Comrades Lin, Zhou, and others involved in the Cultural Revolution:
It is recommended that this document be forwarded to all localities for reference. When
dealing with counter-revolutionary elements and those who have made mistakes, it is
essential to adhere to policy guidelines: the scope of repression should be narrow, while the
scope of education should be broad. Emphasis must be placed on evidence, thorough
investigation and research, and strict prohibition of coercion, extortion, and false
confessions. For those who have made mistakes but are otherwise good people, more
educational work should be conducted, and once they have gained awareness, they should
be promptly released.
Mao Zedong
December 1st
This factory [2] has 3,000 workers, with a total of 10,000 people including family members.
There are many comrades like this, and they should all be liberated and given work. - Mao's
note [3]

[1] This refers to the experience report by the Mao Zedong Thought Propaganda Team of the
8341st Unit of the Chinese People's Liberation Army stationed at the Xinhua Printing Factory
in Beijing and Xinhua News Agency reporters on the experience of the Revolutionary
Committee of the Xinhua Printing Factory in resolutely implementing the Party's ‘give them
a way out’ policy in the struggle against enemies. The report states that the Revolutionary
Committee of the Xinhua Printing Factory in Beijing "resolutely implemented Chairman
Mao's “give them a way out” policy. For the 68 class enemies who had been identified
throughout the factory, they mobilised the masses, relied on the masses, and, based on
repeated investigations, repeated studies, and repeated verifications, made appropriate
decisions and dispositions based on the severity of the crimes of the class enemies, the
quality of their confessions, and their expressions of repentance and reform. They gave
them different ways out. On 29 November 1968, the Beijing Revolutionary Committee
submitted this report to Mao Zedong and others. This article consists of Mao Zedong's



comments on the review report submitted by the Beijing Revolutionary Committee; the
second and third parts are two notes added by Mao Zedong to the experience report of the
Xinhua Printing Factory. On 3 December, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China and the Central Cultural Revolution Group issued the ‘Report on the Beijing
Revolutionary Committee's Forwarding of the Xinhua Printing Factory's Experience in Firmly
Implementing the Party's “Give Way” Policy in the Struggle Against the Enemy’ for reference
by localities. Regarding the issue of the Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory identifying so-called
‘68 class enemies,’ the report approved by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
China on 28 September 1979, submitted by the Beijing Municipal Committee and the State
Publishing Bureau on the complete exoneration of the Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory, stated
that the ‘Gang of Four’ in 1968 fabricated a false experience document at the Beijing Xinhua
Printing Factory, which should be rejected; all the slanderous and false accusations imposed
on the factory's cadres should be overturned; and all the wrongful cases caused should be
rectified.
[2] Refers to Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory.
[3] In the report titled ‘Experience Report on the Beijing Xinhua Printing Factory
Revolutionary Committee's Resolute Implementation of the Party's “Give Them a Way Out”
Policy in the Struggle Against the Enemy,’ it is mentioned that the factory had a deputy party
secretary who was previously labelled as a capitalist roader during the movement and
subjected to criticism and struggle. ‘After repeated verification and study, it was determined
that he had merely followed the revisionist line and committed serious errors.’ However, this
individual came from a very difficult background and had once begged for food in the old
society. Everyone believed that he was essentially a good person. After being subjected to
criticism by the masses, he gained a relatively profound understanding of his mistakes.
During his re-education process, he performed well, so it was determined that he could be
released. At a meeting attended by representatives from each company, he made a selfcriticism, and the majority agreed to release him. The Revolutionary Committee also
planned to have him make a self-criticism across the entire factory." Following this, Mao
Zedong added this note in brackets.