—planning management, technical management, labor management, wages, rewards, and living benefits, economic accounting and financial management, cooperation, the system of accountability, the factory director responsibility system under the leadership of the Party committee, trade unions and workers’ congresses, and Party work—totaling seventy articles. [4] Mao Zedong’s revisions to this directive primarily involved deleting the six characters “guided by Mao Zedong Thought” from the passage on the first page that reads: “The purpose of this draft regulation is to systematically summarize our experience in leading industrial enterprises, especially that of the past three-plus years, guided by Mao Zedong Thought, and to formulate rules and regulations for enterprise management that are suited to China’s actual conditions and can better serve the Party’s general line and the Great Leap Forward.” Furthermore, he changed the date of issuance of the directive to September 16, 1961.