Excerpt From a Comment on a Report Submitted by the Shandong Sub-Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

#PUBLICATION NOTE

This edition of Excerpts From a Comment on a Report Submitted by the Shandong Sub-Bureau 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 editions:

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.
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

These are two excerpts from a comment written by Comrade Mao Zedong on a report on the Movement to Suppress Counter-Revolutionaries submitted by the Shandong Sub-Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the 30th of March, 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!

#EXCERPTS FROM A COMMENT ON A REPORT SUBMITTED BY THE SHANDONG SUB-BUREAU OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA

#Mao Zedong

#30th of March, 1951

#★

#1

In Shandong, there is lethargy in some places and rashness in others. Generally speaking, both these deviations are to be found in all the provinces and cities in the country and attention should be paid to setting them right. In particular, rashness presents the major danger. For by education and persuasion, those who are lethargic can eventually become active, and it doesn't make much difference if a counter-revolutionary is put to death a few days sooner or a few days later. But being rash and making wrong arrests and executions will produce very bad effects. Please exercise strict control over the work of suppressing counter-revolutionaries, and be sure to proceed with caution and correct any deviation of rashness in handling the job. We must suppress all counter-revolutionaries, but on no account should we make wrong arrests or executions.

#2

At all times, the suppression of counter-revolutionaries ought to be accurate, meticulous, well-planned, and methodical. Furthermore, it ought to be controlled from above.

Whether work has been done well or poorly ought always to be determined by the reaction of the masses to it.