Comments on Red Line Woman’s Letter Proposing Lower Salt Prices in Mountainous Rural Areas
(August 13, 1975)
To be circulated to all Politburo members present in Beijing, with a request for discussion.
Notes
Mao Zedong
August 13, 1975
Printed from documents of a meeting of the CPC Central Committee.
[1] On August 5, 1975, Cantonese opera performer Red Line Woman wrote to Mao Zedong, stating: “Recently, I visited Yan’an, Dazhai, and the Hongqi Canal for study and found that salt is being sold at excessively high prices there. In Taiyuan, salt costs 1 jiao and 1 fen per catty; in Lin County, 1 jiao and 3 fen; and in the Nieluo Brigade of Xiyang County, 1 jiao and 6 fen. In some other places, it even reaches 1 jiao and 8 fen. The fact that salt is so much more expensive in mountainous areas than in cities strikes me as a matter of attitude toward these regions, particularly the old revolutionary base areas. Essential daily necessities such as salt and cloth, which everyone needs, must be handled in accordance with the Chairman’s consistent instructions to take close care of the people’s livelihood. Therefore, salt prices in remote mountainous areas ought to be lower than in urban areas.” This letter and Mao Zedong’s comments were subsequently printed as an official document for the CPC Central Committee’s symposium on rural work, held from September 23 to October 21, 1975.