Telegram to All Bureaus of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (17th of January, 1951)

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Telegram to All Bureaus of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has been 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 edition: Strike Surely, Accurately, and Relentlessly in Suppressing Counter-Revolutionaries, in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, First English Edition, Vol. 5, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 1977.

#INTRODUCTION NOTE

This is a telegram from Comrade Mao Zedong forwarding a report by the 47th Army of the Chinese People's Liberation Army on the Movement to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries to the directors of the Bureaus of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China dated the 17th of January, 1951. It was first published in the Selected Works of Mao Zedong, Vol. 5, in 1977.

#Workers and oppressed people of the world, unite!

#TELEGRAM TO ALL BUREAUS OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#17th of January, 1951

#★

One batch of bandit chieftains, local tyrants, and secret agents has been executed in 21 counties in western Hunan, and another batch is to be executed by local authorities this year. I think measures of this kind are absolutely necessary. For only thus can we deflate the enemy's arrogance and raise the people's morale. If we are weak and irresolute, if we are tolerant and indulgent, it will bring harm to the people and alienate us from the masses.

To strike surely means to pay attention to tactics. To strike accurately means to avoid wrong executions. To strike relentlessly means resolutely to kill all such reactionary elements as deserve the death penalty (of course, those who don't will not be executed). So long as we avoid wrong executions, we don't have to worry even if the bourgeoisie raises an outcry.