(August 27, 1964)


Comrade Xiaoping:
This document may be circulated to the comrades attending this meeting[121] as well as to members of the party committees at the provincial, municipal, and district levels and to members of the municipal party committees in medium-sized cities[131] for their perusal and deliberation. It is also to be prepared for discussion at the October working conference. It appears that Comrade Chen Boda’s suggestions are feasible. Moreover, the methods of planning work must be changed within the next two years. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to abolish the existing State Planning Commission and establish a new institution.
Mao Zedong
August 27


[1] This note was written on a transcript of a conversation held on August 20, 1964, between Chen Boda, alternate member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, Director of the Central Political Research Office, and Mao Zedong’s secretary, and Yang Bo, deputy director of the Research Office of the State Planning Commission, concerning methods of planning work. In the conversation, Chen Boda put forward four points regarding planning: (1) The adoption of new technologies in industry should be based on an overall plan; this issue should be viewed in terms of achieving a new socialist industrial revolution and implementing the Party’s general line for socialist construction, with a holistic perspective and focus on key points. (2) To develop our country’s construction endeavors, it is necessary to study ways to improve certain fiscal systems and allocate part of the funds intended for building new enterprises to the technological upgrading of existing ones, which could yield even greater results. (3) The development of the Third Front must be carried out in accordance with Chairman Mao’s instructions and with urgency. At the same time, attention should also be paid to strengthening the First and Second Fronts so that they can contribute more substantial resources to the Third Front. (4) We must change our habit of procrastination.
[2]
Refers to the transcript of Chen Boda’s conversation on August 20, 1964, concerning methods of planning work.
[3]
Refers to the comrades who were then in Beijing attending the conference of regional party secretaries.