Critique on a Worker’s Letter Regarding Price Increases [I]

(March 4, 1962)

Comrades Xiannian and [missing name]:

Please find a few knowledgeable comrades to study together and see whether the two measures proposed in this document are feasible, how they can be implemented, and when they can be achieved. If there are results, inform me.

Mao Zedong

March 4

[I] This critique was written on Issue No. 13 of *Public Sentiments*, compiled and printed by the Secretariat Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on February 23, 1962. This issue carried a letter from Jin Xianggen, a worker in Shanghai, dated February 12, 1962, addressed to Mao Zedong. The letter stated that recent continuous price increases were truly unsettling. We workers, responding to the Party’s call, have tightened our belts and saved some money over the past decade or so, only to see it devalue day by day, which is more painful than being cut by a knife. Many people, seeing this situation, no longer wish to save. Therefore, I propose two suggestions: (1) The government should make every effort to stabilize prices so that the people have full confidence in the currency’s value. (2) Publish a monthly general price index and adopt measures to guarantee the principal and value of savings.

[2] Xiannian refers to Li Xiannian, who was then serving as a Secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Deputy Head of the Central Finance and Economics Group, and Vice Premier of the State Council.

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Volume 45 of the Complete Works of Mao Zedong

March 1962

Mao Zedong and all members of the Hunan Investigation Team pose for a group photo in Wuchang.

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