No Investigation, No Right to Speak

An assertion made by Mao Zedong in May 1930 in the article “On Investigation Work " (Oppose Book Worship). Mao Zedong pointed out: "No investigation, no right to speak.” Because "conclusions invariably come after investigation, and not before”; investigation may be likened to the “long months of pregnancy” and solving a problem can be likened to the “day of birth”. "Without investigating the actual situation, there is bound to be an idealist appraisal of class forces and an idealist guidance in work, resulting either in opportunism or in putschism.”

On April 2, 1931, Mao Zedong further put forward in the “Circular of the General Political Department on Investigating the Situation Regarding Land and Population”: “Our slogan is: Firstly, no investigation, no right to speak. Secondly, unless you have investigated a problem, you will be deprived of the right to speak on it.”

The thought of "no investigation, no right to speak" was an important embodiment of the ideological line of seeking truth from facts of the Communist Party of China and an indispensable prerequisite for it to formulate and implement the correct political line.