TALKS CONCERNING “CRITICIZING TENG AND REPULSING RIGHT DEVIATIONIST WIND” (Converaciones concernientes a Criticar a Teng y rechazar al Viento Desviacionista de Derechas)-June 28,1976, Chang Chun-Chiao (Signalfire)

TALKS CONCERNING “CRITICIZING TENG AND REPULSING RIGHT DEVIATIONIST WIND”-June 28,1976

Comrades:
In a fiduciary capacity assigned by the Central, I pay regards to you Comrades from various organic agencies of the Central and from leadership organs at various provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions who are attending the Study Class; I am going to say a few words to you.
Storm-Like Struggle
After the occurrence of the April 5th counterrevolutionary incident, on April 7 the Politburo of the Central Committee reached two decisions based on Chairman Mao’s recommendation. These timely pointed out to the people throughout the country the general direction of the struggle, smashed the right deviationist wind to reverse previous verdicts being whipped up by a handful of capitalist roaders headed by Teng Hsiao-p’ing, suppressed the sabotaging and trouble-making counterrevolutionary elements, braced against the adverse current and stopped the evil wind, and consolidated the social system and the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Under the correct leadership of Chairman Mao and the Party Central, hundreds of millions of the worker-peasant-soldier masses throughout the country are now riding the revolutionary east wind of these two decisions and, by taking concrete actions, stirring up a new high tide throughout the country to repulse the right deviationist wind to reverse previous verdicts and to search out the counterrevolutionaries.
The April 5th counterrevolutionary incident is a continuation of the struggle between two lines in the Party, and is the inevitable outcome of the life-and-death struggle on the question of political power and between the two classes, which is associated with the continuously deepened development of the socialist revolution. Similar to all previous class struggles, it ended as a stage marked by failure of the counterrevolutionary and victory of the revolutionary. This storm-like struggle tells the whole Party and all the people throughout the country a very important subject: “Class struggles still exist, the capitalist roaders are still moving; all revolutionaries must never be full of the air of bookish intellectuals who think that the country is in peace.”
At present, all in the Party must, in the first place, clearly understand the new trend of the struggle. After issuance of the two decisions on April 7th, many comrades only managed to see the small circles before their eyes, lacking a sufficient assessment and understanding of the whole environment and the overall situation. Not a few comrades even brought up the theme that “we can catch our breath after all these in a moment,” thinking about resting for a while. Actually, this viewpoint is not only impractical but also harmful, because the class enemy exactly hopes that we would relax, that is to say, “you catch your breath, and he’ll catch his breath.” Class struggle experience tells us: “Any relaxation of fighting will bring extremely great losses in the revolution.”
In the past, the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee brought up the incorrect slogan of “conscientiously embodying into the tasks of production the class struggle in the sphere of production.” As a result, not only was production not grasped well and the tasks not accomplished; on the contrary, owing to ignorance of grasping the class struggle, the class enemy exploited the chance to sabotage while capitalist tendencies were rampant everywhere, almost to the degree of irreparability.
This time, the responsible comrades of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee who are attending the Study Class said with profound understanding that “Our brains lacked a sensing nerve and we cast away the key link in our work; thus the tasks were not accomplished. If we had not reined in the horse at the edge of the precipice, we might have lost the power.” Hsiao-chia-chuan has implanted the great grasping of class struggle into all kinds of work, in an unswerving manner which never missed any production work and wasted no time, and thus enabled the revolutionary production to go one level higher and created everywhere a new atmosphere of vigorous and refreshing socialism.
Since there are similar examples everywhere, I’m not going to dwell on it. What I’m going to mention are a few manifestations reflected by cadres at various levels after publication of the two decisions. Affirmatively speaking, the overwhelming majority of cadres are good—they have cherished and carried out without discount the Central’s decisions, they have led in a satisfactory manner the members of their leadership squads by using themselves as models, they have mingled with the masses to study and understand the spirit of the decisions, they have conscientiously implemented it and led the others to conduct grand criticism, to grasp works and production. Because the Party committeemen have had such good squad leaders, the areas are able to have a new situation and new atmosphere.

Leadership Squads Put “Fear” in the Fore
One of the other situations is that the cadre comrades, especially the squad leaders of the leadership squads, put “fear” in the fore; they dare not open-handedly support the new-born things which have emerged in the movement, they regard localized troubles in the society as great chaos under the whole heaven and don’t know how to cope with them, they dare not to take decisive action against the class enemy’s sabotage, they have acted indecisively during the entire movement and appeared weak and strengthless and failed to bring into play the Party organizations’ role as fortresses in battle. The “fear” of these cadres can be summarized as the fear of chaos, which is a question of world outlook. China has an old adage: “Once bitten by a snake, one will have a fear of ropes throughout his lifetime.”
Because in previous political movements some cadres were affected in varying degrees, or were somewhat wronged, and they failed to have a correct understanding about the impacts they received in previous mass movements, therefore, whenever a movement comes along, they fear that there might be tigers in front and wolves behind, that the revolution might fall on their own heads and have their official hats revolutionized away. All the cadres who put “fear” in the fore have had, after the April 5th counterrevolutionary incident, manifestations of indiscrimination between ourselves and the enemy.
Thus, neither do they dare to come out to support the newborn things, nor do they dare to exercise dictatorship over the handful of bad guys. The masses say: “Our cadres failed to distinguish good and bad, right and wrong; they stick to old practices and made the movement quite cold.” We must encourage this portion of cadres to replace “fear” with “dare.” One must at first have a determination of conscious revolution in order to comprehend the Party’s basic line in the socialist period, search out the cause of “fear” in his world outlook, and then ready himself to lead the movement. Otherwise, he will be sooner or later rejected by the time.

Carry the Struggle to Repulse Right Deviationist Wind to the End
The third situation is that the capitalist-roaders in the Party have managed to usurp leadership power in a certain area and they are colluding with the class enemy in the society of that area to suppress various opinions emerging among the masses, suppress democracy, turn the proletarian dictatorship into bourgeois dictatorship, and greatly whip up the capitalist wind, which makes the movement in that area frustrated, production unpromoted, the genuine revolutionary masses oppressed, and the spirit of justice depressed. Those areas exactly resemble independent kingdoms. They have adopted the attitude of overt obedience and covert disobedience towards the Central’s decisions. On the surface, they also convened mass rallies with scores of thousands, or even a hundred and scores of thousands, of people in support of the Central’s two decisions; in the manner of never falling behind the others, they sent cables or wrote letters in support of the Central’s two decisions. In fact, no matter how high they raise the flags, or they shout the slogans sufficiently loud, they can never cover up their true essence and original forms.
“Even the pedestrians on the streets know well what Ssu-ma Chao [an usurper who took over the Wei Dynasty] is thinking of” means exactly these persons. For the time being, perhaps they may fool the masses for a certain period of time; but, from a longer perspective, they will inevitably show their fox-tails, for the reason that their essence is counterrevolutionary. The reason that Teng Hsiao-p’ing still dares to fight back when cornered is because there are these Teng-like persons, big and small in his following. Some of them wave flags and shout in the open, while some shoot murdering arrows and spread poison behind the scene.
No matter whether they are in the open or behind the scene, as long as they want to be counterrevolutionaries, they will inevitably expose their counterrevolutionary faces. Now, the Central calls the whole Party and the people throughout the country to “continuously take Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, ruthlessly grasp class struggle, carry to the end the political struggle to repulse the right deviationist wind to reverse correct verdicts with criticism of Teng Hsiao-p’ing as its main objective, and stir up throughout the whole country a high tide of searching out counterrevolutionaries on a still larger scale.”
“If we cannot push it through this year, we will continue next year. If one year’s time won’t do, then, two years, three years, five years if necessary, and we will carry it on for even ten years.” We can eat less, sleep less, need not be afraid of losing a few catties of muscle; we can tighten up our waist bands and we can afford to lose some other things, but we must never ignore this while we are concentrating on other matters, and thus relax the conduct of political struggle. This is a matter of great importance which concerns the future of the Party and the state, which may cause thousands of millions of heads to fall onto the ground. Some people say this is only a “desire for power.”
We told the Chairman about this saying. Chairman Mao says: “Tell them our power is given by the workers, peasants and soldiers, is given by the broad masses of people who occupy more than ninety per cent of the populace. The Communist Party will, for the existence of this political power, exercise dictatorship over those who oppose [our] seizing power, never wavering.” The Chairman also says: “What is desire for power? The proletariat has the proletarian desire for power and will never share a bit of its acquired power with the bourgeoisie. What is the bourgeoisie’s desire for power? It is that they will never give a bit to the proletariat. We have learned it from them, but we learned it better.” The fifty-five years of struggle by the Chinese Communist Party is for this political power. For creating this political power we have shed our blood and sacrificed ourselves; and in order to protect this political power, we are prepared to shed blood and sacrifice at any time until the Communist revolution has won a thorough victory.
The Ultra-Leftist Trend Is Raising Its Head
What we must pay attention to at this moment is that in the movement to repulse the right deviationist wind there is a Leftist inclination and the ultra-Leftist trend of thought is raising its head. “Using a positive trend to cover up a negative trend” is the usual trick invariably adopted by the counterrevolutionaries. When the situation of the revolution is developing continuously and puts them in great disadvantage, for the sake of survival they will inevitably pick up revolutionary slogans. When you go to the right, they will go further right, and when you go to the left, they will go further left, in order to interfere with the general direction of the struggle and confuse the others’ hearing and seeing. In some areas there emerged very recently an abnormal adverse current. The bourgeoisie inside the Party stepped behind the scene and let a handful of class enemy and persons with ulterior purposes use the pretext of anti-Teng Hsiao-p’ing for attacking the majority. They have brought up the slogan of “Every official has made mistakes and every mistake will be opposed.”
No matter whether one is a big cadre or a small cadre, as long as one is a cadre, he will be held responsible. As a result, there is now not a single county Party committeeman who can be trusted, not a single prefectural Party committeeman who can be trusted; and among the provincial Party committeemen and those of the Central, no one can be trusted except Chariman Mao. In Shansi and Shensi provinces, there is the old Central instruction which says: “Drive the big and small cadres upstairs, and then let them come downstairs and through the check-point one by one for examination.” Wouldn’t this be something like Liu Shao-ch’i's sham Four Clean-Ups and Taoyuan Experience which were Leftist in form and Rightist in nature? Is it not an odd thing that a member of the Chinese Communist Party, or the leadership organ of an area, would not listen to and ask question about it when they were confronted with such things?
What I am saying does not mean that I or some of the responsible comrades in the Central are the tiger’s ass which one cannot touch or oppose. Without exception, if any of the responsible comrades in the Central has made mistakes or engaged in serious anti-Party activities, not only should you mobilize the masses to expose and criticize him, but also struggle him and purify the remnant poison. But, there must be leadership for it, there must be sufficient evidence. A chaotic bombardment can make the matter fail, not succeed. It can neither wipe out the agents of the bourgeoisie who have wormed their way into the Party, nor can it purge away the remnant poison through the movement to educate the broad masses and enable them to distinguish what is right and wrong, what is Marxism-Leninism, what is revisionism, what is the correct line, what is socialism, and what is capitalism.
On the contrary, it can only frustrate the activeness of the overwhelming majority of revolutionary cadres and masses. Repulsing the right deviationist wind and searching for counterrevolutionaries is a part of the socialist revolution; and this is the checkpoint everyone must pass through. But the spearhead is primarily directed at the handful. As to the majority of cadres, we must first look into [them] and then help [them]. To cope with questions concerning the ideology of the masses, there can be nothing but education. The ultra-Leftist trend of thought now emerging in the society and the evil wind of anarchism among the masses are a new trend in the class struggle. On the one hand, Party organizations at various levels must strive to reverse it while, on the other hand, one should never abandon the current general direction for the reason that there exists this adverse wind.
About Methods to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries
In certain provinces and municipalities some problems emerged. Peking has suppressed a bunch of counterrevolutionaries and smashed their sabotage and disturbances. It is right to take resolute and decisive action to handle things in places where counterrevolutionary sabotage activities have emerged, such as Chengchow, Changsha, Wuhan, and Nanking, etc., as long as one pays attention to grasping the policy well, and it will not cause expansion of suppressing of reactionaries, for fear of that the policy may not be carried out, which pushes those who are not enemies over to the side of the enemy.
But, to haphazardly arrest and drag out people, on the strength of the Central’s instruction to suppress counterrevolutionaries and at places where no counterrevolutionary incidents similar to that which happened in Peking has occured, is erroneous “arresting of people,” no matter whether it is done consciously or unconsciously and is not a good thing. Such things can only be done when there is no other choice. It is common for the masses to argue on different opinions, even take some excessive actions. But, it is something entirely different in nature from counterrevolutionary sabotage. To use instruments of the proletarian dictatorship to solve contradictions among the people, when improperly handled, may lead it to contradictions between ourselves and the enemy; and this can only be in favor of the enemy, not ourselves. It is undeniable that in some individual areas the capitalist-roaders inside the Party have usurped the leadership power there; and these handfuls of persons are afraid that the masses might rise to make revolution and afraid that the east wind of revolution might blow away their “divine mountains and jade-built pavilions” and these vampires’ top buildings.
Therefore, they are scared when the masses rise. In the beginning, they try to use all kinds of plots and tricks to hinder the mass movements, then they whip up ghost winds, shoot murdering arrows in the dark, confuse right and wrong, and reverse black and white. When they can no longer muddle through, they simply reveal their hideous faces and direct the spearhead of the struggle at the genuine revolutionaries, even resort to using tools of the [proletarian] dictatorship and measures of the dictatorship to suppress the correct and uphold the wrong. But, this way of doing things has produced something contrary to their expectation, for it has not scared off the genuine revolutionaries, but, on the contrary, exposed themselves.
For the sake of the revolution, such an early exposure is better than a later exposure. At present, some accusation groups in certain areas have come to Peking to reflect local situations directly to the Central, while some of them have reported through letters or other means the local situations as they were to the Central. These situations will be handled by the Central one by one. Comrade Hua Kuo-feng, Comrade Chiang Ch’ing, and other responsible comrades in the Central have repeatedly stated, in their reception to comrades concerned, and student delegations from various provinces and municipalities as well as to representatives of the militia, the people’s police, and the garrison fighters [soldiers] who have participated in the suppression of the April 5th counterrevolutionary incident, that problems will be solved one by one, by province and by prefecture, from the Central to local areas and from inside the Party to outside the Party; and “the movement must be carried on, the bourgeois antagonists who have wormed their way into the Party must be cleaned away, problems in local areas must be solved; this is our decision, and it should also be the wish and decision of every responsible cadre in the audience as well as that of the whole Party, the whole army, and the people throughout the country.”
Here, we also hope that comrades who have made mistakes, for the reasons that they have unconsciously carried out erroneous lines or policies, that they lacked a high enough awareness of the line, that they have directly or indirectly implemented the things advocated by Teng Hsiao-p’ing, would be able to consciously make corrections and would not stubbornly persist in taking the erroneous direction. Comrades who are willing to correct their mistakes, no matter who they are, are still welcomed by the Party and the people. There will be absolutely no good outcome for those who persist in being stubborn.
Some Important Tasks for the Time Being
In the following, I am going to talk to you about some important tasks for the time being:
1) The Party’s centralized leadership is the key link to guarantee the victory of the struggle to repulse the right deviationist wind. Our Party is a great, glorious, and correct party, is a party cherished and supported by people of all nationalities throughout the country. Such a great party can never have its greatness jeopardized by the existence of bourgeois elements. On the contrary, our Party is a party which is courageous enough to make self-criticism, daring enough to expose contradictions, and having no guilty conscience toward the broad masses of people.
Thus, Party organizations at various levels must repeatedly explain to the masses, pointing out that mistakes made by individuals and the very few bourgeois elements emerged inside the Party must never be identified with the Party itself and that they should not negate the Party’s leadership role in the entire socialist revolution by citing the problems of a few. One must remember at all times that the central power of our cause is the Communist Party of China and that the theoretical foundation which guides our cause is Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tsetung Thought. At no time can one try to weaken the Party’s leadership; weakening, resisting, and sabotaging the Party’s leadership are counterrevolutionary actions.
As a leadership member of a cadre, one must “grasp the power well, use the power well,” and persevere in the centralized leadership. In Party committees, it is mandatory to achieve “unified planning, unified command, unified policy, unified goal, and unified action.” Cadres of the old, the middle-aged, and the young must have mutual respect, stressing principles on great matters, seeking general consensus on small matters, disregarding trivial details, not cooking up mountaintops, and not cooking up factionalism.
2) Strengthen organizational construction and ideological construction. Through studying Chairman Mao’s theory concerning the dictatorship of the proletariat, elevate consciousness of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line; using the class struggle as the key link, satisfactorily carry out investigation and research work and mass mobilization work in movements; continue good work in Party-building, drag out, on the strength of the east wind of the movement, the class antagonist elements who have wormed their way into the Party, strike them down and purge them from the Party. Before this question of great right and wrong, one must not become soft-handed and dish out “benevolent administration.”
Not only must the handful of bad guys who have wormed their way into the Party be dragged out, but also struggled down and thoroughly discredited politically, ideologically, economically, and in all other spheres. But one should not handle these things hastily; request instructions beforehand. In Party rectification, one must also do Party construction and pay attention to cultivation and elevation of the advanced worker-peasant-soldier masses who emerged out of the movement—boldly absorb them into the Party when they have sufficient conditions, and pay attention to promotion and cultivation of new blood and getting them into Party leadership organs at various levels.
July 1 is the Party’s birthday. On this date, millions of advanced elements who have emerged from the movements and from various battle fronts have joined the Party. This is a joyful event, an indication of our Party’s prosperity, and the best counterblow to Teng Hsiao-p’ing. To do organizational construction well we must first grasp the ideological construction well. Deviating from the road of ideological construction of the Party committees will cause the Party organizations to lose the right direction, becoming devoid of great plans and disorderly, even resulting in disintegration of the Party organizations which renders the places where “all people can have their say” into places where “my word is final.” Then the organizations become undisciplined and cannot move a single inch ahead in the movement.
3) Development of grand revolutionary criticism. Grand criticism cannot be rendered in such a way that the more the criticism, the more the chaos, without purpose and direction, shooting arrows without definite targets. Criticism is an important weapon of Marxism-Leninism. This kind of criticism must have bones and muscles; it must be able to give reasons and expose mistakes, so that people can learn from the criticism and then be able to distinguish that this thing is right and should be upheld and that thing is wrong and should be cast away. Not only should criticism be well explained in terms of theories, but also with content. One must prevent criticism for criticism’s sake which may lead a political struggle to the evil road of pure academic criticism. At the same time, one must prevent the kind of criticism which is simplistic and rude name-calling.
One must remember Lu Shun’s word that “Name-calling does not equal fighting.” Now, I am going to bring up a few opinions for your consideration.
a) From now on, criticism should be deep going exposure and criticism with emphases on some major points, aim at the targets accurately, find the right weapon, and criticize them one by one systematically. Every blow must be dealt where it hurts most. During the criticism, cadres and Party members must take the lead. In the grand revolutionary criticism, leading cadres must persevere in association of study, criticism, and the actual situations of their own unit together with the masses.
They must put themselves into the picture, not merely criticizing Teng without a conscious remoulding of their own world outlook. Don’t be that kind of cadre, as depicted by the poor peasants of Huangsantung Production Team in Kwangtung, who “Charge ahead when going to revolutionize somebody else, and sound the retreating drum when they are being revolutionized,” and who become more muddle-headed after more criticism. Acting that way will not only flunk the grand criticism, but also makes one incapable of leading the masses well. We must achieve three combinations.
1) Combining development of grand revolutionary criticism with study of Chairman Mao’s theory concerning the proletarian dictatorship and conscientious implementation of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line; this is a question of direction.
2) Combining development of grand revolutionary criticism with the unit’s class struggle and the work of criticizing Teng and repulsing the right deviationist wind as well as that of cleaning up the class ranks.
3) Combining the development of grand revolutionary criticism with opposing revisionism and preventing revisionism as well as restriction of bourgeois right, criticizing capitalist tendencies, feudalist mentality, and all other non-proletarian thoughts. One can never develop grand revolutionary criticism on the one hand, letting capitalism flood on the other. Otherwise, when the criticism of Teng is ended, the unit will become completely rotten.
b) There are many big-character posters, and a good number of criticism articles. But, those of higher quality are comparatively few. What we see is either lengthy ones stuffed with quotations from canonical writings of Marxism-Leninism, or short and empty articles containing a few sentences. Not a few units look for quantity but not quality. But, one live bullet is always better than a hundred rounds of blank cartridges. The development of grand revolutionary criticism at this time is not polemics on paper by the scholars, competing to see who has copied down more quotations and memorized more Marxist-Leninist works, nor is it a basketball game to see who scores more shots.
This is class struggle, a revolution, which must be conscientiously grasped and cannot be muddled through. The People’s Daily published an article entitled “New Soldiers on the Theoretical Battle Front,” in which several sentences are good: “The spring thunder resounds, urging me to march to the battle field”; “Going deeply into the tiger’s lair in order to kill the tiger”; “the weapons must be good, so they can hit the fatal points”; “Revolutionize continually, and persevere in protracted operations.” These are well said, and clearly expound the issues. All of you should read newspapers more when you have spare time. The newspapers have published many criticism articles written by workers, peasants, and soldiers; and they are of representative significance. They may not be lengthy, just short ones, but they excel the intellectuals who have been holding books in their arms for scores of years.
You Comrades in the audience may not be able to write articles like those by the workers, peasants and soldiers. The reason that those articles are good is because they are written in simple language which conveys profound meanings, and are associated with reality, they are not shallow and empty. To see whether they are really so, you Comrades may make some study into it. While talking about this question, I want to add that the People’s Daily urgently needs some criticism articles of representative value and articles which will reflect the advanced examples of local workers, peasants and soldiers, to be contributed by various localities. You Comrades in the audience should make it a task assigned by the Party, and commonly provide supports to run the Party’s newspaper well.
4) Concrete embodiment of policies and development of the search for counterrevolutionaries. “Policy and strategy are the life line of the Party.” When policies are erroneously carried out or with deviations, the Party’s cause will suffer losses. The success or failure in implementing policies depends on the Party leadership’s implementation of policies without any discount. Many times, the Party’s policies have been put through from the Central to lower levels.
The middle echelon gives some discounts; when they reach the local areas, they become something unlike the original. Of course, deviations in policy implementation can be attributed in most cases to the cadres’ incomplete understanding of the policies; and it is something done unconsciously. But, no matter whether it is done consciously or unconsciously, the outcome is that we lose the masses, while, of course, the enemy also slips away.
Not a few cadres do love the Party and do love Chairman Mao in their subjective consciousness; they work actively and always wish to implement the policies well. But owing to insufficient study, habits of doing things arbitrarily, and a dislike of inviting teachings from the masses and submitting briefings to higher echelons, they distort the policies in the process of implementation, cause the masses to lose faith, and impose losses on the revolution. Then they could no longer stay in their posts and were either suspended or transferred. Whom can they blame? Therefore, Chairman Mao has elevated the importance of policy to high level of the Party’s life line, for the purpose of letting you Comrades pay sufficient attention to it.
At the same time while the criticism of Teng Hsiao-p’ing and repulsion of the right deviationist wind to reverse correct verdicts has been deepened, a high tide of searching for counterrevolutionaries is also whipped up throughout the whole country. In this high tide, the one and only policy is emphasizing investigation and research. In all matters, evidence is the most important thing. In handling the April 5th counterrevolutionary incident, we have taken the stand of initiativeness from the beginning to the very end. What we relied on is the policy of making explanations to the masses. The counterrevolutionaries hope that we will open the gunfire.
They want to become martyrs in order to incite the masses’ sentiments. We just do not play into their hands. Practice has proven that this handful of counterrevolutionaries are afraid of the masses and afraid of criticism. In this grand search cooked up in various areas, the troops and public security organs should not open fire carelessly, unless it is absolutely necessary and for protection of the people’s lives. While the Chairman has told the premier of Thailand that they should not create martyrs, we just cannot do things otherwise and create martyrs. Of course, it is permissible [to open fire] when necessary; but instructions must be elicited.
Another thing is that those who are to be killed are very frequently the masses. Genuine counterrevolutionaries will never thrust out their chests to stop bullets. In the principle, the policy requirement is “No one is to be executed while the majority are not to be arrested.” As to detailed scope and requirements of the policy, the Central will distribute related stipulations and documents to organs at various levels, and, in addition to that, Comrade Wang Tung-hsing, as a representative of the Central, is going to make more concrete explanations to you. At present, what must be prevented are the Leftist tendency of “rather Left than Right” and the erroneous Rightist thought of “theme of invisibility.” In the process of the search [for counterrevolutionaries], participation by all the people is needed; not sole reliance on the public security agencies. But, mere emphasis on the dictatorship of the masses without coordination with the leadership and specialized organs will not do either. It needs a three-in-one combination. Steadiness, accuracy, and ruthlessness are important. One must pay attention to investigation and research; oppose distortion of confession, not cook up armed struggles, give [the criticized] a way out, and give consideration to strategies, in order to effectively deliver blows on the enemy.
This time, Peking has arrested a few too many persons. At the beginning, no one opened up fire and the policy was upheld; afterwards, things were less than desirable. In Peking alone 40,000 to 50,000 persons were put under arrest. Every unit engaged itself in arresting and dragging out this or that person. A couple of lives were sacrificed also while some were wronged. The good thing was that these situations were quickly rectified when pointed out by the Central. This must be taken as a lesson. “In handling questions about persons, a prudent attitude must be adopted.” The units should do this well in the present movement to search for counterrevolutionaries. Only by uniting all forces that can be united can effective blows be dealt to the handful of the class enemy; and only effectively dealing blows to the handful of the class enemy can offer the best protection to the broad masses of people.
5) Grasp revolution, grasp production, promote work, promote early preparedness. In the struggle to criticize Teng and repulse the right deviationist wind, there is a refreshing scene full of socialist vigor on every battle front throughout the whole country. Hundreds of thousands of worker-peasant-soldier students have marched into the society, into the countryside, to take part in class struggle, to conduct investigation and research, and to associate the knowledge they have learned from books with practical work.
Group after group, college graduates have rushed to border areas, the countryside, and the mountainous areas to take the road of associating with worker-peasant masses being pointed by Chairman Mao. May 7th Cadres Schools and July 21st Workers’ Colleges have bloomed, like spring bamboo shoots rising out of the ground after raining, all over the whole country. As a result, we have also achieved very great accomplishments on the industrial battle front. Workers of the 7002 Drilling Team of the Petroleum Control Bureau of Szuchwan have drilled our country’s first super-deep well with a depth of 6,011 meters. The generator system of double water-cooling turbine with the capacity of 300,000 kilowatts made in China has joined production. In the beginning of June, a great many industrial and mining enterprises had completed ahead of schedule the production missions for the first half of 1976. In the last couple of days, joyful events followed each other, with victory reports constantly coming from all battle fronts.
The situation on the agricultural battle front is excellent; the enthusiastic wave of socialist competition to learn from Tachai and catch up with Hsiyang is just beginning. Two thirds of the communes and one half of the production brigades throughout the country have electricity. For a period of ten years, the countryside throughout the country has constructed more than 56,000 hydro-power stations, big and small. The spring planting of this year is good. Bumper harvests of the third-season wheat and rice, etc., are expected. In a word: “The situation is excellent.” This excellent situation not only brings spiritual encouragement to the people throughout the country, but can also serve as the most powerful refutation of Teng Hsiao-p’ing’s revisionist line of “using the three instructions as the key link” and “four modernizations.”
This is a great victory for Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, also a great victory in the movement to criticize Teng and repulse the right deviationist wind. 　But, under the excellent situation there still exist some problems. These problems must be solved, not ignored. The growth and rise of anarchism has lowered working efficiency and caused production to fall below full capacity, which have resulted in failure to accomplish industrial projects missions for the year. Anarchism does not mean doing away with a government. What it does not want is the proletarian government but a government of individuals of the bourgeoisie, a government of their own small circle.
This trend of thought must be well directed. One must be able to direct non-proletarian thought onto the track of proletarian thought. This is a mission for party organizations at various levels. A class struggle on the ideological battle front must be developed to criticize all kinds of non-proletarian thought so that production can be guaranteed. It is noteworthy that there exist a great many questions on the nature of contradictions among the people which cannot be treated in the same manner as the previously mentioned struggle against the enemy. Otherwise, great “disorder” will be the outcome. In our criticism of the erroneous practice of using production to suppress politics, cadres must never, for this reason, leave production alone and give it a free rein.
At present, industries of steel and iron, nonferrous metals, machinery, automobile, construction, chemical production and coal mining still have a certain distance from their completion of the missions projected for the first half of the year, especially the machine tool production in the machinery industry which has only maintained the production index of the first half of the year before last. These situations must be reversed. The Party Central and Chairman Mao call the whole Party and the people throughout the country to unite together to grasp revolution, to promote production even more. I believe that under the guidance of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line, our missions will be accomplished and our goals will be realized. Best wishes to you Comrades for creating still better achievements in study and in work.
Source:
Issues and Studies, December 1976.