Page 46 - SELECTED WORKS OF LIU SHAOQI Volume Ⅱ

44 LIU SHAOQI

the other hand, the people’s revolutionary war required that the
peasants make the greatest sacrifices by joining the army and supply-
ing public grain and labour service to support the war and strive for
victory in the war. Victory was in the supreme interest of the Chi-
nese people, and everything had to be subordinated to this need. It
was precisely under such circumstances that we allowed the peasants to
requisition the surplus land and property of the rich peasants and to
confiscate all the property of the landlords, so as to satisfy to a greater
extent the demands of the impoverished peasants, rouse to a high
degree their revolutionary enthusiasm to participate in and support
the people’s revolutionary war, and overthrow Chiang Kai-shek’s re-
gime, which was backed by U.S. imperialists. This was both necessary
and correct at the time, when, without extremely thorough agrarian re-
form in the liberated areas and full satisfaction of the impoverished
peasants’ demands, it would have been hard to overcome the difficul-
ties encountered.
Things are diametrically different now. The people’s revolutionary
war on the mainland has for the most part been completed, and the
Chiang Kai-shek gang is undoubtedly doomed to destruction. The
two tremendous tasks required of the peasants — military service and
labour service — have entirely been fulfilled and the burden of grain
tax has also been comparatively lightened. The present basic task
for people throughout the country is to undertake economic develop-
ment on a nationwide scale, to rehabilitate and develop the economy.
The fight for Taiwan remains a colossal task, and the People’s Libera-
tion Army has adequate strength to shoulder it. The difficulties we
confront today are different in character from those we encountered
during the war in the past. Our present difficulties are mainly
financial and economic, arising in the course of the restoration, reform
and development of the economy. At the same time, the great re-
volutionary unity of all nationalities, all democratic classes, all
democratic parties and all people’s organizations in the country has
already been established politically and organizationally, and the
political attitude of the rich peasants, in general, has also undergone
a change. If the People’s Government pursues a policy of preserving
the rich peasant economy, it will enable the rich peasants in general
to take a neutral attitude, better protect the middle peasants and
dispel certain unwarranted misgivings of the peasants with regard to
the development of production. Therefore, in the present situation, it
is necessary both politically and economically to adopt a policy of