**Critique on the Report of the Finance and Trade Office of the State Council on the Grain Issue**
(July 31, 1962)

Distribute to all comrades for discussion, propose amendments, and submit to the Finance and Trade Office for consideration and revision.

Mao Zedong
July 31

1. The situation of grain revenue and expenditure from 1961 to 1962.
2. The grain revenue and expenditure plan for 1962 to 1963.
3. A proposal for adjusting future grain procurement tasks.
4. The guidelines and policies for future grain work. Regarding the guidelines and policies, ten points are elaborated: (1) Continue implementing the policy of purchasing less and selling less, with revenue (including imports) exceeding expenditure. (2) Concentrate primary efforts on supporting the recovery and development of grain production, first and foremost by vigorously supporting the recovery and development of major grain-producing areas. (3) Allocate a portion of grain sold to rural areas to increase grain supply to economic crop zones, reasonably raise the proportion of grain exchanged for economic crops, and support the recovery and development of economic crop production. (4) Vigorously support state farms, earnestly rectify state farms, enhance labor productivity, increase per-unit yields, and enable them to provide the state with increasing amounts of commercial grain and economic crops year by year. (5) Open rural grain free markets under leadership and in an appropriate manner. (6) Continue implementing the state’s provision that agricultural tax burdens remain unchanged for three years. (7) Strive to gradually increase the state’s grain reserves each year to cope with potential severe natural disasters and sudden incidents. (8) Further strengthen the state’s system of centralized, unified, and tiered management of grain. (9) Abolish the practice of communes and production brigades extracting reserve grain and self-raised grain. (10) Conscientiously and earnestly strengthen the operational management of grain departments. Based on this report and the opinions discussed at the Central Work Conference, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a decision on grain work on September 23, distributed as Central Committee Document Zhongfa [62] No. 495 to all central bureaus, provincial, municipal, and autonomous regional Party committees, the Tibet Work Committee, all central ministries and commissions, Party groups of state organs and people’s organizations, and the General Political Department.

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**Critique on the Revised Draft of the Amended Work Regulations for Rural People’s Communes**
(July 31, 1962; August 24, 1962)

Distribute to all comrades for discussion, propose amendments, and submit to the drafting committee led by Comrade Chen Boda for consideration and revision.

Mao Zedong
July 31

[2] Refers to the comrades attending the Central Work Conference of the Communist Party of China in Beidaihe at that time.

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Distribute to all comrades for discussion.

Mao Zedong
August 24

--- Notes

[1] Refers to the report on the grain issue submitted by the Finance and Trade Office of the State Council to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on July 28, 1962. The report states: In accordance with the spirit of the Central Committee’s *Decision on Consolidating the Collective Economy of the People’s Communes and Developing Agricultural Production (Draft)*, we have studied the circumstances and problems in grain work. We believe that to consolidate the collective economy, further mobilize the production enthusiasm of all peasants, and strive for a relatively rapid recovery and development of agricultural production, it is necessary not only to mobilize and concentrate the strength of the entire Party and the whole nation to support the collective economy of the people’s communes but also, under the principle of balancing state interests, collective interests, and individual interests, as well as the livelihoods of urban and rural populations, to continue appropriately reducing the state’s grain procurement tasks from the peasants and to fix these procurement tasks at a certain level for a period of time. This is a policy-oriented issue in grain work that urgently needs resolution at present. The report is divided into four parts:

[1] The first part is Mao Zedong’s critique written on July 31, 1962, on the initial revised draft of the *Amended Work Regulations for Rural People’s Communes*. The second part is Mao Zedong’s critique written on August 24, 1962, on the *Amended Work Regulations for Rural People’s Communes* (revised draft of August 6). The amended draft consists of 9 chapters and 60 articles. On August 25, Mao Zedong’s critique, along with the revised draft of August 17, was distributed as a document of the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for discussion among comrades attending the preparatory meeting of the plenary session. On September 27, the *Work Regulations for Rural People’s Communes (Amended Draft)* was adopted at this plenary session. On October 11, this amended draft was distributed to the people’s communes as Central Committee Document Zhongfa [62] No. 516.


[1] Refers to the comrades about to attend the preparatory meeting of the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing.

[2] Refers to the comrades attending the Central Work Conference of the Communist Party of China in Beidaihe at that time.


[3] Chen Boda, then alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, director of the Central Political Research Office, deputy director of the Central Rural Work Department, and secretary to Mao Zedong.