Excerpt From a Comment on a Telegram From the East China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (24th of January, 1951)

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Excerpt From a Comment on a Telegram From the East China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has been translated, prepared, and revised for digital publication by the Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism under the Central Committee of the Communist Party in Switzerland on the basis of the following editions:

  • On Suppressing Counter-Revolutionaries, in the Collected Works of Mao Zedong, First Chinese Edition, Vol. 6, People's Publishing House, Beijing.
  • Comment on Suppressing and Liquidating Counter-Revolutionaries, in The Writings of Mao Zedong, 1949-76, First English Edition, Vol. 1, M.E. Sharpe, Armonk and London, 1986.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is an excerpt from a comment written by Comrade Mao Zedong on a telegram from the East China Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to the Fujian Provincial Party Committee on the Movement to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries on the 24th of January, 1951. It was first published in the Red Guard Collection Long Live Mao Zedong's Thought! in 1968.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#EXCERPT FROM A COMMENT ON A TELEGRAM FROM THE EAST CHINA BUREAU OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong
#24th of January, 1951

#★

In order to defeat the enemy and win the people's support, we should kill several groups of bandit leaders, habitual bandits, local tyrants, important spies, and sect leaders, against whom there is solid evidence. With regard to secret agents and leaders of underground organizations and sects, against whom we have not gathered evidence, in order to avoid making a mistake and thus trapping ourselves in a passive position, we should carry out investigations in order to obtain conclusive evidence, and not arrest or execute people arbitrarily. It is necessary to distinguish between these two types of cases.