This man seems to be ready for release. If the Navy cannot use him, he should be
transferred back to the Army (or assigned to a local position) and given some work. Whether
this is feasible, please let the Central Committee decide.
Mao Zedong,
March 5, 1972
Please ask Wang [2] to print and distribute this to all comrades.

[1] Su Zhenhua, formerly a member of the Standing Committee of the Central Military
Commission of the Communist Party of China and Deputy Secretary-General, and Political
Commissar of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy. He was wrongly criticized during
the Cultural Revolution and dismissed from his post. On December 13, 1971, he wrote to
Mao Zedong, expressing his determination to "return to the Chairman's revolutionary line
and strive to do some useful work for the people in his later years." In January 1973, Su
Zhenhua returned to serve as the First Political Commissar of the Navy. In August of the
same year, he was elected as a member of the Central Committee at the Tenth National
Congress of the Communist Party of China and an alternate member of the Political Bureau
of the Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee.
[2] Wang refers to Wang Dongxing, who was then an alternate member of the Political
Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Director of the
General Office of the Central Committee.