Chairman: It’s a great pleasure to welcome you, comrades. How long have you been here?

Aranit Çela (hereafter referred to as Çela): Ten days.

Chairman: Did you come via the northern route or the southern route?

Çela: Most recently, we came from North Korea. We stayed there for a month on leave. We entered North Korea through the northern border.

Chairman: Did they let you pass?

Çela: They did, but they treated us rather coldly.

Chairman: Coldly, you say! Please have a cigarette. (The foreign guest replies that he does not smoke.) The Korean comrades are very good; they have done an excellent job.

Çela: We agree.

Chairman: Over these past few months, the struggle against revisionism has intensified worldwide. You have firmly held your ground and achieved victory. Your country is surrounded by adversaries. You serve as a tremendous source of inspiration to genuine Marxist–Leninists everywhere.

When you return, please convey my greetings to your leading comrades—Comrade Hoxha, Comrade Shehu, and all the others.

Çela: I will certainly do so.

Chairman: Have some tea. In addition to greeting Comrades Hoxha and Shehu, please also extend my regards to Comrades Kabo, Alia, Baluku, and the other comrades.

Çela: I will be sure to pass along your message.

Chairman: How was your harvest this year?

Çela: Our harvest situation this year is as follows: Last winter saw excessive rainfall, which adversely affected our summer harvest. However, spring plowing and sowing went well, resulting in a good autumn harvest. Overall, it was a favorable year for crops.

Sofkli Babaçirilj (hereafter referred to as Babaçirilj): This year’s weather conditions were favorable for our autumn tillage and planting.

Chairman: Very good. We experienced some difficulties this year, but generally speaking, production increased. Were it not for the drought in the south and the flooding in the north, we would have had a bumper harvest. Compared with the previous year, this year’s output rose by ten million tons. Many socialist countries, however, faced poor agricultural results.

Çela: On our way here, we passed through Budapest. We heard that public sentiment there was quite negative, with widespread complaints. Their harvest was poor, and the government has been purchasing grain from the United States. When we were there, this had not yet been made public; perhaps it has been announced now.

Chairman: Are you planning to return home soon?

Çela: We are scheduled to leave China on the 26th.

Chairman: Today is the 15th. You still have two more stops ahead—Shanghai, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and Kunming—before departing.

Zhang XX: That’s right. After visiting those cities, we will leave China.

Chairman: Excellent. Do take the opportunity to see these places.

Çela: We will undoubtedly gain much insight. Your comrades have been extremely helpful to us.

Chairman: Just exchanging views.

Çela: Indeed, they have been very supportive.

Chairman: Let us share experiences. Whenever Albanian comrades come to China, they are always warmly welcomed by our people.

Çela: We have seen this firsthand. Although we already knew from Albania that you would receive us with open arms, actually being here and witnessing it ourselves has reinforced that impression.

Chairman: Is this your first visit to China?

Çela: Yes, it is.

Chairman: Are both of you engaged in political and legal work?

Çela: No, I work in the judiciary. He (referring to Babaçirilj) serves as an inspector at the Central Committee.

Chairman: Didn’t you plan to visit Northeast China?

Çela: Time was limited. We spent a full month in North Korea, leaving little remaining. We now intend to make the most of our time by exploring southern China. It would be quite challenging to travel to every corner of the country.

Chairman: I just returned from the south myself. The autumn harvest there has not yet fully concluded, though it is nearly finished; Guangdong may still be harvesting. Will you be going to Guangdong this time?

Huang Huoxing: Yes, we will go to Guangzhou.

Chairman: When dealing with counterrevolutionaries and corrupt, wasteful elements, administrative and legal measures alone are insufficient. We must rely on the strength of the masses. It is far more effective to coordinate the efforts of the procuratorate, the courts, and the public security organs with the Party’s work among the people. For example, extravagance and corruption are difficult to eradicate through administrative means alone; such individuals are primarily afraid of public scrutiny. By applying pressure from both above and below, we can corner them completely.

Such campaigns should be conducted every few years—if not annually—because problems tend to arise within institutions, whether small ones with dozens of employees or larger ones with hundreds, after a certain period. Class struggle remains quite acute in our country. For the past decade, we neglected this issue. Starting last year, we began a multi-year campaign to address class struggle and related matters; otherwise, the situation could deteriorate significantly. There are remnants of the old bourgeoisie, and new bourgeois elements are emerging—speculators, embezzlers, and the like. These constitute the social base of revisionism. If we do not take decisive action now, China risks falling into revisionism within another decade or so. Of course, their numbers remain relatively small—perhaps only a few percent of the population.

Our primary approach is not to arrest and execute, but rather to criticize and educate. That said, we do not rule out arrests or executions altogether.

For those guilty of heinous crimes—when the populace demands their apprehension—we must act without hesitation. Similarly, for a small number of individuals who engage in destructive activities such as murder, arson, sabotage of factories, or destruction of bridges, we cannot afford to overlook them. As for ordinary saboteurs—those who spread rumors and engage in other non-violent forms of opposition to socialism—we do not arrest them. Instead, we place them under community supervision and seek their rehabilitation through labor. This method appears to be quite effective. Our experience may serve as a reference for you. Conditions vary from country to country, so please adapt these practices to your own circumstances. I am confident that you will achieve even better results.

Judicial work is no easy task. The procuratorate, the courts, and the public security organs are all instruments of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

Çela: Comrade Mao Zedong, we have discussed several issues with your colleagues, and they even took us to visit a Beijing prison, providing us with extensive information. We were deeply impressed by the outstanding educational work being carried out there.

Chairman: Not every facility operates at the same level of excellence.

Çela: There may be shortcomings in your work, but the fundamental approach is sound.

Chairman: It is precisely through education that people can be reformed.

Babaçirilj: We have greatly benefited from the methods you employ.

Chairman: First, we must trust the masses. Second, these counterrevolutionaries represent a valuable workforce. If we were to simply arrest and execute them, their families and production teams would lose crucial labor power. Moreover, it would be detrimental to our efforts to win over their children, who might harbor resentment toward us. By reforming them through education, we avoid these pitfalls. We believe that, with the support of the masses, we can successfully rehabilitate them while simultaneously integrating them into productive labor. This, in turn, facilitates our work with their families and relatives, helping to prevent feelings of hostility.

However, not all localities implement these policies effectively. Some comrades are impatient and prefer quick fixes, readily advocating for arrests or executions. Such approaches merely escalate conflicts upward, transferring them from the grassroots level to higher authorities. This practice is counterproductive: upper-level officials are often ill-equipped to handle these matters. It is far more effective to keep the issues at the community level, where education and labor-based rehabilitation can be applied more appropriately. As for the small minority who pose a serious threat—did you not visit the Beijing prison? Those individuals are indeed subject to detention, but they too undergo reform through educational measures.

Which prison did they visit?

Huang Huoxing: A prison in Beijing.

Chairman: Do the inmates there have work?

Huang Huoxing: Yes. There are plastic manufacturing plants, shoe factories, sock factories, and other facilities.

Chairman: They acquire skills there, making it easier for them to contribute productively upon release.

Çela: We believe this approach is entirely appropriate. Our own labor camps do offer some work opportunities, but not on the same scale as yours. Our prison system is relatively weak, despite housing only a small number of particularly dangerous offenders. Even in such cases, we still prioritize education as the primary means of rehabilitation.

Chairman: Exactly! Above all, we must believe in the possibility of reforming individuals. Under the conditions of the proletarian dictatorship, most people can indeed be transformed. Only a very small minority prove resistant to reform. That is acceptable. Once their sentences are complete, we release them; if they relapse, we re-arrest them. Some individuals continue to cause trouble even after multiple releases. For those who repeatedly offend, we may choose to keep them incarcerated indefinitely, assigning them to work in prison workshops. Alternatively, we might relocate their families to live near the prison, bringing them in when their sentences end and they show reluctance to return home.

Zhang XX: Upon completion of their sentences, family members can be brought in and provided with employment.

Chairman: Precisely—employment assistance. Some individuals are unwilling to return because of the stigma attached to their hometowns. Here, they have established social networks and connections, so relocating their families allows them to start anew. There are quite a few such cases.

Huang Huoxing: At that particular prison in Beijing, over four hundred inmates are employed.

Chairman: We have even managed to rehabilitate an emperor.

Çela: We’ve heard of him—Puyi.

Chairman: I met him personally. He is now in his fifties and has a profession. I understand he has remarried as well.

Çela: I’ve also heard that he wrote a book titled “My First Half of Life.”

Chairman: That book has not yet been published. We feel it does not adequately capture the essence of his experience. He portrays himself as overwhelmingly culpable, as if he alone bore all responsibility. In reality, his situation was shaped by the social system of the time. Given the circumstances of that old regime, it was understandable that such a figure emerged. Nevertheless, we will continue to monitor his case.

With that, I think we’ve covered enough ground. Now, let’s take a photograph!