Comment on a Report Submitted by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Comment on a Report Submitted by the Beijing Municipal 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 a comment written by Comrade Mao Zedong on a report on the Movement to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries submitted by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China on the 2nd of April, 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!

#COMMENT ON A REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE BEIJING MUNICIPAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#2nd of April, 1951

#★

The suppression of counter-revolutionaries must be carried out with great fanfare and widely publicized, both in the cities and in the countryside, so that it becomes the cause of the common people. Beijing's approach must be followed by all localities. The suppression of counter-revolutionaries must be strictly confined to such categories as bandit chiefs, incorrigible criminals, local tyrants, evil gentry, secret agents, and leaders of reactionary underground organizations and secret societies. We cannot include small-scale thieves, drug addicts, common landlords, ordinary Nationalist Party members and «Three People's Principles» Youth League members, nor common Nationalist officers. Death sentences must be reserved for those who have committed serious crimes only. It is a mistake for a light sentence to be given out for a serious crime; it is equally a mistake for a heavy sentence to be given out for a small crime. The most important thing is that the authority to approve lists of those to be arrested or executed must be controlled by the prefectural Party committees. It can be said that the Movement to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries has not been launched throughout the country. The attention of Party committees at all levels should mainly be focused on two points: careful review of lists, and extensive publicity. If you grasp these two points, you will not make mistakes. Because the Beijing Municipal Party Committee has grasped these two points, it has achieved great results.