By Soong Ching Ling

Dear Comrades:

Yesterday, I listened to the reports by comrades responsible for different departments, and I was deeply impressed by what they accomplished over the last year. I am convinced that with the correct leadership of the Party, we can achieve even more.

I am sendng to you an excerpt mainly from the third part of my speech made yesterday. In the speech, I briefly outlined the main direction for the long-term development of CWI. If you use this excerpt for more discussion on the plans for 1960 to 1962, see if my speech will change the targets for the next three years.

I would like to add the following opinions for your reference.

The reports from each department clearly show that CWI is consistent with our established standards. That is to say, we are making our organization a model of "Demonstration and Experimentation", which also means the organization has exerted good influence on the health care work for women and children and the cultural and educational work for children. With this I am very pleased. The reports from each department also show that scientific research is now forming a solid foundation for the leading ideology in CWI and other departments. Scientific research work has been proven to be inseparable from improving work quality and we have the capability to accomplish this task, even though we still have a long way to go to improve the quality of scientific research.

We all know that changes in the present situation require us and our organization to change accordingly. Ten years ago, when we first put forward the model of "Demonstration and Experimentation", it was to give a general direction for our institute. The model was appropriate and perfect. At the time of the 20th anniversary of CWI, this goal was clearly no longer sufficient. So we had to make some progress, to catch up with the development of the country and to make bigger contribution to our socialist society. It was right at this time that we added the goal of scientific research on top of the model of "Demonstration and Experimentation". Now, the Party once again calls on us to bring forth all the potentials in ourselves and our staff members. We must admit that the potential is not static, but is often evolving. Therefore, our requirements for our staff members and ourselves can not be fixed according to the previous goals. We must look forward, to see what they can do and what future they have. We should set our objectives accordingly to reach that level.

In my opinion, all these ideas should be reflected in the basic idea of the development plan for the next three years. Therefore I hope our planning, although it is already very good, can be better and bolder. I hope this plan can lay the foundation for CWI to gradually transform into an institute mainly engaging in scientific research.

I hope the planning can take this as the goal.

This is not contradictory to our original objective of "Demonstration and Experimentation". Yesterday's reports have clearly proved this fact，indicating that we not only can become a "demonstrative and experimental" organization, but also can gradually train our own members for our scientific research work in terms of the entire CWI organization, thus making the biggest and most crucial contribution to the building of socialism and communism. Scientific research will in turn help consolidate our work of "Demonstration and Experimentation".

What's more important is that the work of scientific research constitutes the premise for the permanent presence of CWI, which will be a long-standing organization able to make more valuable and significant contributions to our socialist and communist cause.

That this idea will meet certain resistance can only to be expected. This is newly created and the requirements for scientific research are neither simple nor easy to meet. However, if we could overcome our conservatism in the past, once we admit its danger and obstructive impact, we will have the confidence to conquer these conservative thoughts now. We can see many evidences every day, which show how we are dwarfed by difficulties and how we are thrown aside by intellectuals and workers. We must keep these in mind in our work. I see the further development of CWI as this: the scientific research work is like a field with plants just sprouting, but the new buds have clearly presented themselves. We must care for them so that they can grow fast and healthily. These new plants are our future. We must mobilize all our efforts to let them play the leading role in CWI.

I would like to express my feelings once again: we have the correct approach and all kinds of support from the Party; we have our leaders and our people, who are maturing right in front of our eyes; we have the support from the entire socialist society; and we also have all the forces we need to promote this effort and to bring it to a higher level.

I will be very happy to have your feedbacks concerning the above opinions.

The letter was written by Soong Ching Ling

(Source: The China Welfare Institute)