(On February 11, 1965, ×× reported to the Chairman on the situation and problems at the Industrial and Transportation Conference. When it was mentioned that the two main tasks of industry were to support agriculture and national defense, and that everyone needed to be “forced” into action, the Chairman said:)

“People do need to be pushed; once you push them, they will deliver. What if they don’t get it done? (Answer: We’ll find someone more capable.) The key is to make them do it. If they refuse, ‘there will always be others’—someone else will step up and do it.”

(When the discussion turned to improving development in ×× Province, the Chairman remarked:)

“If these regions are all developed, we won’t have anything to fear. … We should build several steel plants with a capacity of ×× ten thousand tons each—ten or twenty of them. I believe such smaller steel plants could actually be quite useful.”

(As the conversation moved to establishing political work organs, the Chairman stated:)

“Your Political Department is an organ of the Party’s work; it operates under the leadership of the Party Committee, doesn’t it? It is a Political Department under the Party Committee! In the past, the General Political Department oversaw the party committees of the military regions below it. Why shouldn’t the Department be able to oversee its directly affiliated enterprises? … How, then, should we handle the leadership of party committees like that of Anshan Iron and Steel? For enterprises like Anshan, the Department should take the lead. Important directly affiliated enterprises should be regarded as our field armies—our main force! They are not local forces, so we must not interfere arbitrarily!”