(Not reviewed by the person himself)

(December 21, 1966)

[During the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s, the left wing of the Polish Communist Party established an underground party in Albania. The head of the party's Provisional Central Committee, Yang Li, was formerly a member of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party and had served as Minister of Communications. He left secretly to conduct underground activities. When Albanian leader Hysni Kapo conveyed Yang Li's wish to Chairman Mao, saying that he hoped to maintain contact with the Chinese Party, Mao immediately gave a clear reply: "Good, we should be in contact." And he added the instruction: "They must be more cautious." At the end of 1966, Yang Li, a representative of the Provisional Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party, arrived in Beijing by special plane along with Kang Sheng, who was visiting Albania. Mao Zedong specially received Yang Li at the Zhongnanhai swimming pool.]

Time: 12:30 to 1:15, December 21, 1966
Place: Zhongnanhai Swimming Pool
Participants: Kang Sheng, Wu Xiuquan
Interpreter and Recorder: Liu Yanshun

Chairman Mao (hereinafter referred to as Chairman): How old are you this year?
Yang Li (hereinafter referred to as Yang): 56.
Chairman: Welcome!
Yang: I am honored to represent the Provisional Central Committee of the Polish Communist Party in extending heartfelt greetings to Chairman Mao!
Chairman: Hope lies with you, with the minority and not the majority. Hope lies with you rebels.
Yang: Our violation is correct, it is in line with the revolutionary direction.
Chairman: Not bad, well said! To say there is hope is precisely because it is correct.
A large group of people, under the signboard of Marxism-Leninism, have now become bourgeois elements; it is the same in China. There is a group of people, we have seen them, they are the domestic revisionists. It is not enough to only oppose Khrushchev's revisionism; we must also oppose the revisionism within our Party. Otherwise, in a number of years, China's color will change, and by then it will be too late. Some things were done in the past, but they were just patching things up, not done as an entire class struggle.
Start first with the students in schools and the cadres in offices, then go to the factories and the countryside to organize the workers and peasants. This is not a problem of a few individuals; this is one class opposing another. Some people do not quite understand, saying we have gone too far. The imperialists, revisionists, and reactionaries do not approve. If they do not approve, we are happy. They only approve of the bourgeois elements we oppose. The hope of the imperialists, revisionists, and reactionaries in China lies with them. And they are still within the Party, having long ago wormed their way in; there are old Party members and new Party members. 80% of our Party members joined after 1948; some are bourgeois opportunists. The leading organs can do nothing about them; they are only afraid of the Red Guards. Red Guards must be organized in the factories, and Red Guards must also be organized in the countryside. Let's see who wins and who loses; the victory is not yet decided.
Yang: I know very little about the situation in China. In one month, I have seen the Great Cultural Revolution with the participation of the broad youth. Now, the problem has become very clear.
Chairman: Quite clear.
Yang: Whether in the daytime, at dawn, or in the dead of night, I see columns of Red Guards in action everywhere. I have also seen people reading big-character posters; people even read big-character posters under the illumination of streetlights.
Chairman: Big-character posters are also divided into two factions: there are reactionary big-character posters and revolutionary big-character posters. They are still in struggle.
Yang: I have asked in the past, do the reactionaries also use big-character posters for their activities?
Chairman: Yes, they use this thing. Sometimes they are quite rampant.
Yang: This is a normal phenomenon.
Chairman: With struggle, the problems can be seen. The big-character posters have gone up on the streets. A very fierce class struggle.
Kang Sheng (hereinafter referred to as Kang): The term "dazibao" is also transliterated as dazibao in foreign languages.
Chairman: It's not called intelligence anymore?
Kang: It's not called intelligence anymore.
Yang: The West does not dare to speak of the main content of the Great Cultural Revolution; they fear the influence of the struggle.
Chairman: They are worried!
Yang: They know that the people they were counting on in China are under siege by the masses, so naturally they are worried.
Chairman: Let them worry! Grasp the entire class struggle and the yet-to-be-completed struggle against feudalism, the influence of Confucius. This influence exists in the university liberal arts fields such as history, philosophy, literature, fine arts, law, etc. They instill the viewpoint of emperors, kings, generals, and ministers; they instill the ideology of bourgeois right. The old education system has not been changed.
Yang: In 1956, the bourgeois elements in Poland's university liberal arts faculties launched fierce attacks against the people's political power; they were full of hatred.
Chairman: Students have to study for 17 years; the time is too long. The content of the books is also all capitalist and feudalist. In the schools, Marxism-Leninism is not legitimate; it is not allowed into the classroom.
Yang: In 1956, in our country, they actually abolished the course on Marxism-Leninism.
Chairman: Even bourgeois materialism is not allowed into the classroom, such as Feuerbach's theology. Feuerbach put it well: God is a reflection of man. The combination of Feuerbach's materialism and Hegel's dialectics became Marxist philosophy.
You'll be in China for another week or so?
Kang: Tomorrow he will leave Beijing for Wuhan and Guangzhou, then take a ship from Zhanjiang to Albania.
Chairman: Traveling by ship is a form of tempering. It has to cross the Indian Ocean; I hear it can be a bit rough.
Kang: He came with us on a special plane; he holds an Albanian passport.
Yang: I have discussed many issues with Comrade Kang Sheng, and I think they must have already reported to Chairman Mao. I thank the Chinese Party for giving me the opportunity to come to China, to introduce the situation of our party and country to the Chinese comrades, and to hear the views of the Chinese comrades and their introductions to the domestic situation and to other parties.
I have come to China at the best of times. In your struggle, I have seen the integration of theory and practice, seen the close relationship between the Party and the masses, and the mass-based practice of criticism and self-criticism. China's broad mass movement will surely promote China's socialist construction and the world revolution. As I leave China, my confidence in the struggle against imperialism and revisionism is even firmer. China's revolutionary struggle is the greatest help to me.
Chairman: I see hope in China, and I also see hope in the world. There is hope in Poland, the Soviet Union, the United States, Japan, Indonesia, India, Africa, Latin America, and Europe.
Revolution depends on the masses, on the majority; a small number of people cannot be relied upon. We must mobilize and organize over 90% of the masses to carry out the struggle, to struggle against the 1% to 3% of people. If this is not done, there is no hope. It won't do to only talk about the good side and not the dark side.
Yang: Seeing Chairman Mao in good health, I feel immense joy. I once again wish the Chairman good health! As I leave China, I am even more convinced that uniting around China to carry out the revolutionary struggle is correct and necessary.
Chairman: (Escorting Yang Li to the door) Please convey my greetings to Comrade Hoxha. Convey my greetings to the other Albanian leaders!