Comments on the Two Documents of the Education Campaign [I]
(August 27, 1964)
Comrade Xiaoping21:
Please circulate these to all comrades present at the meeting.131
Mao Zedong
August 27th
[l]


In a letter dated August 19, 1964, Liu Shaoqi wrote to Mao Zedong and the Central Committee: “The two documents from Hunan and Jiangsu are proposed for circulation throughout the country. The Central Committee has drafted accompanying comments; please review and approve their issuance.” The two documents were: first, the report by the Yiyang Prefectural Party Committee of the CPC entitled “On the Situation and Proposed Measures Regarding the Counterattack Against the Socialist Education Movement Led by Kuang Aiguo, Secretary of the CPC Committee of Yingfeng Commune, Yiyang County,” together with the Hunan Provincial Party Committee’s forwarding remarks; and second, “The Speech Delivered by Comrade Zhang Jingliang, Secretary-General of the Huaiyin Prefectural Party Committee, at the Fourth Plenary Session (Enlarged) of the Fourth Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee of the CPC,” which detailed the disputes between the party committee and the work team during the socialist education campaign in Gaogou Commune, Lianshui County, as well as the lessons learned therefrom. On August 20, the CPC Central Committee forwarded these two documents, instructing that they be distributed to party committees at the county level and above, as well as to all members of the socialist education work teams in both rural and urban areas, for study. In its forwarding comments, the Central Committee pointed out that although Yingfeng Commune and Gaogou Commune had served as pilot sites for the socialist education campaign, neither the work teams nor the local prefectural or county party committees had demonstrated a thoroughly revolutionary spirit or sufficient resolve. Moreover, the poor and lower-middle peasants, along with other peasant masses, had not been fully mobilized. As a result, the campaign had failed to achieve depth or thoroughness. Consequently, after the work teams withdrew, serious disturbances broke out, leaving behind significant adverse consequences. [2]


Xiaoping refers to Deng Xiaoping, who at that time held the post of General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee. [3]


This refers to the comrades then attending the Regional Secretaries’ Conference in Beijing.