Boda and Kang Sheng [1] handle the matter at your discretion.
This letter [2] has been read. Please review it. The issues they discuss are indeed important
and should be resolved within the movement. Please inform them that the letter has been
received, seen, and taken note of.
Mao Zedong
July 12

[1] Boda, also known as Chen Boda, was then the head of the Cultural Revolution Group of
the CPC Central Committee. Kang Sheng was then an advisor to the Cultural Revolution
Group.
[2] This refers to a letter from seven Communist Youth League members and young students
of the Beijing Language and Culture University to Mao Zedong on June 28, 1966. The letter
said, "Our parents are all revolutionary cadres and Communist Party members. In the past,
they had withstood the test of life in the stormy class struggle and on the battlefield under
the rain of bullets. They are worthy of being heroes. Now they have become "officials" and
"masters". They have political status and special treatment in life. Their revolutionary spirit is
far less than before. If this continues, they will gradually lose their "freedom" to advance on
the revolutionary path and will gradually degenerate into a special class and revisionists.
Therefore, we believe that thorough reforms must be carried out in the following aspects: 1.
Reduce wages and cancel various special treatments. 2. Revolutionary cadres should
participate in labor regularly. 3. Anyone who violates the Party's discipline and the state law
and does things that are not in the interests of the people should be punished. 4. Popularize



the part-time work-study and part-farming-study education system throughout the country
as soon as possible." 5. During holidays, young students often organized themselves to work
in factories and rural areas, or to serve in the army. This letter and Mao Zedong's comments
were published as the third document of the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth Central
Committee of the Communist Party of China.