Comments on the Ministry of Public Security’s Report Concerning the Investigation and Handling of the Hu Zhiyun Case (April 24, 1964) Liu, Zhou, Deng, and Peng [1] have reviewed this document [2]. It may be read; after reading, please return it to Comrade Xu Zirong [3]. Mao Zedong April 24 People can be reformed, provided that the policies and methods are correct.
Printed from the manuscript.
Notes [ ] Liu refers to Liu Shaoqi.
Zhou refers to Zhou Enlai.
Deng refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at that time served as General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee.
Peng refers to Peng Zhen, who at that time was a member of the CPC Central Political Bureau and a secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat. [2] Refers to the report submitted by the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Public Security to Mao Zedong on April 7, 1964, regarding the investigation and handling of the Hu Zhiyun case.
The report stated: In accordance with your instructions, it has now been ascertained that the issues raised by cadre Hu Xiuyun, who had been sent down to work in the countryside, are entirely true.
Hu Zhiyun, a reeducation-through-labor inmate at the Beiyuan Chemical Plant in Beijing, confessed to the problems.
However, instead of receiving leniency, she was given a harsher punishment—her term of reeducation-through-labor was extended by one year.
Hu Zhiyun, a woman, entered Peking Medical College in 1955 and was labeled a rightist in 1957, receiving the disciplinary measure of retaining her student status while being placed under labor surveillance.
In September 1959, because she still refused to admit her “mistakes,” she was expelled from the college and sent to undergo reeducation through labor.
In November 1963, her

term of reeducation through labor had expired.
Based on Party policy and the fact that her thinking had indeed shown signs of reform, the unit-level cadres proposed removing her designation as a rightist and terminating her reeducation-through-labor sentence.
However, the leadership of the Beiyuan Chemical Plant and the Reeducation Division of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, relying on a biased excerpt that omitted Hu’s self-criticism, portrayed her confession as the dissemination of revisionism and a stubborn adherence to a reactionary stance, and decided to extend her reeducation-through-labor term by one year.
This resulted in the absurd situation where confession led not to leniency but to stricter punishment.
Following an inspection, the leadership of the Reeducation Division of the Municipal Public Security Bureau and the chemical plant conducted self-criticism and reassessed Hu Zhiyun’s case, revoking the original decision to extend her reeducation term, removing her designation as a rightist, releasing her upon completion of her prescribed period of reeducation, and planning for her appropriate placement in employment.
In early April, Vice Minister of Public Security Wang Dongxing personally presented this report of the Ministry of Public Security’s Party Leadership Group to Mao Zedong.
After reviewing it, Mao told Wang Dongxing: “You can see for yourself that this did indeed happen!
Some people care only about things and not about people; they prioritize production over reform.
Treating prisoners merely as sources of forced labor will never succeed unless coercion is employed.
In reality, if we strengthen ideological and political work, it will not hinder production but rather promote it.”
On April 13, Wang Dongxing conveyed these instructions to the public security organs. [3] Xu Zirong was, at the time, Vice Minister of Public Security.

Comments on the Editorial Note Written by the People’s Daily to Accompany the Anti-China Documents Adopted at the February Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee [1] (April 26, 1964) Comrades Kang Sheng and Leng Xi: I have read the editorial note, and it is very good.
It may be broadcast today and published in tomorrow’s newspaper.
Mao Zedong Zero hours and five minutes on the morning of April 26th Printed from the manuscript.
Notes [1] These comments were written on a letter dated April 25, 1964, from Kang Sheng (alternate member of the CPC Central Political Bureau and secretary of the CPC Central Secretariat) and Wu Lengxi (president of the Xinhua News Agency and editor-in-chief of the People’s Daily) to Mao Zedong, submitting the draft of the People’s Daily’s editorial note for approval.
This editorial note was prepared for the publication of the anti-China report adopted at the February Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee, entitled “On the CPSU’s Struggle for the Unity of the International Communist Movement.”
The editorial note appeared twice in the People’s Daily, on April 27 and April 28, 1964.
On April 27, beneath the editorial note, the full text of the CPSU Central Committee’s anti-China report, “On the CPSU’s Struggle for the Unity of the International Communist Movement,” along with the CPSU Central Committee’s anti-China resolution and the April 3 anti-China editorial from the Soviet newspaper Pravda, were printed.
On April 28, under the editorial note, Khrushchev’s recent anti-China statements were published.
The editorial department of the People’s Daily concluded its note by stating: “With regard to this batch of anti-China documents, speeches, and articles released by the CPSU leadership, as well as all other anti-China documents, speeches, and articles that have been or will be released in the future, we shall respond to them one by one after we have completed our reply to the open letter from the CPC Central Committee.”