Comments on the Draft Notice from the Central Committee Prohibiting the Channeling of Struggle Against the Army and Two Other Documents (2)
(January 12–13, 1967)

Agreed.

Printed from Mao Zedong’s handwritten draft.

Comrade Enlai [3]:
Since these are important documents, they should be approved by the Political Bureau. Please handle them as you see fit.

Mao Zedong
5:00 p.m., January 12

I have already asked the Premier to take appropriate action.
Mao Zedong
Notes
January 13
Printed from the manuscript.
[1] Refers to three documents drafted by the Cultural Revolution Group of the CPC Central Committee on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission: First, the Central Committee’s draft notice prohibiting the channeling of struggle against the army. The draft notice stated that the People’s Liberation Army is the most important instrument of the dictatorship of the proletariat; it shoulders the great tasks of war preparedness and national defense, as well as the great task of safeguarding the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. No individual or organization may attack the organs of the PLA. Some local Party committees, under the pretext of ensuring the security of Party and state secrets and the normal transmission of internal documents, have been stuffing materials purging revolutionary masses into military organs, and even inciting uninformed masses to direct their struggle against military institutions—this is an extremely wrong practice, absolutely forbidden by Party discipline and state law. On January 14, 1967, the CPC Central Committee issued this notice. Second, the draft “Several Provisions of the Central Committee and the State Council on Strengthening Public Security Work During the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.” The draft stipulated: “Public security organs are one of the important instruments of the dictatorship of the proletariat and must, in accordance with the developing situation of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, adopt appropriate measures to intensify the dictatorship over the enemy, safeguard the democratic rights of the people, ensure the normal conduct of ‘great airing of views,’ ‘great posting of big-character posters,’ ‘great debates,’ and ‘mass link-ups,’ and maintain proletarian revolutionary order.” To this end, six specific provisions were made, including the lawful punishment of active counter-revolutionaries. On January 13, 1967, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued these provisions. Third, the Central Military Commission’s January 7, 1967, draft notice reiterating that the armed forces must never serve as air-raid shelters. The notice pointed out: “Since the beginning of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, we have repeatedly and emphatically declared that the armed forces—including hospitals, sanatoriums, guesthouses, and other such institutions—must never become air-raid shelters to harbor a small clique of party officials pursuing a capitalist road, or to provide refuge for those who persist in following the bourgeois reactionary line and for individuals evading mass struggle. However, there are still some units that have failed to comply with these instructions; indeed, some have even participated in acts of suppression, persecution, and repression against revolutionary masses.” “Party committees at all levels must pay serious attention to this matter and immediately take resolute measures to prevent similar incidents from continuing to occur.”
[2] Parts one and two of this text were written on the report submitted by Chen Boda, head of the CPC Central Committee’s Cultural Revolution Group, and Jiang Qing, its deputy head, to Lin Biao (who had just been elected a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Political Bureau at the Eleventh Plenary Session of the Eighth CPC Central Committee and was soon thereafter designated as a vice chairman of the Central Committee) on January 12, 1967, for his review of these three documents (Lin Biao forwarded the report to Mao Zedong the same day); part three was written on the report submitted by Chen Boda and Jiang Qing to Mao Zedong on the same day for his review of the same three documents.
[3] Enlai refers to Zhou Enlai, who at that time served as Premier of the State Council.