Don’t Hit Out in All Directions

Part of a speech at the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on June 6, 1950. This part of the speech explained his written report "Fight for a Fundamental Turn for the Better in the Nation's Financial and Economic Situation" at this meeting, and explained the strategic strategy thought of the report, that is, "Do not hit out in all directions". It was included in the Collected Works of Mao Zedong, Volume 6.

Mao Zedong said in his speech that from the founding of the People's Republic of China to the first half of 1950, after months of intense fighting and unremitting efforts, the Communist Party of China led the Chinese people to achieve major victories in military, political, economic, social work, diplomatic and other fronts, and the mess left by the KMT was effectively improved. In the midst of this great victory, we were confronted with very complex struggles and many difficulties.

Firstly, the land reform has been completed in the areas with 160 million people in the north, but the land reform is about to start in the newly Liberated Areas with 310 million people in order to overthrow the whole landlord class. In this process, we have enough enemies. “Against us are arrayed, first, the imperialists, second, the reactionaries in Taiwan and Xizang, third, the remnant KMT forces, the secret agents and the bandits, fourth, the landlord class and, fifth, the reactionary forces in the missionary schools established in China by the imperialists and in religious circles and those in the cultural and educational institutions taken over from the KMT. This is a very acute struggle, unprecedented in history.

Secondly, many people, especially the national bourgeoisie, are dissatisfied with the destruction of industry and commerce brought about by social and economic restructuring and the war.

Thirdly, unemployed intellectuals and workers are dissatisfied with us and so are a number of small handicraftsmen.

Fourthly, also the peasants in most rural areas are complaining, because agrarian reform has not yet been carried out thoroughly and besides they have to deliver grain to the state.

In his speech, Mao Zedong emphatically expounded the strategic and tactical ideas on which the report was based, and pointed out that in the face of difficult and complex situations at home and abroad, our general policy "is to eliminate the remnants of the KMT, spies and bandits, overthrow the landlord class, liberate Taiwan and Xizang, and fight against imperialism to the end”. We should isolate and attack our immediate enemies, as well as convert those among the people who are dissatisfied with us into our supporters.”

(1) Unite all social classes and help them solve their own problems.

We should adjust industry and Commerce reasonably, solve the problem of unemployment, and make the unemployed workers support us; we should find a way out for the small handicraftsmen to maintain their lives; we should improve the relationship with the national bourgeoisie by adjusting industry and commerce reasonably, adjusting taxes, and uniting, educating, and reforming the vast number of intellectuals.

(2) The whole Party should try earnestly and painstakingly to make a success of its United Front work.

"We should rally the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie under the leadership of the working class and on the basis of the worker-peasant alliance." We should make this clear to the cadres and show by facts that it is right and necessary to unite with the national bourgeoisie, the democratic parties, democratic personages and intellectuals. Many of them were our enemies before, but now that they have broken with the enemy camp and come over to our side, we should unite with all these people, who can be more or less united with. This is the United Front strategy that we should adhere to.

(3) We should unite the majority of ethnic minorities.

There are about thirty million of them in the whole country. Social reforms in their areas are a matter of great importance and must be handled cautiously. On no account must we be impetuous, for impatience will lead to trouble. No reform is to be instituted unless the conditions are ripe. We must help them train their own cadres and we must unite with the masses of the ethnic groups.

Mao Zedong finally pointed out: "In short, we must not hit out in all directions. It is undesirable to hit out in all directions and cause nation-wide tension. We must definitely not make too many enemies, we must make concessions and relax the tension a little in some quarters and concentrate our attack in one direction. We must do our work well so that all the workers, peasants and small handicraftsmen will support us and the overwhelming majority of the national bourgeoisie and intellectuals will not oppose us. In this way, the remnant KMT forces, the secret agents and the bandits will be isolated, as will the landlord class and the reactionaries in Taiwan and Xizang, and the imperialists will find themselves isolated before the people of our country. This is our policy, our strategy and tactics, and it is the line of the Third Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party. ”

The strategic policy of "Don't hit out in all directions" was put forward by the Party on the basis of a new analysis of the class relations at home and within the United Front under the international and domestic situation after the founding of New China. It is a continuation of the Party's strategy of "striking the main enemy and striving to gain the largest number of allies", which reflects an important strategic thought of the Party at the beginning years of its rule. The Party was aware that before the victory there were many years of war and revolution in the country which had inevitably brought negative impact and pain to the society. Consequently, important initiatives or measures taken by the Party and the people's government should not be carried out too vigorously or too fast, but instead a cautious approach was needed; we needed to pay more attention to proceed gradually so as to facilitate the steady achievement of the goals we have set.