After the harvest of 1958, during the Great Leap Forward, production teams across China hid grain from the state. The practice was called manchan sifen, concealing output and dividing it privately. At the Zhengzhou conference on February 27, 1959, Mao Zedong said that it had broken out “almost everywhere.” Teams had “even hidden it in deep cellars and posted sentries.”
In a second talk the same day, Mao took their side. “I rather support concealing output and dividing it privately,” he said. “Apart from embezzlement and sabotage, it is a legitimate right.”
Both talks are known from a compilation printed in 1968, during the Cultural Revolution. Texts in such compilations can differ from later official editions.