Comrade Shaoqi:
Comments on the Material Regarding the Implementation of Revolutionization
(August 24, 1965)
This document [I] contains some innovative measures that can rectify certain past shortcomings—for example, in one large province there were as many as ten thousand staff members working in the various levels of the Social Education Offices. Similar situations likely exist elsewhere. Please consider whether it would be appropriate to issue a circular to this effect.
Mao Zedong
August 24th
[I] Refers to the material titled “Revolutionization of Leading Bodies for Socialist Education at All Levels in Hunan Province,” published in No. 299 of the “Briefing on Current Affairs” compiled and printed by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee on August 24, 1965. The material states that the second phase of the Socialist Education Movement in Hunan Province is about to begin. This phase will cover a wider area, yet the number of work teams has been relatively reduced; including those from enterprises and institutions as well as the various levels of Social Education Offices, there will be an average of only eight personnel assigned to each production brigade. Under these circumstances, in order to avoid bureaucratic red tape and enable the work teams to concentrate on their tasks, the Provincial Rural Social Education Office, after consultation with comrades in different localities, has put forward the following suggestions: First, abolish all unnecessary reports. Second, refrain from calling work-team members to attend meetings of various departments. Third, minimize the publication of Social Education bulletins as much as possible. Fourth, simplify procedures for reporting and filing matters. Fifth, drastically reduce both the staff and the administrative workload of the Social Education Offices. Henceforth, all supplies such as grain, cotton cloth, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, funds, and other materials destined for areas engaged in the Social Education Movement are to be handled exclusively by government departments at all levels, while routine economic work should continue to be directed by the existing organizational structures at the provincial, prefectural, county, district, and commune levels.
On August 25, 1965, the CPC Central Committee, through Document Zhongfa [65] No. 526, forwarded this material together with Mao Zedong’s comments to the central bureaus, the party committees of all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, the local party committees, the party committees of key county-level Social Education Work Teams, the various ministries and commissions of the central government, the party groups and party committees of state organs and people’s organizations, and the General Political Department of the Central Military Commission, instructing them to take Hunan’s approach as a reference and correct certain shortcomings present in the leading bodies of the Social Education Movement at all levels.

On August 26, 1965, Mao Zedong held talks with Sanda Ichirō, secretary of the Secretariat of the Japanese Communist Party, who was visiting China to participate in the Sino-Japanese Youth Friendship Gala. Also on that day, Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, and others met with twenty-three Japanese youth delegations and other Japanese friends who had come to Beijing for the same event.

Archival photograph
On August 26, 1965, Mao Zedong met with all members of the twenty-three Japanese youth delegations participating in the Sino-Japanese Youth Friendship Gala, as well as with other Japanese guests attending the gathering.