Distributed to the Standing Committee, the Cultural Revolution Group, and Comrade Bo
Yibo.
Comrade Yibo, please first inform me of your request and your idea in writing, and then we
can talk. This will shorten the conversation. You are a person who likes to talk at length, and I
am a little afraid of listening to a long conversation of three or four hours.
Mao Zedong
On the night of August 21

[1] Bo Yibo, then an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee
and Vice Premier of the State Council, was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution. In
December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee reviewed and
corrected the previous erroneous conclusions about him, affirmed his contributions to the
Party and the people, and rehabilitated him.



[2] This comment was written in a letter from Bo Yibo to Mao Zedong on August 21, 1966.
The letter said: "When the Chairman shook hands with me on August 18 at Tiananmen
Square and warmly encouraged me to make a good revolution, I was deeply moved." "If the
Chairman has time recently, I hope he will find me and talk to me. I would like to discuss two
issues: (1) the current situation of the Cultural Revolution in the various ministries of
industry and transportation; at the same time, I will examine the mistakes I made in the
movement; and (2) my idea of reforming the industrial system."