Two Comments on Public Security Work[1]

(January 1 and February 15, 1964)

Comrade Xie Fuzhi:

The report[2] has been read. It is very good.

[1] The first comment was written on Xie Fuzhi's letter of December 30, 1963, submitting the third comprehensive report of the Ministry of Public Security Party Group for 1963 to Mao Zedong. The second comment was written on Xie Fuzhi's letter of February 12, 1964, submitting the Ministry of Public Security Party Group's report on implementing the Central Committee's directive on relying on the masses to strengthen the people's democratic dictatorship in cities to Mao Zedong.

[2] The report of the Ministry of Public Security Party Group dated December 30, 1963, stated: Since the Hangzhou Conference in May raised the task of transforming the vast majority of landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, and bad elements into new people, we have successively dispatched more than ten work teams to work at the grassroots level together with leading cadres from provincial, municipal, and regional public security departments, to study the issue of the struggle against the enemy within the socialist education movement. Over half a year of practice has proven that the policy of basically implementing "not killing a single one, and not arresting the great majority (over 95 percent)," relying on the strength of the masses to transform the vast majority of the four types of elements into new people, is entirely correct, necessary, and feasible. Regarding how to implement this policy in cities, how to rely on the masses within enterprises, schools, and government organs, as well as on the streets, to identify targets of dictatorship, to conduct reasoned struggles against the four types of elements engaged in destructive activities, and to reform them, we currently lack relatively mature experience and are still exploring. In 1964, in addition to continuing to firmly grasp the struggle against ongoing sabotage and public security management work, we must earnestly implement the Central Committee's directive that both rural and urban areas must rely on the broad masses to exercise dictatorship, strengthen the reform of the four types of elements, and prevent crime. We also plan to convene a national conference of public security department and bureau heads in mid-February to discuss this issue.

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Volume 46 of the Complete Works of Mao Zedong

Should some of your comrades go down to a number of counties, communes, factories, and mines to conduct investigations for a short period, so as to better prepare for the February public security work conference? A few work teams should also be dispatched to urban factories and mines.

Mao Zedong
January 1

Read. Return to Comrade Xie Fuzhi. This document[1] is very good. Act accordingly.

Mao Zedong
February 15

[1] The report of the Ministry of Public Security Party Group dated February 12, 1964, after analyzing the situation of the struggle between the enemy and ourselves within factories, mines, and enterprises, proposed that for units where the situation of the struggle between the enemy and ourselves is serious, relying solely on specialized agencies to conduct political screening without fully mobilizing the masses cannot completely resolve the problem. For this reason, some city Party committees, applying the experience of the rural socialist education movement, combined with the "Five Antis" movement, and specifically set aside a period within the "Five Antis" movement to launch a mass movement to handle the issue of the struggle between the enemy and ourselves, thereby relatively well completing the task of political screening. This is a good method of relying on mass struggle to effectively subdue and reform the enemy. Regarding those newly uncovered within enterprises and those originally retained who have...