Policy and Tactics Are the Life of the Party

On February 27, 1948, Mao Zedong's “Inner-Party Directive on Industrial and Commercial Policies” drafted for the Central Committee of the CPC stated: "Policy is the starting-point of all the practical actions of a revolutionary party and manifests itself in the process and the end-result of that party's actions. A revolutionary party is carrying out a policy whenever it takes any action. If it is not carrying out a correct policy, it is carrying out a wrong policy; if it is not carrying out a given policy consciously, it is doing so blindly. What we call experience is the process and the end-result of carrying out a policy.” “If we make mistakes in our policies, we will not succeed, specifically, in the five major policy issues: revolutionary war, Party consolidation, land reform, industry and commerce, and repression of counter-revolutionaries, if in any one of them we make a mistake of principle, and if we do not correct such a mistake, we will be defeated.”On March 20, 1948, Mao Zedong pointed out in his "A Circular on the Situation" that "Policies and strategies are the life of the Party, leading comrades at all levels must pay full attention to them and never be careless.” On the same day, Mao Zedong wrote a comment in a telegram transmitting the instructions of the Front Committee of the Northwest Field Army that columns should continue to improve policy education and pointed out: "It should be noted that policy and tactics are the life of our Party and army." Formulating policies, strategies and tactics are important contents of Mao Zedong Thought.

Mao Zedong emphasized that the Party's policies must be formulated in accordance with the political situation, class relations and actual conditions and their changes should be evaluated timely, and when formulating policies both the principledness and flexibility should be combined. "Only in people's practice, that is, in experience, can policies be proved if they are correct or not, and the degree of correctness and error can be determined”. " To be good at translating the Party's policy into action of the masses, to be good at getting not only the leading cadres but also the broad masses to understand and master every movement and every struggle we launch - this is an art of Marxist-Leninist leadership, it is also the dividing line that determines whether or not we make mistakes in our work”.