Commentary on the Report by the Baoding Prefectural Committee’s “Four Cleansings” Work Team Concerning the Representatives’ Meeting of Poor and Lower-Middle Peasants in Xincheng County [1] (January 15, 1965) To be circulated immediately.
Furthermore, all comrades [2] are requested, upon their return, to have this distributed down to the county level for reference.
Printed from the manuscript at 4:00 a.m. on a certain day in a certain month, 1965, by Mao Zedong.

Notes [1] This commentary was written on a report dated January 13, 1965, submitted by the Party Committee of the Baoding Prefectural Committee’s “Four Cleansings” Work Team to the CPC Central Committee, to Mao Zedong, to the North China Bureau, and to the Hebei Provincial Party Committee, concerning the representatives’ meeting of poor and lower-middle peasants in Xincheng County.
The report stated that, in order to implement the spirit of Chairman Mao’s instructions and swiftly break the deadlock in the county-wide “Four Cleansings” campaign, we convened on January 9 a meeting of representatives of poor and lower-middle peasants from across Xincheng County.
Leading officials of the work team’s Party committee delivered mobilization reports on the “Four Cleansings” in separate sessions.
The reports focused primarily on four key issues: (1) Thoroughly exposing the class struggle in Xincheng County and the grave facts of “four impurities”; affirming our resolve for a thorough “Four Cleansings” and announcing the comprehensive launch of the campaign at the county, commune, and production team levels, with concerted efforts from top to bottom and left to right. (2) Declaring that the “Four Cleansings” campaign would target only cadres tainted by the “four impurities,” without targeting ordinary commune members.
It exposed the various machinations by which a small number of corrupt cadres and those deeply mired in the “four impurities” had been controlling and intimidating the masses, thereby liberating the peasant population. (3) Actively educating cadres, setting forth specific requirements tailored to different situations, and pointing out paths forward.
We would isolate and punish only a small minority who had committed serious errors or crimes, refused to be educated, and resisted or sabotaged the “Four Cleansings.” (4) Anchoring the “Four Cleansings” in construction.
While carrying out the “Four Cleansings” effectively, we must also ensure successful winter agricultural and sideline production, properly arrange the people’s livelihoods, and strive for a bumper harvest this year.
The meeting created a profound impact throughout the county.
The vast majority of poor and lower-middle peasants and commune members felt most gratified that the “Four Cleansings” were directed solely against cadres tainted by the “four impurities,” sparing the rank-and-file members; they found it particularly satisfying that the campaign was being waged simultaneously at all levels—top to bottom—and that wherever the roots of the “four impurities” lay, they would be uprooted there.
Most encouraging of all was the establishment, at every level from the central government down to the production teams, of peasant associations, placing poor and lower-middle peasants in positions of leadership and giving them the power to remove corrupt cadres without fear of reprisal.
The spirit and momentum of the meeting, disseminated widely through peasant representatives and cadre-masses alike, succeeded in breaking the impasse in Xincheng County’s “Four Cleansings” campaign.
Going forward, we shall select an appropriate moment to convene mass meetings to expose and criticize a small group of individuals guilty of extremely serious embezzlement, theft, speculation, and other malfeasance—those new tyrants who have aroused intense public indignation—recover stolen goods, return them to their rightful owners, and deal with them in accordance with the law, thereby embodying the policy principle of winning over the majority while striking at the tiny minority of wrongdoers and ushering in a new high tide in the movement. [2] Refers to the comrades then in Beijing attending a working conference of the CPC Central Committee.