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Chapter Seven ‖ The Great Historical Turning Point and the Pioneering of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

Editorial Group of This Book

January 1, 2021

第七章 伟大历史转折和中国特色社会主义的开创

本书编写组

Chapter Seven ‖ The Great Historical Turning Point and the Pioneering of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics第七章 伟大历史转折和中国特色社会主义的开创

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Editorial Group of This Book本书编写组
Publisher
CPC History Press中共党史出版社

Chapter Seven ‖ The Great Historical Turning Point and the Pioneering of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics

第七章 ‖ 伟大历史转折和中国特色社会主义的开创

The smashing of the “Gang of Four” sent the entire nation into jubilation. Correcting the errors of the “Cultural Revolution,” thoroughly reversing the grave situation caused by a decade of internal turmoil, and enabling the Party and the state to rise again from peril — these were the ardent expectations of the people. At this time, the world economy was developing rapidly and techno-scientific progress was advancing by leaps and bounds. The tendencies of the broader situation at home and abroad demanded that the Communist Party of China make political decisions and strategic choices as quickly as possible on the major guidelines and policies bearing on the future and destiny of the Party and the state. At this critical historical juncture — the question of where China was headed — the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party convened in Beijing in December 1978. The session made the historic decision to shift the focus of the entire Party’s work to socialist modernization and to implement reform and opening up. It brought about a great turning point of far-reaching significance in the Party’s history since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and opened a new era of reform and opening up and socialist modernization.

I. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee Achieves the Great Historical Turning Point

Advancing Amid Vacillation and the Discussion on the Criterion of Truth

After the smashing of the “Gang of Four,” the Party Center took resolute and decisive measures: it investigated and purged the “Gang of Four” faction system, redressed unjust, false, and erroneous cases, adjusted and staffed leading bodies at all levels of the Party, government, and military, deployed a movement to expose and criticize the “Gang of Four,” and restored the normal order of the Party and the state. The stable political situation that the people had long awaited began to take shape.

However, eliminating in a short period of time the grave political and ideological confusion caused by a decade of the “Cultural Revolution” was no easy matter. This confusion arose primarily because of the machinations of the two counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing, but it was also related to the longstanding “left” errors within the Party. The most prominent obstacle to correcting this grave confusion was the “Two Whatevers” then being put forward and promoted — namely, “whatever decisions Chairman Mao made, we will resolutely uphold; whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave, we will steadfastly follow.” The “Two Whatevers” refused to subject any of Mao Zedong’s decisions and instructions made during his lifetime to analysis. Theoretically, this violated the basic principles of Marxism and the Party’s ideological line of seeking truth from facts; in practice, it erected obstacles to upholding truth and correcting errors under the new circumstances.

Shortly after the “Two Whatevers” were put forward, on April 10, 1977, Deng Xiaoping — who had not yet had his leadership positions restored — wrote a letter to the Party Center in which he stated: “We must, generation after generation, use accurate and complete Mao Zedong Thought to guide our entire Party, our entire military, and the people of the whole country.” Thereafter, he criticized the “Two Whatevers” on multiple occasions in different settings. Veteran revolutionaries such as Ye Jianying, Chen Yun, Li Xiannian, Nie Rongzhen, and Xu Xiangqian also emphasized the need to carry forward the Party’s fine tradition of seeking truth from facts, and resisted the “Two Whatevers.”

The Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee, convened in July 1977, decided to restore Deng Xiaoping to his positions as member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, member and Standing Committee member of the Central Political Bureau, Vice Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army. After returning to work, Deng Xiaoping proactively requested to take charge of science and education, using this as a breakthrough point for driving the rectification of errors. He led the criticism of the “theory of the dictatorship of the black line in literature and art” and the “theory of the dictatorship of the black line in education” promoted by Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, and others; overturned the “two assessments”[1] that had for years weighed down the broad masses of intellectuals; called for respect for knowledge and respect for talent; emphasized that “science and technology are productive forces”; and pointed out that mental laborers serving socialism are part of the working people. From that point on, the Party reversed its “left” policies toward intellectuals. Knowledge and intellectuals once again received the attention of the Party and the state, and intellectuals in the realms of science, education, literature and art, and other fields were greatly encouraged. A large number of films and theatrical works that had long been banned — including Ashima, The Peach Blossom Fan, and Li Shuangshuang — were screened and performed again. Many outstanding Chinese and foreign literary and artistic works were unbanned. Mass organizations such as the Federation of Literary and Art Circles and the Writers’ Association resumed their work, and literary and artistic creation gradually became more vibrant. At the end of 1977, the unified college entrance examination system — which had been suspended during the “Cultural Revolution” — was restored. Of the 5.7 million people who sat the college entrance examination, 273,000 were admitted and stepped joyfully onto university campuses. In March 1978, the National Science Conference was held, and the spring of science had arrived.

From August 12 to 18, 1977, the Eleventh National Congress of the Party convened. The congress declared the end of the “Cultural Revolution” and reaffirmed that the Party’s fundamental task was to build our state into a powerful socialist modernized country by the end of the twentieth century. Constrained by the historical conditions of the time, the congress still affirmed the erroneous theories and practices of the “Cultural Revolution” and was unable to fundamentally correct its errors. The newly constituted Central Committee elected Hua Guofeng as Chairman, and Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Li Xiannian, and Wang Dongxing as Vice Chairmen.

During the two years following the end of the “Cultural Revolution,” the work of the Party and the state made some progress; the rectification of errors had begun in certain areas; and economic construction, various social undertakings, and diplomatic work saw some recovery and development. People urgently hoped that the Party and the state would quickly shake off their difficulties and stride forward. However, due to the long-term influence of the “left” deviationist errors of the “Cultural Revolution,” compounded by the constraints of the “Two Whatevers,” every step forward in rectifying errors was extremely arduous, and the work of the Party and the state fell into a situation of advancing amid vacillation. This state of affairs prompted much reflection among people both inside and outside the Party: what attitude should one take toward Mao Zedong’s instructions? What was the actual criterion for judging right and wrong in historical practice? This inevitably gave rise to a dispute between seeking truth from facts and the “Two Whatevers.”

On May 10, 1978, the Central Party School’s internal publication Theoretical Trends published the article “Practice Is the Sole Criterion for Testing Truth.” On May 11, Guangming Daily published the article publicly under the byline of a special commentator, and Xinhua News Agency distributed it nationwide. The article clearly argued that social practice is not only the criterion for testing truth, but the sole criterion. It called for the courage “to touch the forbidden zones set up by the Gang of Four, and to clarify right and wrong.” One must not use ready-made formulas to restrict, override, and trim the infinitely rich and rapidly developing revolutionary practice; one must have the courage to study new problems raised in new practice. This article provoked a strong response among the broad masses of cadres and the people, and sparked a major discussion on the criterion of truth.

That practice is the sole criterion for testing truth is, in fact, a basic tenet of Marxism. But because it stood in sharp opposition to the “Two Whatevers” and touched on the entrenched ideological rigidity and personality cult, the discussion on the criterion of truth came under attack from certain quarters from the very beginning.

At this critical moment, Deng Xiaoping provided timely and forceful support. On June 2, 1978, he delivered a speech at the All-Army Political Work Conference, elaborating at length on Mao Zedong’s views on seeking truth from facts, criticizing the erroneous “Two Whatevers” attitude of certain people toward Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought, and calling for “rectifying errors, breaking the spiritual shackles, and achieving a great liberation of thought.” Under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership and with the support of many veteran revolutionaries, a major discussion on the criterion of truth rapidly unfolded throughout the Party and across society. Central and provincial-level newspapers and journals published more than 650 discussion articles in total, forming a surging tide of ideological emancipation.

This profound and wide-ranging movement for ideological emancipation became the ideological forerunner of setting the record straight, rectifying errors, and carrying out reform and opening up. Through this discussion, the extreme-left ideological trends that had caused harm for many years were criticized, the Party’s Marxist ideological line was restored, past setbacks were reflected upon, and future paths were contemplated. Thinking within and outside the Party became increasingly active, and a new situation began to emerge in which opening up to the outside world and reforming various institutional systems were being contemplated.

After the smashing of the “Gang of Four,” China’s external contacts expanded rapidly, and Party and state leaders went abroad one after another to learn about the outside world. They all felt a sharp and painful sense that too much time had been lost in recent years — that the gap between China and the developed countries in economics, science and technology, and management was far too great! This acute sense of crisis and urgency prompted Party and state leaders to place on the agenda the task of accelerating the learning and borrowing of advanced foreign management experience and science and technology. The overall thinking of using reform and opening up to accelerate China’s development began to take shape.

In March 1978, Deng Xiaoping stated at the National Science Conference that independence and self-reliance do not mean isolation and rejection of all things foreign; self-reliance does not mean blind rejection of foreign things. “Every nation and every country needs to learn from other nations and countries, to learn their strong points and their advanced science and technology.” At the State Council’s deliberative conference held from July to September, many department heads put forward proposals for reforming the rigid economic management system and for introducing advanced foreign technology and capital. In late September, the National Planning Conference further proposed that economic work must undergo three transformations: first, shift attention to the struggle for production and the technological revolution; second, shift management systems and methods onto the track of scientific management in accordance with economic laws; third, shift from a state of isolation or semi-isolation to an open policy of actively introducing advanced foreign technology, utilizing foreign capital, and boldly entering international markets.

In September 1978, Deng Xiaoping inspected the three northeastern provinces. He repeatedly stressed that the world changes every day, new things keep emerging, new problems keep arising, and it will not do to shut ourselves off, nor will it do to never use our minds and remain forever backward. We must use the current favorable conditions to accelerate the development of productive forces and improve the people’s lives. He also proposed that the mass movement to expose and criticize the “Gang of Four” should be brought to a timely conclusion and that work should return to normal — thereby putting forward the important proposition of shifting the focus of the Party’s and the state’s work to modernization. This laid the ideological foundation for the Central Work Conference and the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee that were to follow.

The Convening of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee

Before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee convened, the Party Center held a work conference in Beijing from November 10 to December 15, 1978. The agenda originally set for the conference was primarily to discuss economic work. Because Deng Xiaoping’s proposal to shift the focus of work — put forward before the conference — had already received the endorsement of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau, the conference first took up the question of shifting the focus of work. On this matter, everyone was enthusiastically in favor and unanimously agreed. But participants felt that without correctly resolving the question of guiding ideology, without correcting “left” deviationist errors — including the grave errors of the “Cultural Revolution” — without overcoming dogmatism, book worship, and ideological rigidity, and without resolving the question of the criterion for testing truth, it would be impossible to truly achieve the shift in the focus of work. The Northeast group raised during discussions the need to systematically resolve the historical legacy problems from the “Cultural Revolution” and before, which provoked a strong response among the participants. Subsequently, the conference engaged in an ideological confrontation over the criterion of truth, and also held heated discussions on economic issues, Party building, and the construction of the state’s democratic legal system, causing the conference agenda to change. The call at the conference for re-establishing the Party’s ideological line of seeking truth from facts grew ever stronger. On November 25, the Central Political Bureau made decisions to rehabilitate the Tiananmen Incident and to overturn erroneous cases such as the “traitor clique of Bo Yibo and sixty others,” resolving a batch of major ★ Deng Xiaoping at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee historical legacy problems. Some enterprises and some workers and farmers, through diligent effort and outstanding results, would earn somewhat more income and improve their lives first. When some people improve their lives first, this will inevitably generate a demonstration effect, which will cause the entire national economy to advance in a wave-like manner, enabling the people of all ethnic groups across the country to become prosperous more quickly. This speech was a manifesto for emancipating the mind and opening a new path for a new era, and it effectively served as the keynote report for the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee that followed.

major historical legacy problems.

On December 13, Deng Xiaoping delivered an important speech at the closing session of the Central Work Conference, titled “Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, and Unite as One in Looking to the Future.” The speech stated that the first priority is to emancipate the mind: only when the mind is emancipated can we correctly use Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought as our guide to resolve problems left over from the past and to resolve a series of newly emerging problems. If a party, a state, or a nation proceeds from rigid adherence to texts, with ideological rigidity and rampant superstition, it cannot advance; its vitality will cease, and the party will perish and the state will fall. He emphasized that democracy is an important condition for emancipating the mind; in order to safeguard people’s democracy, the legal system must be strengthened, so that there are laws to follow, laws that are followed, enforcement that is strict, and violations that are prosecuted. In the speech, Deng Xiaoping put forward the task of reforming the economic system. He said with deep feeling: “If we do not now implement reform, our modernization drive and our socialist cause will be buried.” The speech also put forward a “major policy” — namely, to allow some regions,

From December 18 to 22, 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party convened in Beijing. The plenary session broke through the severe constraints of longstanding “left” errors, thoroughly repudiated the erroneous guideline of the “Two Whatevers,” highly evaluated the discussion on the criterion of truth, and re-established the Party’s ideological line of seeking truth from facts.

The plenary session ceased using the slogan “take class struggle as the key link,” and in a timely and resolute manner brought to an end the nationwide mass movement to expose and criticize Lin Biao and the “Gang of Four.” It decided that beginning in January 1979, the focus of the entire Party’s work and the attention of the people of the whole country would be shifted to socialist modernization. The plenary session put forward the task of reform and opening up. It pointed out that achieving the Four Modernizations is a broad and profound revolution. A series of new and major economic measures must be adopted; earnest reforms must be carried out in economic management systems and operational management methods; and on the basis of self-reliance, economic cooperation with all countries of the world on the basis of equality and mutual benefit must be actively developed.

The plenary session emphasized the need to fully develop democracy, and put forward the task of institutionalizing and legalizing the democratic system; it decided to improve the Party’s system of democratic centralism, improve party regulations and party rules, and strictly enforce party discipline. The plenary session also put forward the need to correctly treat Mao Zedong’s historical status and the scientific system of Mao Zedong Thought, pointing the way toward upholding and developing Mao Zedong Thought.

The plenary session added new members to the central leadership bodies and elected the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection with Chen Yun as First Secretary. At the Central Work Conference preceding the plenary session, Hua Guofeng made a self-criticism regarding the “Two Whatevers.” After the plenary session, although Hua Guofeng continued to serve as Chairman of the Party Center, in terms of embodying the Party’s correct guiding ideology and deciding the major guidelines and policies for reform and opening up and socialist modernization, Deng Xiaoping had in practice already become the core of the Party’s central leadership collective.

The successful convening of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee marked the end of the situation in which the work of the Party and the state had been advancing amid vacillation since the smashing of the “Gang of Four.” The plenary session re-established the Marxist ideological line, political line, and organizational line, brought about a great turning point of far-reaching significance in the Party’s history since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and opened a new era of reform and opening up and socialist modernization in our state. The historic decision made at the plenary session to implement reform and opening up was based on a profound grasp of the future and destiny of the Party and the state, on a profound summing-up of the practice of socialist revolution and construction, on a profound insight into the tendencies of the times, and on a profound understanding of the hopes and needs of the people. Reform and opening up was a great awakening of the Communist Party of China; it was precisely this great awakening that gave birth to the Party’s great creation from theory to practice. Beginning with this plenary session, the curtain rose on reform and opening up and on the pioneering of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and Deng Xiaoping Theory gradually took shape and developed. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee has been inscribed in the annals of history as a great turning point.

II. The Completion of the Task of Rectifying Errors

Large-Scale Rehabilitation of Unjust, False, and Erroneous Cases and the Adjustment of Social Relations

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, from the Center down to the localities, the work of rehabilitating unjust, false, and erroneous cases was fully launched in accordance with the principle of seeking truth from facts and correcting all errors.

In the work of rehabilitating unjust, false, and erroneous cases, the most influential was the “Resolution on Rehabilitating Comrade Liu Shaoqi” passed by the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in February 1980. The Resolution thoroughly overturned all the charges fabricated against Liu Shaoqi and restored his reputation as a great Marxist and proletarian revolutionary and one of the principal leaders of the Party and the state. This demonstrated that the Communist Party of China is a Marxist party that seeks truth from facts, corrects all errors, is earnest and serious, and acts with integrity and openness. The Party and the people also came to a profound understanding of the extreme importance of strengthening democratic centralism and building democratic and legal institutions.

By the end of 1982, the nationwide large-scale work of rehabilitating unjust, false, and erroneous cases was basically complete. Across the country, the unjust, false, and erroneous cases of more than three million cadres were corrected; more than 470,000 Communist Party members had their party membership restored; and they returned to their posts or took on new leadership positions with renewed spirits.

While handling the historical legacy problems within the Party, the Party actively adjusted relations across various sectors of society and carried out a great deal of work. In various localities, the wrongly classified rightists from the anti-rightist campaign of 1957 — which had been expanded beyond its proper scope — were reviewed and their classifications corrected. The Party Center also announced that the former industrial and commercial capitalists had been remolded into working people; it distinguished the small traders, peddlers, and handicraft workers who had originally been working people from the former bourgeois industrialists and businessmen; and for the great majority of former landlords and rich peasants who had been remolded into working people, their class designations were revised. This series of measures properly resolved a large number of contradictions within the Party and among the people.

The Party Center attached great importance to the implementation of policies toward intellectuals. The state adopted a series of effective measures, successively promulgating regulations on natural science awards and regulations on academic degrees, mobilizing the enthusiasm of the broad masses of intellectuals, and promoting the selection and cultivation of talent. The Party Center also required that, wherever possible, the working and living conditions of scientific and technical personnel — especially middle-aged scientific and technical personnel working on the front lines — be improved. Respect for knowledge and respect for talent once again became the prevailing ethos throughout society, and our state’s undertakings in education, science, and culture began to show vigorous vitality.

Correcting certain “left” practices in the Party’s united front work was an important aspect of adjusting social relations. In June 1979, Deng Xiaoping spoke at the Second Session of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, pointing out that our state’s united front had become a broad alliance of socialist working people and patriots who support socialism, led by the working class and based on the worker-peasant alliance. The various democratic parties in our state had each become a political alliance of a portion of socialist working people and a portion of patriots who support socialism. Between 1978 and 1979, the various democratic parties, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and the various people’s organizations held their respective representative conferences and elected their own leadership bodies and leaders. The various democratic parties and the Federation of Industry and Commerce, whose activities had been suspended during the “Cultural Revolution,” resumed their work.

The rehabilitation of unjust, false, and erroneous cases and the adjustment of social relations — correctly handling a series of contradictions within the Party and among the people — greatly mobilized the enthusiasm of people from all strata of society. This played an extremely important role in promoting social stability and the unity of the people, in consolidating and developing the patriotic united front, and thereby in advancing the cause of reform and opening up and socialist modernization.

The trial of the principal criminals of the two counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing was a major event of great public attention in the construction of democratic and legal institutions. In September 1980, the Sixteenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People’s Congress decided to establish a Special Procuratorate under the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and a Special Tribunal under the Supreme People’s Court to conduct public trials of the cases of the two counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing. From November 1980 to January 1981, the Special Tribunal of the Supreme People’s Court held public hearings on the ten principal criminals of these two counter-revolutionary clique cases, demonstrating the solemnity of socialist democratic and legal institutions.

The Rectification of Errors in Guiding Ideology and the “Resolution on Certain Historical Questions of the Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, in the process of emancipating the mind and rectifying errors, the broad masses of cadres and the people freed themselves from the severe constraints of the “left” deviationist thinking of the “Cultural Revolution” and the period before it. A vibrant situation emerged both within and outside the Party of studying new circumstances and resolving new problems. At the same time, however, some phenomena appeared that warranted attention and vigilance. Some people showed incomprehension or even resistance toward the new line, guidelines, and policies since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee. A small number of people distorted “emancipating the mind,” wantonly exaggerating the errors committed by the Party and Mao Zedong, and attempting to repudiate the Party’s leadership, repudiate the socialist system, and repudiate Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought.

In response to this ideological confusion, in March 1979, Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech titled “Uphold the Four Cardinal Principles” at the Party’s Theory Work Conference. He stated that it is necessary to uphold, in thought and in politics, the four cardinal principles: the socialist road, the dictatorship of the proletariat (later expressed as the people’s democratic dictatorship), the leadership of the Communist Party, and Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. These are “the fundamental prerequisite for achieving the Four Modernizations.” “If any one of these four cardinal principles is wavered upon, the entire socialist cause and the entire modernization drive will be undermined.” He also put forward an important idea: “In carrying out construction now, we must also suit China’s conditions and blaze a path of Chinese-style modernization.” This speech solemnly declared that the reform and opening up led by the Communist Party of China had, from the very beginning, a clear socialist orientation.

Implementing reform and opening up and comprehensively rectifying errors required drawing conclusions on the major historical questions of the Communist Party of China since the founding of the People’s Republic, so as to unify the thinking of the entire Party and the people of the whole country and to unite as one in looking to the future. In November 1979, under Deng Xiaoping’s personal chairmanship, the drafting group for the “Resolution on Certain Historical Questions of the Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China” was established. Over the following two years, Deng Xiaoping convened the drafting group more than ten times and issued many important instructions on the drafting work. He proposed that the Resolution should embody three overall requirements — or, one might say, overall principles and overall guiding ideology: first, to establish Comrade Mao Zedong’s historical status and to uphold and develop Mao Zedong Thought — this being the most essential point; second, to conduct a seeking-truth-from-facts analysis of the major events in the thirty years of history since the founding of the state, including a fair evaluation of the merits and demerits of certain responsible comrades; third, to make a basic summation of past events — a summation that should be broad rather than detailed — since summing up the past is meant to guide everyone to unite and look forward. The evaluation of Mao Zedong’s merits and errors should be seeking-truth-from-facts and measured. The banner of Mao Zedong Thought must not be discarded; to discard it would in effect be to repudiate the glorious history of our Party. He also emphasized that Chairman Mao had on multiple occasions rescued the Party and the state from crisis. Without Chairman Mao, the Chinese people would at the very least have had to grope in the dark for a much longer time.

After more than a year of drafting work and extensive solicitation of opinions, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in June 1981 passed the “Resolution on Certain Historical Questions of the Party Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China.” The Resolution fundamentally repudiated the “Cultural Revolution” and the erroneous theory of “continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat,” made seeking-truth-from-facts evaluations of certain major historical events and important historical figures, and scientifically summed up the historical experience of socialist revolution and construction since the founding of the People’s Republic. The Resolution stated that the history of the Communist Party of China since the founding of the People’s Republic of China is, taken as a whole, a history in which our Party, under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, led the people of all ethnic groups across the country in carrying out socialist revolution and socialist construction and achieving great accomplishments. The Resolution evaluated Mao Zedong’s historical status in a seeking-truth-from-facts manner, and fully affirmed the great significance of Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology to which the Party has long adhered. The Resolution stated that Mao Zedong was a great Marxist and a great proletarian revolutionary, strategist, and theorist. His merits are primary; his errors are secondary. The Resolution distinguished Mao Zedong’s errors in his later years from Mao Zedong Thought, pointing out that Mao Zedong Thought is the application and development of Marxism-Leninism in China, the correct theoretical principles and summation of experience concerning China’s revolution that have been proven correct through practice, and the crystallization of the collective wisdom of the Communist Party of China. The Resolution provided a scientific summation of the many aspects of Mao Zedong Thought and its living soul — seeking truth from facts, the mass line, and independence — and emphasized that Mao Zedong Thought is a precious spiritual asset of our Party that will guide our actions for a long time to come; we must continue to uphold Mao Zedong Thought and enrich and develop our Party’s theory with new principles and new conclusions that accord with reality. The formation of the Resolution demonstrated that the Communist Party of China takes a serious attitude toward its own mistakes and errors — including those of its leaders — having the courage to acknowledge them, correctly analyze them, and resolutely correct them, so that mistakes and errors, together with the Party’s successful experience, become precious historical lessons.

The Resolution also summarized, from ten aspects, the main points of the correct path for socialist modernization suited to our state’s conditions that had been gradually established since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, in essence initially raising the questions of what kind of socialism to build in China and how to build it. The Resolution correctly resolved two interrelated major historical questions: scientifically evaluating Mao Zedong’s historical status and the scientific system of Mao Zedong Thought, while at the same time implementing reform and opening up and establishing the correct path for China’s socialist modernization in accordance with new realities and development requirements. This fully embodied the Party Center’s foresight and political maturity. The passage of the Resolution marked the victorious completion of the rectification of errors in guiding ideology.

On the recommendation of the Central Political Bureau, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee decided to accept Hua Guofeng’s resignation from the positions of Chairman of the Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, and elected Hu Yaobang as Chairman of the Central Committee and Deng Xiaoping as Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

III. Rural Reform, the Establishment of Special Economic Zones, and the Beginnings of Reform and Opening Up

Adjusting the National Economy

In order to correct the deviations in the guiding principles of economic construction over many years and to resolve the problem of imbalanced proportional relations in the national economy following the end of the “Cultural Revolution,” the Party Center convened a work conference in April 1979 and formally established the guideline of “adjustment, reform, consolidation, and improvement” for the national economy — commonly known as the new “Eight-Character Guideline.” Implementing the new Eight-Character Guideline was not only an important step in adjusting economic relations, but also a process of rectifying the guiding principles of economic construction, exploring a path of socialist modernization suited to China’s national conditions, and advancing reform and opening up.

In discussions on adjusting the national economy, Deng Xiaoping emphasized that for China to achieve the Four Modernizations, there are at least two important characteristics that must be recognized. One is that the foundation is weak; the other is that the population is large and arable land is scarce. Chen Yun also pointed out that the main characteristics of our state’s social economy are that the rural population accounts for 80 percent of the total, and that the population is large while arable land is scarce — we must clearly understand that we are pursuing the Four Modernizations under these conditions.

In the course of adjustment, the Party Center made an initial summation of the lessons of economic construction since the founding of the People’s Republic, pointing out that economic construction must proceed from national conditions and follow economic laws and natural laws; it must be commensurate with our capabilities, advance in an orderly sequence, be subject to verification, and seek practical results, closely linking economic development with appropriately improving the people’s lives; and it must, on the basis of upholding independence and self-reliance, actively develop external economic cooperation and technological exchange. The work of adjusting the national economy and reforming the economic system was carried out under the guidance of these principles.

In December 1981, the Government Work Report approved by the Fourth Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress proposed that we must truly proceed from our state’s actual conditions and blaze a new path with more realistic growth rates, better economic returns, and more tangible benefits for the people. The report affirmed the achievements of the adjustment work and announced that the 1981 national economic plan was expected to be successfully fulfilled and that the goal of stabilizing the economy could be basically achieved. The task of adjusting the national economy was victoriously completed.

Rural Reform Achieves a Breakthrough First

China is a large agricultural country. Whether China’s affairs can be handled well depends decisively on the state of agricultural development. Before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China’s rural areas suffered from such problems as overly centralized management and serious egalitarianism in distribution, which severely dampened the enthusiasm of farmers for production, resulting in relatively slow agricultural development and improvement in farmers’ lives. In 1978, there were still 250 million people across the country who had not solved the problem of adequate food and clothing.

In the summer and autumn of 1978, Anhui Province suffered a severe drought, creating difficulties for autumn planting. The provincial Party committee decided to lend some land to farmers to grow grain and vegetables; the grain and vegetables produced would not be subject to state procurement quotas and would not be counted toward grain rations. This measure quickly mobilized the enthusiasm of the masses for production, and that year the province exceeded its autumn planting plan. Inspired by the experience of “lending land,” grassroots cadres and farmers in some parts of Anhui broke through the constraints of the old system and began contracting output to work groups and contracting output to households. Eighteen households in Xiaogang Village of Liyuan Commune in Fengyang County, taking a risk, pressed their fingerprints on a contract for household contracting. The household contracting system created by Xiaogang Village meant: “guarantee what is owed to the state, set aside what is owed to the collective, and keep the rest for oneself.” This approach was simple and practical, yielded significant results, and was welcomed by farmers. Some localities in Sichuan, Gansu, Yunnan, Guangdong, and other provinces also relaxed policies and adopted similar practices. These bold experiments opened the prelude to rural economic reform.

Regarding forms of agricultural production responsibility systems such as contracting output to households and household contracting, differing opinions arose for a time both within and outside the Party. Many people harbored doubts, worrying that this would affect the collective economy in rural areas and deviate from the socialist direction of rural development. In May 1980, Deng Xiaoping affirmed the farmers’ reform initiatives in a conversation. He said: “After rural policies were relaxed, some places suited to contracting output to households adopted this approach, with very good results and rapid changes.” He pointed out that the worry about affecting the collective economy was unnecessary; as long as production developed in these areas, and as rural social division of labor and the commodity economy developed, low-level collectivization would develop into high-level collectivization, and collective economies that were not yet consolidated would become consolidated. In September, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China distributed “Several Questions on Further Strengthening and Improving the Agricultural Production Responsibility System,” which broke through the longstanding notion that equated contracting output to households with dividing up the land for individual farming and capitalism, and affirmed contracting output to households under the leadership of production teams. In 1982, the Party Center issued a “No. 1 Document” that clearly stated that various responsibility systems — including contracting output to households and household contracting — are all production responsibility systems of the socialist collective economy.

★ Farmers who have reaped a bumper harvest deliver grain to the state

With the support of the Party Center, the household contract responsibility system — with contracting output to households and household contracting as its main forms — spread rapidly. This fully mobilized the enthusiasm of farmers for production and promoted the rapid development of agricultural production. In many localities, results were seen within a single year, grain output increased markedly, and within a few years the situation had changed dramatically.

As the new management system spread across the vast rural areas, farmer communities gained greater autonomy in production and management, and could use surplus labor and capital to develop diversified operations. Rural areas across the country quickly saw the emergence of a large number of township and village industrial enterprises, as well as a large number of specialized production and business households. This was the beginning of China’s rural areas transforming toward specialized, commercialized, and socialized production.

In the course of advancing rural reform, some localities with a relatively solid collective economic foundation continued to implement unified collective management, reformed the original egalitarian distribution methods, and gradually advanced toward higher-level collectivization. Their approach was also in keeping with the Center’s spirit of “unify where unification is appropriate, divide where division is appropriate.”

Rural reform was a great creation of China’s farmers. It was no accident that reform first achieved a breakthrough and succeeded in the countryside; this was determined by our state’s basic national conditions and the difficulties facing rural economic development at the time. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee provided the important ideological preconditions for rural reform and created a favorable political environment. The broad masses of rural grassroots cadres and hundreds of millions of farmers, in order to change the face of the countryside and their own destinies, courageously broke through the old system that was unfavorable to the development of productive forces, thereby setting off a magnificent tide of reform. The great practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics thus began to advance step by step, steadily, through the creativity of the Party and the broad masses of the people.

The Initial Unfolding of Urban Economic System Reform

Urban economic system reform was far more complex than rural reform.

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, drawing on the experience of expanding autonomy in production and management from rural reform, urban economic system reform centered on expanding enterprise autonomy gradually spread across the country. In May 1979, eight large enterprises — including Capital Iron and Steel Company, Tianjin Bicycle Factory, and Shanghai Diesel Engine Factory — began reform pilot programs. By June 1980, the number of enterprises participating in the reform had grown to 6,600. The reform to expand enterprise autonomy opened a breach in the traditional planned economy system, initially changing the previous situation in which enterprises only produced according to state mandatory plans, paid no attention to market needs, and showed no concern for product sales or profit and loss, thereby strengthening enterprises’ sense of autonomous management and market awareness.

Building on the expansion of enterprise autonomy, urban reform gradually extended to the realm of economic responsibility systems. In the spring of 1981, reform was first piloted in enterprises in Shandong Province. The reform of the economic responsibility system aimed to link the economic interests of enterprises and workers with the responsibilities they assumed and the economic results they achieved, so that the broad masses of workers would, with the attitude of masters of their enterprise, achieve the greatest economic results with the least human and material resources.

Thereafter, the economic responsibility system was quickly extended to 36,000 industrial enterprises nationwide.

Reform of the commercial circulation system was also underway. Beginning in 1979, the state re-delimited the scope of unified purchasing and apportioned purchasing of agricultural and sideline products, relaxed purchasing and marketing policies for agricultural and sideline products, and stipulated that grassroots supply and marketing cooperatives could purchase and sell across county and provincial boundaries, and that collectively owned commercial enterprises, individual traders, and farmers could also engage in long-distance transport and trade. This created favorable conditions for accelerating the circulation of goods between urban and rural areas.

Reform of the ownership structure also began. In 1979, a wave of educated youth returning to cities swept across the country. To ease the mounting pressure of employment, the Party Center and the State Council decisively adopted a policy of supporting the development of collective and individual economies in urban areas, initiating a reform in which public ownership remained dominant while multiple forms of economic organization coexisted. Under these circumstances, “individual entrepreneurs” emerged as a natural response. In front of Qianmen in Beijing, the Youth Tea House set up stalls and stoves. In Wuhu, Anhui, Nian Guangjiu began large-scale operations selling “Fool’s Sunflower Seeds.” In October 1981, the Party Center and the State Council stated in their “Several Decisions on Opening Up Broad Channels, Invigorating the Economy, and Resolving Urban Employment Problems”: “Under the fundamental premise of the dominance of the socialist public ownership economy, implementing multiple forms of economic organization and multiple modes of operation on a long-term basis is a strategic decision of our Party, and is by no means a temporary expedient.” Under the guidance of the new policies, the collective economy and the individual economy saw new development, and new economic forms emerged in which state-owned, collective, and individual enterprises operated jointly.

Opening Up to the Outside World and Establishing Special Economic Zones

In the course of advancing reform, opening up to the outside world gradually unfolded and achieved major breakthroughs.

Attracting and utilizing foreign capital and establishing Sino-foreign equity joint ventures and Sino-foreign cooperative enterprises (or projects) were important means and steps in opening up to the outside world. In 1979,

China International Trust and Investment Corporation was established to conduct international trust, investment, leasing, and other business. In 1980, our state restored its representation in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and joined the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and began receiving loans from these international financial institutions. Our state also successively signed agreements with companies from Japan, France, the United States, and other countries to carry out offshore oil exploration and development. With the promulgation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Chinese-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures in July 1979 and a series of related laws and regulations thereafter, Sino-foreign equity joint ventures developed from nothing. The tourism industry also rose to prominence, rapidly moving to the forefront of opening up to the outside world and developing into a new industry.

Establishing special economic zones was a great initiative of the Party and the state to advance reform and opening up and socialist modernization. As early as April 1978, an economic and trade inspection group dispatched by the State Planning Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Trade conducted on-site investigations in Hong Kong and Macao, and recommended to the Center that Bao’an and Zhuhai in Guangdong, which are close to Hong Kong and Macao, be designated as export bases. In January 1979, Guangdong Province and the Ministry of Communications jointly submitted a report to the State Council proposing the establishment of an industrial zone in the Shekou area, which received central approval. Shortly thereafter, the Shekou Industrial Zone was born to the thunderous sound of blasting.

★ Builders of the Shekou Industrial Zone in Shenzhen set off blasting charges

In April 1979, the Center convened a work conference. Xi Zhongxun, First Secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee, proposed that the Center devolve certain powers, giving Guangdong the necessary autonomy in external economic activities, and allowing the establishment of export processing zones in Shenzhen and Zhuhai — which border Hong Kong and Macao — and in Shantou, a city with many overseas Chinese connections. The Fujian Provincial Party Committee put forward similar proposals. The Center expressed its support. Regarding how to name these areas that would implement special policies, Deng Xiaoping said: it is better to call them special zones — the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region was called a special zone from the start! The Center has no money to give, but it can give some policies; you go and do it yourselves, and carve out a bloody path.

In July 1979, the Party Center and the State Council approved and forwarded the reports of the Guangdong and Fujian provincial Party committees, confirming that the two provinces would implement special policies and flexible measures in their external economic activities, take the lead, and develop their economies as quickly as possible. At the same time, it was decided to designate parts of Shenzhen and Zhuhai to pilot export special zones. In May 1980, the Party Center and the State Council formally decided to rename the “export special zones” as “special economic zones.” In August, the Fifteenth Session of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People’s Congress approved the establishment of special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen in Guangdong and Fujian provinces.

Driven by the Center’s decisions, builders of the special zones from all directions hacked through thorns and brambles and worked hard to build their undertakings. In just a few short years, they transformed Shenzhen, Zhuhai, and other formerly backward border towns and barren fishing villages into vibrant new cities, creating the special zone spirit of daring to blaze new trails, daring to be the first, and working with heads down. The special economic zones became an important window for China’s reform and opening up, showcasing to the world the magnificent power of China’s reform and opening up.

Reform of the Party’s and State’s Leadership System

The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee pointed out that achieving the Four Modernizations requires substantially raising the level of productive forces, which inevitably requires changing in many respects the relations of production and the superstructure that are incompatible with the development of productive forces. From this point on, the Party Center earnestly summed up and drew lessons from past experience in the Party’s and state’s political life, and political system reform — centered on reforming the Party’s and state’s leadership system and institutionalizing and legalizing the democratic system — began to get underway.

In July 1979, the Second Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress deliberated and passed seven important laws: the Organic Law of Local People’s Congresses and Local People’s Governments at Various Levels, the Electoral Law of the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congresses at Various Levels, the Criminal Law, the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Organic Law of the People’s Courts, the Organic Law of the People’s Procuratorates, and the Law on Chinese-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures. The institutionalization and legalization of our state’s socialist democratic system took an important step forward.

In the course of advancing the construction of democratic and legal institutions, the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China was restored and developed. In October 1979, Deng Xiaoping emphasized at a reception hosted by the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee that multiparty cooperation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China is determined by our state’s specific historical and current conditions, and is also a characteristic and advantage of our state’s political system. Long-term coexistence and mutual oversight — this is a long-term, unchanging guideline. In the same month, the Party Center, in approving and forwarding a report by the Central Organization Department and the Central United Front Work Department, pointed out that Party committees at all levels must overcome the “all one color” mentality and earnestly carry out the work of placing non-party members — especially non-party members with professional and technical expertise — in appropriate positions, sincerely cooperating with them to handle state affairs well together.

The Party Center took a series of measures to reform the Party’s and state’s leadership system. The Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, convened in February 1980, took as its theme upholding Party leadership, improving Party leadership, and enhancing the Party’s combat effectiveness, and made special arrangements for this. The plenary session decided to restore the Central Secretariat as the regular working body under the leadership of the Central Political Bureau and its Standing Committee, and elected Hu Yaobang as General Secretary of the Central Committee.

In August 1980, the Central Political Bureau convened an enlarged session. Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech at the session titled “On the Reform of the System of Party and State Leadership.” He pointed out that questions of leadership systems and organizational systems are more fundamental, comprehensive, stable, and long-term in nature. Good systems can prevent bad people from acting arbitrarily; bad systems can prevent good people from doing good things fully, and may even push them in the opposite direction. Deng Xiaoping emphasized that reforming the Party’s and state’s leadership system is not to weaken Party leadership or loosen Party discipline, but precisely to uphold and strengthen Party leadership and uphold and strengthen Party discipline. This speech established the basic guiding ideology for reforming the Party’s and state’s leadership system.

Under the premise of upholding Party leadership, the Party and the government worked hard to resolve problems such as unclear division of responsibilities between the Party and the government, the Party committee taking charge of everything, low efficiency, bloated institutions, overstaffing, and a dilatory work style; to increase local authority; to expand grassroots democratic rights; and to genuinely safeguard the adjudicative power and procuratorial power that the courts and procuratorates enjoy under the Constitution.

Institutional reform was also quickly placed on the agenda. In January 1982, Deng Xiaoping stated at a Central Political Bureau meeting that streamlining institutions is a revolution, and the most critical issue is selecting relatively younger cadres of both virtue and ability to join leading bodies. After the reform, the bureau-level institutions directly under the Party Center were reduced by 11 percent, and the staff establishment was cut by 17.3 percent. The ministries, commissions, directly subordinate institutions, and office institutions under the State Council were reduced and consolidated from 100 to 61, with the staff establishment cut by approximately one-third. Among the newly constituted leading bodies, newly selected young and middle-aged cadres accounted for 32 percent, and the average age dropped from 64 to 58.

In February 1982, the Party Center issued the “Decision on Establishing a Retirement System for Senior Cadres,” abolishing the de facto system of lifelong tenure in cadre leadership positions. A large number of senior cadres responded to the call, proactively requesting to leave their leadership posts, retiring or stepping back to secondary roles, while a group of young and middle-aged cadres who had been tested and proven took up leadership positions. Through this strategically significant measure, the problem of an aging cadre corps under special circumstances was resolved.

In the more than three years following the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the rectification of errors was comprehensively launched, the construction of socialist democratic and legal institutions gradually got on track, reform of the Party’s and state’s leadership system advanced steadily, reform and opening up and the adjustment of the national economy achieved positive results, and various undertakings flourished. This laid an important foundation for the convening of the Twelfth National Congress of the Party.

IV. The Twelfth National Congress of the Party and the Comprehensive Unfolding of Socialist Modernization

The Twelfth National Congress of the Party Puts Forward the Major Proposition of “Building Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”

From September 1 to 11, 1982, the Twelfth National Congress of the Party was held in Beijing. In his opening address, Deng Xiaoping resoundingly declared: “Combining the universal truth of Marxism with the concrete realities of our country, blazing our own path, and building socialism with Chinese characteristics.” The putting forward of the major and novel proposition of “building socialism with Chinese characteristics” answered the most pressing question for the entire Party and the people of the whole country upon entering the new era of reform and opening up — what kind of path to take — and it became the great banner guiding reform and opening up and socialist modernization.

The congress passed the report delivered by Hu Yaobang, titled “Fully Inaugurating a New Situation in Socialist Modernization,” which put forward a program of struggle for comprehensively inaugurating a new situation. The overall task of the Party in the new historical period, as determined by the congress, was: to unite the people of all ethnic groups across the country, to rely on self-reliance and hard work, to gradually realize the modernization of industry, agriculture, national defense, and science and technology, and to build our state into a highly civilized and highly democratic socialist ★ The venue of the Twelfth National Congress of the Party At the same time, it clearly put forward the strategic guideline of striving to build a high level of socialist spiritual civilization and a high level of socialist democracy. The congress pointed out: socialist spiritual civilization is an important characteristic of socialism and an important manifestation of the superiority of the socialist system. Building socialist material civilization and spiritual civilization both require the continued development of socialist democracy as a guarantee and support. The construction of socialist democracy must be closely integrated with the construction of the socialist legal system. The putting forward of these tasks reflected the comprehensive requirements of socialist modernization, enriched and developed the theory of scientific socialism, and also marked the Party’s continuously deepening understanding of socialism.

state. The congress proposed that from 1981 to the end of the twentieth century, the overall goal of our state’s economic construction was: on the premise of continuously improving economic returns, to strive to quadruple the total annual output value of industry and agriculture nationwide — that is, to increase it from 710 billion yuan in 1980 to approximately 2.8 trillion yuan by 2000 — so that the material and cultural life of the people would reach the level of a Moderately Prosperous Society. The congress also designated agriculture, energy and transportation, and education and science as the strategic priorities of economic development. The congress changed the struggle target for the end of the twentieth century from the previously stated goal of achieving the Four Modernizations to achieving a Moderately Prosperous Society, resolving at the level of strategic guidance the longstanding problem of excessive haste. This was a historic decision made by the Party Center on the basis of summing up historical experience and lessons.

Another important contribution of this congress was that, in putting forward the economic construction targets,

The congress passed a new Constitution of the Communist Party of China. The new party constitution further summed up the historical experience and lessons of Party building, made a series of new provisions, and reflected the new requirements of the Party’s current life. The new party constitution emphasized that Communist Party members are forever ordinary members of the working people, stipulated eight obligations for party members, and required party members to uphold the interests of the Party and the people above all else, subordinate personal interests to the interests of the Party and the people, bear hardships before others and enjoy comforts after others, be selfless in serving the public, and absolutely never use public office for private gain or harm the public interest for private benefit. The new party constitution also stipulated that party membership requires taking an oath before the party flag, and specified the uniform content of the oath. The new party constitution stipulated that the Party Center would not have a Chairman but only a General Secretary, who would be responsible for convening meetings of the Central Political Bureau and its Standing Committee and presiding over the work of the Central Secretariat; that the Center and provincial level would establish advisory commissions as transitional bodies for the succession of old and new cadres, to give play to the advisory role of experienced senior comrades who had stepped back from the front line in the Party’s cause. The new party constitution stipulated the basic principles of democratic centralism, emphasizing that the Party must maintain a high degree of ideological and political unity, and that Party committees at all levels must implement a system combining collective leadership with individual division of responsibility. Before Party discipline, everyone is equal; party members must not only abide by party discipline but must also strictly observe government discipline and state law.

The congress elected the Central Committee, the Central Advisory Commission, and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The First Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee elected Hu Yaobang, Ye Jianying,

Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Ziyang, Li Xiannian, and Chen Yun as members of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau, and Hu Yaobang as General Secretary of the Central Committee; decided that Deng Xiaoping would serve as Chairman of the Central Military Commission; approved Chen Yun as First Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and Deng Xiaoping as Director of the Central Advisory Commission.

The Twelfth National Congress of the Party was the first national congress convened by the Party after entering the new era of reform and opening up. Beginning with this congress, in accordance with the provisions of the party constitution, the Party’s national congress convenes once every five years, achieving institutionalization.

Advancing Economic System Reform and the Formation of a New Pattern of Opening Up to the Outside World

After the Twelfth National Congress of the Party, rural reform deepened further on a consolidated basis, and the focus of reform gradually shifted to the cities and was comprehensively rolled out.

From 1982 to 1984, the Party Center successively issued three “No. 1 Documents” on rural work, and the household contract responsibility system spread rapidly across the country. By 1987, 98 percent of rural households nationwide had implemented the household contract responsibility system, and the enthusiasm of hundreds of millions of farmers for production was greatly enhanced, freeing agricultural production from the predicament of stagnation. This fundamentally shook the people’s commune system of “three-level ownership with the production team as the base” and “integration of government administration and commune management.” In 1982, the new Constitution stipulated the abolition of the system integrating government administration and commune management in rural people’s communes, the establishment of township governments as grassroots organs of state power, and the universal establishment of villagers’ committees as mass autonomous organizations. By the end of 1984, the separation of government administration from commune management had been basically completed nationwide, and the people’s commune system that had been in place for more than twenty years ceased to exist. This was a major reform of the rural economic and political system.

The implementation of the household contract responsibility system created conditions for the development of the rural commodity economy. In 1985, the Party Center issued a “No. 1 Document” deciding to implement a new policy of state planned contract purchasing for a small number of important agricultural products such as grain and cotton; products beyond the contracted purchase quota could be sold freely or sold to the state at negotiated prices;

the majority of other agricultural and sideline products could be freely traded on the market, and the state would no longer issue mandatory plans. This basically changed the unified purchasing and apportioned purchasing policy that had been in place for more than thirty years, and brought the rural economy onto the track of a planned commodity economy.

Rural reform also brought about the spectacular rise of township and village enterprises, freeing a large number of rural laborers from the land to engage in industry, commerce, and services. Lu Guanqiu of Wanxiang Joint Factory in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang, signed a personal risk-contracting agreement with the township government as factory director, gradually developing this township enterprise from a small workshop into the first Chinese automotive parts enterprise to enter the American market. Township and village enterprises, at an astonishing speed and scale, were transforming the face of China’s countryside. By 1987, the output value of township and village enterprises reached 476.4 billion yuan, surpassing total agricultural output value for the first time. This was a historic change in the rural economy.

The rural economic reform was a successful practice in which the Party proceeded from reality, timely summed up the innovations and creations of farmers, and guided their development in accordance with the situation. China’s rural areas, with a population of several hundred million, achieved such a profound social transformation relatively smoothly — this had a far-reaching impact on the development of the rural economy and the entire national economy, and on reform in other areas.

Driven by rural reform, urban reform advanced further. In October 1984, the Third Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee passed the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Reform of the Economic System,” which put forward and elaborated on a number of major theoretical and practical questions concerning economic system reform. The Decision broke through the traditional notion of counterposing the planned economy to the commodity economy, and proposed that our state’s socialist economy is “a planned commodity economy based on public ownership”; it broke through the traditional notion of conflating public ownership with direct operation of enterprises by state organs, and proposed that “ownership rights and management rights can be appropriately separated.” This represented a new understanding achieved by the Party on the relationship between planning and the market.

Thereafter, economic system reform centered on the cities was comprehensively launched. The central link of reform was to enhance the vitality of enterprises under public ownership, one measure of which was to promote the contract management responsibility system, making clear provisions on responsibilities, rights, and rewards and penalties, so as to strengthen the sense of responsibility of enterprise managers. By 1987, 80 percent of state-owned enterprises nationwide had implemented various forms of the contract management responsibility system. Some enterprises also began experimenting with shareholding system reform. In November 1984, Shanghai Feile Acoustics Company publicly issued shares, becoming the first joint-stock company in Shanghai to pilot the shareholding system after reform and opening up. In November 1986, the Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange visited China, and Deng Xiaoping presented him with a Feile share certificate with a face value of 50 yuan. This symbolically significant gesture demonstrated that stocks and the shareholding system are not the exclusive preserve of capitalism — socialist states can also make use of them.

Alongside the reform of state-owned enterprises, multiple economic components of different ownership forms developed. Non-public economic components — including Sino-foreign equity joint ventures, Sino-foreign cooperative enterprises, wholly foreign-owned enterprises, and the individual economy and private economy of domestic workers — achieved rapid development with the permission and guidance of the state. The formation of an ownership structure with public ownership as the dominant form and multiple economic components coexisting opened up a new situation for developing the national economy, improving people’s lives, and expanding employment.

In accordance with the requirements of developing a socialist planned commodity economy, the state gradually devolved its planning and management authority over the economy, reducing mandatory plans and expanding guidance plans. The scope and methods of state macroeconomic regulation were adjusted and improved; small commodities and commodities outside the plan were regulated by the market. The role of economic levers such as prices, taxation, and finance in macroeconomic regulation grew increasingly strong, promoting the development of the commodity economy.

Reform of the science and technology system and the education system was also placed on the agenda. In March 1985, the Party Center issued a decision on reform of the science and technology system, putting forward the strategic guideline that economic construction must rely on science and technology, and that science and technology work must be oriented toward economic construction. The enthusiasm of the broad masses of scientific and technical workers was greatly stimulated. In March 1986, four scientists submitted a proposal to the Party Center to track world advanced levels and develop high technology. Deng Xiaoping quickly issued instructions. In November, our state decided to implement the ★ Deng Xiaoping’s inscription for the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Nine-year compulsory education was implemented in a planned and step-by-step manner; education at all levels and of all types developed; and various types of talent suited to the needs of modernization continued to emerge.

“863 Program” for developing high technology. Tens of thousands of scientists collaborated and made joint breakthroughs in different fields, quickly achieving fruitful results. China’s high-technology research entered a new stage of development.

In October 1983, Deng Xiaoping proposed that “education must be oriented toward modernization, toward the world, and toward the future,” pointing the way for our state’s educational reform and development. In May 1985, the Party Center issued a decision on reform of the education system, proposing that the fundamental purpose of education system reform is to raise the quality of the nation and to produce more talent and better talent. Education system reform stimulated the enthusiasm of localities and society for running schools, and nine-

After the Twelfth National Congress of the Party, opening up to the outside world also took new steps forward. In early 1984, Deng Xiaoping inspected the special economic zones of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen, and others, and wrote inscriptions for them, fully affirming the achievements of special zone construction. He pointed out: “In establishing special economic zones and implementing an open policy, there is a guiding principle that must be made clear — it is not to close down but to open up.” “The special zones are windows — windows for technology, windows for management, windows for knowledge, and also windows for foreign policy.” Deng Xiaoping’s southern tour and his affirmation of the special economic zones brought new opportunities for opening up to the outside world.

In May 1984, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council decided to open 14 coastal port cities: Dalian, Qinhuangdao, Tianjin, Yantai, Qingdao, Lianyungang, Nantong, Shanghai, Ningbo, Wenzhou, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, and Beihai. In February 1985, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued a notice approving the designation of the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and the southern Fujian triangle area of Xiamen, Zhangzhou, and Quanzhou as coastal economic open zones. As a result, a new multi-level, focused, and point-and-area-combined pattern of opening up to the outside world began to take shape nationwide — from special economic zones to coastal open cities to coastal economic open zones — forming a frontline belt of opening up along the coast that encompassed 2 directly administered municipalities, 25 provincial-level cities, 67 counties, and a population of approximately 150 million. Opening up to the outside world became an important driving force for our state’s economic and social development.

Completion of the “Sixth Five-Year Plan” and Formulation of the “Seventh Five-Year Plan”

At the end of 1985, the Sixth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development was successfully completed. During the “Sixth Five-Year Plan” period, the output of major industrial and agricultural products increased substantially; state fiscal revenue reversed the consecutive annual declines of the late “Fifth Five-Year Plan” period and increased year by year, achieving basic balance between revenue and expenditure; major progress was made in capital construction and technological upgrading; and new ground was broken in external economic and trade relations and technological exchange. The completion of the “Sixth Five-Year Plan” led to relatively good resolution of certain economic problems that had long been troublesome. Grain and cotton output increased substantially, providing conditions for resolving the problem of adequate food and clothing for the people. Consumer goods were in relatively adequate supply; for many commodities that had previously been rationed and required coupons, the coupon system had been basically abolished — except for grain and cooking oil — and they were now freely available. These achievements and changes were quite remarkable compared with the situation during the earlier five-year plan periods since the founding of the People’s Republic.

Placing social development in a prominent position while emphasizing economic development was a distinctive feature of the “Sixth Five-Year Plan.” Previous five-year plans had been called national economic development plans; beginning with the “Sixth Five-Year Plan,” they were renamed national economic and social development plans. During the “Sixth Five-Year Plan” period, the Party and the government made arrangements for social development in areas including population, labor and employment, residents’ income and consumption, urban and rural construction, social welfare, culture, health, sports, and environmental protection. Family planning was established as a basic state policy of our state, and the state universally advocated that each couple have only one child. Under the historical conditions of the time, the implementation of this policy ensured that population growth was commensurate with national economic growth, and was of great significance for improving the quality and overall caliber of the population. During this period, environmental protection was established as a basic state policy. The Party and the government worked hard to resolve prominent environmental pollution problems, and the environmental conditions of key scenic and tourist cities such as Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Guilin were improved to a certain degree.

Building on the smooth implementation of the “Sixth Five-Year Plan,” the Party Center began preparatory work for formulating the “Seventh Five-Year Plan” in 1983. In September 1985, the National Representative Conference of the Party passed the “Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Seventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.” Based on the proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council formulated a draft “Seventh Five-Year Plan.” In April 1986, this plan was approved by the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People’s Congress and implemented.

On December 4, 1982, the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People’s Congress passed the newly revised Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. This constitution, based on the 1954 Constitution and correcting the shortcomings of the 1978 Constitution, was more comprehensive in content. The new Constitution correctly summed up the historical experience since the founding of the People’s Republic, clearly established that the fundamental task of the state henceforth is to concentrate efforts on socialist modernization, and used the form of the fundamental law to make clear provisions on major questions including our state’s fundamental political system and basic political system, basic economic system, the basic rights and obligations of citizens, and the establishment and responsibilities of state organs. Among these, many new provisions were made regarding the establishment of state organs: strengthening the system of people’s congresses; restoring the positions of State President and Vice President; establishing the Central Military Commission of the state to lead the armed forces of the whole country; and implementing the system of premier responsibility in the State Council. These new provisions added new content and new characteristics to the system of institutions of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The implementation of the new Constitution accelerated the pace of legal system construction. During the Sixth and Seventh National People’s Congresses, a total of 96 laws were deliberated and passed, with emphasis in two areas: first, formulating laws suited to the needs of modernization, economic system reform, and opening up to the outside world; second, formulating laws to protect citizens’ rights. In 1986, the first five-year campaign to popularize law was launched nationwide. Thereafter, a law popularization plan was formulated every five years, and legal publicity and education was continuously strengthened and deepened.

In developing and improving the system of multiparty cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Twelfth National Congress of the Party expanded the eight-character guideline of “long-term coexistence and mutual oversight” into the sixteen-character guideline of “long-term coexistence, mutual oversight, treating each other with full sincerity, and sharing weal and woe.” The role of the democratic parties in the state’s political life was further brought into play, and cooperation between the Communist Party of China and the democratic parties entered a new stage. In improving the system of ethnic regional autonomy, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Ethnic Regional Autonomy was promulgated in May 1984, establishing the system of ethnic regional autonomy as a basic political system of the state. In advancing grassroots democratic construction, workers’ representative congresses were universally established in enterprises and public institutions across the country; residents’ committees in cities were further improved; villagers’ committees in rural areas were gradually established; and the system of grassroots mass self-governance with Chinese socialist characteristics gradually took shape.

The achievements of socialist democratic and legal system construction and political system reform — represented by the formulation of the 1982 Constitution — were not only an important improvement and perfection of our state’s socialist political system, but also provided an important political guarantee for the deepening of our state’s economic system reform and for economic development and social stability.

Strengthening and Improving Party Leadership

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, in order to further enhance the Party’s cohesion and combat effectiveness, carry forward the Party’s fine traditions and work style, the Party Center took concrete measures to improve party regulations and party rules and to rectify the Party’s work style.

In February 1980, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee passed the “Several Guidelines on Political Life within the Party” and made them public to all of society. The Guidelines summed up the historical experience and lessons of political life within the Party, gave concrete form to the relevant provisions of the party constitution and the principles of democratic centralism, and put forward requirements in twelve areas: uphold the Party’s political line and ideological line; uphold collective leadership and oppose individual arbitrariness; safeguard the Party’s centralized unity and strictly observe Party discipline; uphold Party spirit and eradicate factionalism; speak the truth and ensure that words and deeds are consistent; develop intra-party democracy and correctly handle differing opinions; ensure that party members’ rights are not violated; elections must fully reflect the will of the electors; struggle against erroneous tendencies and bad people and bad deeds; correctly treat comrades who have made errors; accept oversight by the Party and the masses and do not seek special privileges; study diligently and be both red and expert.

Subsequently, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection convened three symposia within a year to promote the implementation of the Guidelines. During a symposium convened by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection in November 1980, Chen Yun pointedly stated that “the question of the work style of the ruling party is a question of the Party’s life and death,” and called on Party organizations at all levels to raise their awareness and work hard to strengthen Party work style construction. The promulgation and implementation of the Guidelines played an extremely important role in restoring and improving intra-party democracy, safeguarding the Party’s centralized unity, enforcing Party discipline, promoting Party unity, and ensuring the smooth progress of reform and opening up and socialist modernization.

In order to resolve the prominent problems existing within the Party, in accordance with the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Rectifying the Party” passed by the Second Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee, from October 1983 to May 1987, the entire Party carried out a comprehensive party rectification in phases and batches, with the basic tasks of unifying thinking, rectifying work style, strengthening discipline, and purifying the organization. Through party rectification, the consciousness of the broad masses of party members — especially party cadres — in maintaining ideological, political, and behavioral alignment with the Party Center was enhanced; a number of cases of serious violations of law and discipline by party member cadres were investigated and handled; and the “three types of people” from the “Cultural Revolution” period — those who had risen to prominence by following the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary cliques in rebellion, those with serious factional thinking, and those who had engaged in beating, smashing, and looting — were purged. This party rectification played an important role in resolving the problems of ideological, work style, organizational impurity, and lax discipline left over from the “Cultural Revolution.”

Building the Four Modernizations requires a large number of vigorous leading cadres at all levels. In the new situation of reform and opening up and socialist modernization, veteran revolutionaries such as Deng Xiaoping and Chen Yun perceptively reminded all party comrades to pay attention to cultivating and selecting qualified successors, to realize the revolutionization, rejuvenation, intellectualization, and professionalization of the cadre corps, so that the Party’s cause would have worthy successors and continue to advance. In accordance with the “four transformations” standards, the Party Center accelerated the pace of selecting young and middle-aged cadres. A large number of vigorous, knowledgeable, business-savvy, and virtuous young and middle-aged cadres of both virtue and ability rose to prominence and took on important responsibilities. In September 1985, the National Representative Conference of the Party made a relatively large-scale adjustment to the central leadership, making significant progress in the rejuvenation of the central leadership, powerfully promoting the succession of old and new cadres and the improvement of the cadre corps structure, and ensuring the continuity of the cadre corps and the sustained forward progress of the Party’s cause.

Building Socialist Spiritual Civilization

The objective environment of reform and opening up and the development of the commodity economy urgently required strengthening the construction of socialist spiritual civilization. Under the attention and leadership of the Party Center, in the early 1980s, the “Five Stresses, Four Beauties, and Three Loves” campaign — whose main content was stressing civility, courtesy, hygiene, order, and morality; pursuing beauty of the heart, beauty of language, beauty of behavior, and beauty of the environment; and loving the motherland, loving socialism, and loving the Communist Party of China — was widely launched. The construction of socialist spiritual civilization played a positive role in promoting improvement in Party work style and social ethos, and a number of exemplary figures of the era emerged.

Jiang Zhuying of the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was willing to be a “paving stone” on the path of pursuing light, exploring diligently and working selflessly, developing our state’s first optical transfer function testing device, and becoming an outstanding representative of intellectuals. Luo Jianfu of the 771 Institute of the Aerospace Industry Department, indifferent to fame and fortune and courageous in tackling key problems, made major contributions to our state’s aerospace industry and was praised as “China’s Pavel Korchagin.” Zhu Borui of the Wuhan Air Force unit shared joys and sorrows with the masses, served the people, burning like a lump of coal to warm others, and was praised as “the new Lei Feng of the 1980s.” Gu Wenchang, Party Secretary of Dongshan County in Fujian Province, with the boldness of “if we cannot tame the wind and sand, let the wind and sand bury me,” led the people of Dongshan in bitter struggle for more than a decade, building a protective forest belt along the coast that would benefit generations to come, and erecting an immortal monument in the hearts of the common people. The moving deeds of these heroes and exemplary figures provided powerful spiritual motivation for the people of the whole country to throw themselves into reform and opening up and modernization.

Building socialist spiritual civilization requires resolutely resisting the erroneous tendency of blindly venerating the decadent ideology and culture of the Western bourgeoisie, and resolutely opposing the trend of bourgeois liberalization that seeks to deviate from the socialist road and break away from Party leadership. In October 1983, Deng Xiaoping clearly stated at the Second Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee that the ideological front cannot engage in spiritual pollution. Modern Western bourgeois culture must be analyzed, distinguished, and criticized using Marxism. In accordance with the spirit of the plenary session, the national ideological and cultural sphere launched struggles against spiritual pollution and against bourgeois liberalization.

In September 1986, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee passed the “Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Guiding Principles for Building Socialist Spiritual Civilization.” The Resolution emphasized that bourgeois liberalization — that is, repudiating the socialist system and advocating the capitalist system — fundamentally violates the interests of the people and the tide of history, and is resolutely opposed by the broad masses of the people. The Resolution elaborated on the strategic position and fundamental tasks of socialist spiritual civilization construction from the perspective of the overall layout of socialist modernization, emphasizing the need to cultivate socialist citizens with ideals, morality, culture, and discipline; to use the common ideal of building socialism with Chinese characteristics to unite the people of all ethnic groups across the country; and to raise the ideological and moral quality and the scientific and cultural quality of the entire Chinese nation. This Resolution was the Party’s first programmatic document on spiritual civilization construction, providing basic guiding principles for the healthy development of our state’s spiritual civilization construction.

However, because some people — including some senior leading cadres — had insufficient understanding of the nature and harm of bourgeois liberalization and insufficient opposition to it, the content of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee’s resolution emphasizing the strengthening of Marxism’s guiding role in spiritual civilization construction and opposing bourgeois liberalization was not earnestly implemented. At the end of 1986, student unrest broke out in a number of cities. In January 1987, the Central Political Bureau convened an enlarged session at which Hu Yaobang made a self-criticism regarding his errors on major political principle questions. The session conducted earnest comradely criticism of Hu Yaobang, while also truthfully affirming his achievements in his work. The session agreed to accept his request to resign from the position of General Secretary of the Central Committee, while retaining his positions as member of the Central Political Bureau and member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. Zhao Ziyang was nominated as acting General Secretary. The decisions of this enlarged session of the Political Bureau were subsequently confirmed by the Seventh Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee, convened in October of the same year.

V. The Thirteenth National Congress of the Party and the Establishment of the Party’s Basic Line for the Initial Stage of Socialism

The Thirteenth National Congress of the Party and the “Three-Step” Development Strategy

The continuous deepening of reform and opening up and the continuous advancement of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics urgently required the Party, on the basis of a profound analysis of the basic national conditions and a summation of practical experience, to provide further clear answers — both theoretically and practically — to the fundamental questions of what socialism is and how to build it, as well as to the question of what basic line our state’s reform and opening up and socialist modernization should follow.

From October 25 to November 1, 1987, the Thirteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing. Zhao Ziyang delivered a report titled “Advancing Along the Road of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.” The congress deliberated and passed the report and the “Partial Amendments to the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.”

The outstanding contribution of the congress was to systematically elaborate the theory of the Initial Stage of Socialism and to clearly summarize the Party’s basic line for the Initial Stage of Socialism. On the eve of the congress, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the central task throughout the entire historical stage of socialism is to develop productive forces. For our state specifically, the first priority is to escape poverty. Poverty is not socialism; nor is development that is too slow. He also clearly stated: “The Thirteenth National Congress of the Party should elaborate on what stage China’s socialism is at — it is at the initial stage, the Initial Stage of Socialism. Socialism itself is ★ The venue of the Thirteenth National Congress of the Party the contradiction between social production. The main task of the Party and the state is to develop productive forces and advance socialist modernization. The putting forward of the theory of the Initial Stage of Socialism became the basic basis on which our Party formulated correct lines, guidelines, and policies, and provided a powerful theoretical weapon for upholding reform and opening up and upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics.

the initial stage of communism, and China is at the initial stage of socialism — that is, the undeveloped stage. Everything must proceed from this reality and plans must be made on the basis of this reality.” The Thirteenth National Congress of the Party pointed out that the Initial Stage of Socialism encompasses two meanings: first, our state’s society is already a socialist society, and we must uphold socialism and cannot depart from it; second, our state’s socialist society is still at the initial stage, and we must proceed from this reality and cannot skip over this stage. The congress pointed out: the Initial Stage of Socialism does not refer in general terms to the initial stage that any country entering socialism will go through, but specifically refers to the particular stage that our state must inevitably go through in building socialism under conditions of backward productive forces and an underdeveloped commodity economy. From the basic completion of the socialist transformation of the means of production in the 1950s to the basic realization of socialist modernization, our state needs at least one hundred years, all of which falls within the Initial Stage of Socialism. In the Initial Stage of Socialism, the principal contradiction is the contradiction between the people’s ever-growing material and cultural needs and the backward

Proceeding from this new understanding of the Initial Stage of Socialism, the congress put forward the Party’s basic line for the Initial Stage of Socialism: to lead and unite the people of all ethnic groups across the country, with economic construction as the center, upholding the Four Cardinal Principles, upholding reform and opening up, relying on self-reliance and hard work, and striving to build our state into a prosperous, democratic, and civilized socialist modernized country. In summary, its main content is “one center and two basic points” — taking economic construction as the center, upholding the Four Cardinal Principles, and upholding reform and opening up. Practice has proven that taking economic construction as the center is the key to national rejuvenation, the Four Cardinal Principles are the foundation of the state, and reform and opening up is the path to national strength. This basic line is the lifeline of the Party and the state, and the happiness line of the people.

Another major contribution of the Thirteenth National Congress of the Party was the formulation of the “three-step” modernization development strategy. This was put forward based on Deng Xiaoping’s strategic conception of the steps for China to achieve modernization. As early as December 1979, when meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Masayoshi Ohira, Deng Xiaoping had already pointed out: “The Four Modernizations we want to achieve are Chinese-style Four Modernizations. Our concept of the Four Modernizations is not the same as your concept of modernization — it is a ‘moderately prosperous household.'” Subsequently, the Twelfth National Congress of the Party established the strategic goal of achieving a Moderately Prosperous Society in two steps by the end of the twentieth century. In April 1987, when meeting with Felipe González, Deputy Secretary-General of the Spanish Workers’ Socialist Party and Deputy Prime Minister of the government, Deng Xiaoping explicitly put forward the “three-step” modernization strategic conception. This strategic conception was confirmed at the Thirteenth National Congress of the Party. The Thirteenth National Congress of the Party pointed out that after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the strategic deployment of our state’s economic construction proceeds in three steps: the first step is to double the gross national product compared with 1980 and resolve the problem of adequate food and clothing for the people — this task has been basically achieved; the second step is to double the gross national product again by the end of the twentieth century, so that the people’s living standards reach the level of a Moderately Prosperous Society; the third step is to reach the level of moderately developed countries in per capita gross national product by the middle of the twenty-first century, with the people living in relative prosperity and modernization basically achieved. The “three-step” development strategy made a positive and prudent plan for the grand goal of the Chinese nation’s century-long pursuit of strength, reflecting both the Party’s and the people’s ambition and drive to forge ahead, and the scientific spirit of proceeding from reality and following objective laws. It is a major achievement of the Communist Party of China’s exploration of the laws of building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The congress highly evaluated the great significance of the path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics opened up since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in the historical process of the Sinicization of Marxism, pointing out that over more than sixty years, in the process of combining Marxism with our state’s practice, there have been two historical leaps. The first leap occurred during the period of the New Democratic Revolution, when the Chinese Communists, summing up the experience of successes and failures, found a revolutionary road with Chinese characteristics and led the revolution to victory. The second leap occurred after the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, when the Chinese Communists, on the basis of summing up the positive and negative experience of more than thirty years since the founding of the People’s Republic and studying international experience and the world situation, began to find a path of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, opening a new stage of socialist construction. The congress summarized and conceptualized a series of scientific theoretical viewpoints that had formed and developed in the practice of reform and opening up and modernization — from the aspects of the stage, tasks, driving forces, conditions, overall layout, and international environment of our state’s socialist construction — thereby giving the theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics a clearer outline.

The congress elected the Central Committee, the Central Advisory Commission, and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. The First Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee elected Zhao Ziyang, Li Peng, Qiao Shi, Hu Qili, and Yao Yilin as members of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau, and Zhao Ziyang as General Secretary of the Central Committee; decided that Deng Xiaoping would serve as Chairman of the Central Military Commission; approved Chen Yun as Director of the Central Advisory Commission and Qiao Shi as Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

After the Thirteenth National Congress of the Party, Deng Xiaoping no longer served on the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau. As the chief architect of China’s socialist reform and opening up and modernization, he continued to follow the cause of reform and opening up and modernization with a profound sense of responsibility and mission, and continued to play an extremely important role in the development of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics under Party leadership.

The Continued Advancement of Reform and Opening Up and the Beginning of Rectification and Consolidation

In accordance with the deployments of the Thirteenth National Congress of the Party, economic system reform in 1988 focused on deepening the reform of enterprise management mechanisms. In February of that year, the State Council promulgated the “Interim Regulations on the Contract Management Responsibility System for Enterprises under Public Ownership.” In April, the First Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress passed the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on Industrial Enterprises Owned by the Whole People,” which made clearer provisions on the reform principle of “separating the two rights” of enterprise ownership and management rights, providing legal guarantees for the reform of the contract management responsibility system for enterprises. The constitutional amendment passed by the session stipulated: “The state permits private economic enterprises to exist and develop within the scope prescribed by law. The private economy is a supplement to the socialist public ownership economy.” The legal status of the private economy was confirmed.

The pace of opening up to the outside world was further accelerated. In March 1988, the State Council decided to appropriately expand the coastal economic open zones, adding 140 cities and counties to the coastal economic open zones, including three provincial capital cities: Hangzhou, Nanjing, and Shenyang. In April, the First Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress formally approved the establishment of Hainan Province and the creation of the Hainan Special Economic Zone, reflecting the Party Center’s boldness and determination to accelerate reform and opening up. From that point on, Hainan — the beautiful island of the motherland — obtained unprecedented development opportunities and entered a new historical stage of deepening reform and expanding opening up.

Driven by comprehensive reform, from 1984 to 1988, our state’s economy accelerated its development. Over the five years, GDP grew at an average annual rate of 12.1 percent; total industrial output value reached more than 6 trillion yuan; and the state’s economic strength and composite national strength reached a new level. However, a series of unstable and uncoordinated problems also emerged in economic operations, mainly manifested as intensifying inflation, imbalance between total social production and consumption, and irrational structure. The Party and the government sought to explore new approaches to resolve these problems. In early 1985, a “soft landing” approach was adopted — that is, using relatively moderate methods to gradually restore balance between total social demand and total supply — but this failed to achieve the expected results. In the summer of 1988, preparations were made for a “price breakthrough,” comprehensively advancing price reform and liberalizing prices. The Central Political Bureau meeting held in August passed the “Preliminary Plan for Price and Wage Reform,” planning to resolve the price problem within approximately five years. Although the plan was not formally implemented, once the news spread, it triggered high inflation expectations and panic among the public, setting off a nationwide wave of withdrawals of savings deposits and panic buying of goods.

Faced with this grave situation, in late September 1988, the Third Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee put forward the guideline of rectifying the economic environment, consolidating economic order, and comprehensively deepening reform, and decided to shift from accelerating the pace of reform to focusing over the following two years on rectifying the economic environment and consolidating economic order, emphasizing that price reform cannot advance alone and that reform must be comprehensive and coordinated. In accordance with this decision, the State Council adopted a series of measures to compress the scale of fixed asset investment and total social demand, strengthen regulation and management of prices, and consolidate various chaotic phenomena in the economy — especially in the circulation sphere.

After approximately a year of rectification and consolidation, the excessive social demand was brought under considerable control, but the difficulties in national economic development had not yet been overcome, and some deep-seated structural and institutional problems still awaited further resolution.

VI. Adjustment of the National Defense Strategy

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, national defense and military construction entered a new historical period. Based on judgments about changes in the international and domestic situation, the military strategic guideline was changed from “active defense, luring the enemy in deep” to “active defense.” In September 1981, Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech at the review of military exercises in North China, explicitly putting forward the overall goal of building a powerful, modernized, and regularized revolutionary army, pointing the way for military construction in the new era.

In May and June 1985, the Central Military Commission convened an enlarged session, proposing a strategic and major transformation in the guiding ideology of military construction — that is, to truly shift military work from a state of combat readiness based on “fighting early, fighting a major war, fighting a nuclear war” onto the track of peacetime construction, to make full use of this period of peace in which a major war cannot break out, to implement a policy of streamlining troops under the premise of serving the overall landscape of national economic construction, to carry out fundamental construction centered on modernization in a planned and step-by-step manner, to reduce quantity and improve quality, and to enhance the combat capability of the military under modern conditions. The session made the decision to reduce military personnel by one million, and passed the “Plan for Military Structural Reform and Streamlining and Reorganization.” From the second half of 1985 to early 1987, the world-renowned demobilization of one million troops was basically completed. Through the adjustment, the number of military region commands was reduced from the original eleven to seven, and the headquarters of the General Staff Department, the General Political Department, the General Logistics Department, and the various military region commands were streamlined by nearly half. In 1988, a new military rank system was implemented and a civilian cadre system was established. The People’s Liberation Army made significant progress in the areas of streamlining, combined arms, and high efficiency, and the regularization of the military took new steps forward.

The People’s Liberation Army served and supported the overall landscape of national economic construction, and unceasingly achieved new accomplishments in participating in socialist construction. A number of military facilities were successively converted to ★ On October 1, 1984, Deng Xiaoping reviews the People’s Liberation Army honor guard at the 35th anniversary celebration of the founding of the People’s Republic of China Realizing the unification of the motherland has always been the common aspiration of all Chinese sons and daughters. China must be unified, and will inevitably be unified. On this question, the Chinese Communists have always been steadfast and clear-cut. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, the Party Center and Deng Xiaoping, building on the thinking of veteran revolutionaries such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai on striving for the peaceful liberation of Taiwan, faced history and reality squarely and creatively put forward the scientific conception of “one country, two systems,” opening a new path for achieving the unification of the motherland by peaceful means.

civilian use; national defense science and technology and civilian science and technology began to converge; large numbers of personnel with dual military-civilian skills were cultivated, powerfully supporting national economic construction. On the construction sites of the Luanhe-to-Tianjin water diversion project and the Shengli Oilfield, and at the urgent scenes of flood control and disaster relief, the vigorous and courageous figures of the people’s soldiers were always present.

In the late 1970s and the 1980s, the People’s Liberation Army performed its duties outstandingly in the struggle to defend the state’s territorial sovereignty. In February and March 1979, our border defense forces carried out a counter-attack in self-defense along the border with Vietnam. In 1981, operations were carried out to recover Faka Mountain and Koulin Mountain. In 1984, operations were carried out to recover Laoshan, followed by years of defensive operations to hold Laoshan, stabilizing the situation in the border areas. In March 1988, our naval vessels struck back against Vietnamese naval vessels that had intruded into the waters of Chigua Reef in our Nansha Islands and engaged in provocations. These counter-attacks in self-defense protected the integrity of our state’s territorial sovereignty, safeguarded state dignity, and demonstrated the image of the People’s Liberation Army as a powerful and majestic force.

VII. The Formation of the “One Country, Two Systems” Guideline

In the late 1970s, the Taiwan question was placed on the important agenda of the Party and the state. On January 1, 1979, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress issued the “Message to Compatriots in Taiwan,” solemnly declaring the major guideline of striving for the peaceful unification of the motherland. Thereafter, the Party Center further considered the question of national unification from the perspective of the overall landscape. In January 1980, Deng Xiaoping proposed that the three things to be done in the 1980s were: opposing hegemonism and safeguarding world peace in international affairs; the return of Taiwan to the motherland and the realization of national unification; and accelerating economic construction. He also elaborated on multiple occasions on the strategic conception of achieving the peaceful unification of the motherland on the basis of respecting Taiwan’s realities. In September 1981, Ye Jianying, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, delivered a speech comprehensively and systematically elaborating on the nine-point guideline for Taiwan’s return to the motherland and the realization of peaceful unification. In January 1982, Deng Xiaoping first put forward the concept of “one country, two systems.” In June 1983, he further put forward six-point guidelines for resolving the Taiwan question: “After the unification of the motherland, Taiwan as a special administrative region can have its own independence and can implement a system different from the mainland. Judicial independence, with no need for final adjudication to go to Beijing. Taiwan can also have its own military, as long as it does not constitute a threat to the mainland. The mainland will not station personnel in Taiwan — not military personnel, nor administrative personnel. Taiwan’s party, government, and military systems will all be managed by Taiwan itself. The central government will also reserve positions for Taiwan.” These six-point guidelines further enriched the conception of “one country, two systems.”

The “one country, two systems” conception was originally put forward to resolve the Taiwan question, but was first applied to resolving the question of Hong Kong’s and Macao’s return to the motherland, and achieved success.

The Hong Kong question is a historical legacy problem created by British colonialists’ aggression against China. After the Opium War of 1840, the British government successively forced the Qing government to sign the unequal treaties of the Treaty of Nanjing, the Convention of Peking, and the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, forcibly occupying China’s Hong Kong Island and Kowloon and forcibly leasing the New Territories. According to the Sino-British Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory, the lease of the New Territories was for 99 years, expiring on June 30, 1997. In the late 1970s, the British government raised the question of Hong Kong’s future status, attempting to pressure China into granting Britain long-term governing authority over Hong Kong. In December 1981, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China made the decision to recover Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. The Chinese government established two principles for handling the Hong Kong question: Hong Kong must definitely be recovered in 1997 and sovereignty resumed — this cannot be delayed any further; and on the premise of resuming sovereignty, Hong Kong’s stability and prosperity must be maintained.

In September 1982, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited China, opening the curtain on Sino-British negotiations over the Hong Kong question. Thatcher argued that Hong Kong’s prosperity depended on British rule, and that if major changes were made or announced to British administration, it would have a catastrophic impact on Hong Kong, strongly indicating that the three treaties concerning Hong Kong could not be unilaterally abrogated. In response, Deng Xiaoping stated categorically: the question of sovereignty is not a question open for discussion. China will recover Hong Kong in 1997 — not only the New Territories, but also Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. China and Britain are negotiating on this premise. If China, in 1997 — forty-eight years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China — still does not recover Hong Kong, no Chinese leader or government could account for this to the Chinese people, nor indeed to the people of the world. “If announcing the recovery of Hong Kong would, as the Prime Minister says, ‘bring catastrophic ★ On September 24, 1982, Deng Xiaoping meets with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Macao, including the Macao Peninsula, Taipa Island, and Coloane Island, has been Chinese territory since ancient times and was gradually forcibly occupied by Portugal after the sixteenth century. In June 1986, the governments of China and Portugal began negotiations on the Macao question. The negotiations proceeded relatively smoothly. In April 1987, the governments of China and Portugal formally signed the Joint Declaration on the Macao Question, announcing that the Chinese government would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Macao on December 20, 1999. Macao entered the transition period of returning to the motherland. In March 1993, the First Session of the Eighth National People’s Congress deliberated and passed the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China.

consequences,’ then we must have the courage to face this catastrophe and make our decision.” Through this meeting, the Chinese side grasped the initiative in recovering Hong Kong, and the keynote for resolving the Hong Kong question was thus set in accordance with the will of the Party and the people.

After more than two years and twenty-two rounds of arduous negotiations, in December 1984, the governments of China and Britain formally signed the Joint Declaration on the Hong Kong Question, confirming that the Chinese government would resume the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997. From that point on, Hong Kong entered the transition period of returning to the motherland.

Subsequently, in accordance with the provisions of the 1982 Constitution and on the basis of extensively soliciting the opinions of people from all walks of life in Hong Kong, the Third Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress in April 1990 deliberated and passed the Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. The Hong Kong Basic Law fixed in legal form the central government’s various guidelines and policies toward Hong Kong, laying the legal cornerstone for governing Hong Kong according to law.

After the process of Hong Kong’s return was initiated, the question of Macao’s return was also placed on the agenda. Macao

The initial practice of resolving the Hong Kong and Macao questions proved that the “one country, two systems” conception both embodies the principled nature of realizing national unification and safeguarding state sovereignty, and fully takes into account the history and realities of Hong Kong, Macao, and other places. It is a creative guideline for promoting the peaceful unification of the motherland, and has had a tremendous impact in the international community.

VIII. Adjustment of Foreign Policy Guidelines and Policies

On the eve of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China’s diplomacy took two major initiatives: first, signing the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Japan in August 1978; and second, issuing the joint communiqué formally establishing diplomatic relations with the United States in December 1978. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, as the focus of the Party’s and state’s work shifted and reform and opening up unfolded, striving for an international peaceful environment favorable to our state’s modernization increasingly became the consensus of the entire Party. Based on the development and changes of the international situation, the Party Center began making major adjustments to foreign policy, implementing two major transformations.

The first transformation was to change the view that war was inevitable and imminent, and to make a new scientific judgment on the question of war and peace. Entering the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping repeatedly explained that although the danger of war still exists, the forces constraining war have developed encouragingly; the growth of world peace forces has surpassed the growth of war forces; it is possible that a large-scale world war will not break out for a relatively long period of time; and there is hope for maintaining world peace. In March 1985, Deng Xiaoping explicitly put forward the important judgment that “peace and development are the two major issues of the contemporary world,” providing an important basis for the Party and the state to formulate foreign policy in the new era.

The second transformation was to change the “one line” strategy. After the establishment of Sino-American diplomatic relations, the U.S. Congress passed the “Taiwan Relations Act,” continuing to interfere in China’s internal affairs and damaging China’s sovereign security. Although China and the United States issued a joint communiqué on August 17, 1982, on the question of gradually and ultimately completely resolving the issue of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the U.S. government subsequently failed to honor its own commitments. The Soviet Union on multiple occasions expressed its desire to improve Sino-Soviet relations. Against this backdrop, China changed its previous “one line” strategy of aligning with the United States against the Soviet Union.

In September 1982, the report of the Twelfth National Congress of the Party solemnly declared that China upholds an independent foreign policy, developing relations with all countries guided by the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The report also specifically stated that the Communist Party of China is willing to develop relations with communist parties and other working-class parties of all countries in accordance with the principles of “independence, complete equality, mutual respect, and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.” These four principles became the basic principles for the Communist Party of China to establish and develop inter-party relations with political parties of all countries in the world.

In April 1986, the State Council’s “Report on the Seventh Five-Year Plan” approved by the Fourth Session of the Sixth National People’s Congress elaborated from ten aspects on the main content and basic principles of China’s independent and peaceful foreign policy, summarizing the adjustments to China’s foreign policy since reform and opening up. Among the points mentioned: China holds that all countries in the world, regardless of size, wealth, or strength, are equal; the affairs of each country should be managed by its own people; world affairs should be resolved through consultation among all countries, and cannot be decided by one or two superpowers. China will never seek hegemony, and resolutely opposes hegemonism from any quarter and in any form. China upholds independence in all times and under all circumstances, and determines its own position and approach on all international questions based on the merits of the questions themselves. China will never attach itself to any superpower, nor will it ally with either of them. China does not determine closeness or affection based on differences in social systems and ideology, and resolutely opposes any country using similarity or difference in social systems and ideology as a pretext for occupying another country’s territory or interfering in another country’s internal affairs.

With the adjustment of foreign policy guidelines and policies, China’s diplomacy achieved all-round development, and an external environment initially favorable to China’s reform and opening up and modernization took shape. By 1989, the number of countries that had established diplomatic relations with China reached 137.

During this period, handling Sino-American and Sino-Soviet relations was one of the main aspects of diplomatic work. Although Sino-American relations were subjected to severe tests over issues such as arms sales to Taiwan, they maintained stable development throughout the 1980s. On the Sino-Soviet front, the two countries began consultations on normalizing relations in 1982. After the main obstacles to Sino-Soviet relations were basically resolved, in May 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev — Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union — visited China, and the Sino-Soviet party-to-party and state-to-state relations, which had been ruptured for more than twenty years, were normalized, providing a good foundation for establishing a new type of major-power relationship that is non-aligned, non-confrontational, and not directed against any third party.

IX. Withstanding the Test of the Political Turmoil and the Completion of Rectification and Consolidation

The 1989 Political Turmoil

Just as the work of rectification and consolidation was being further advanced, from late 1988 to early 1989, in a number of major cities — especially Beijing — a small number of people exploited the errors in the work of the Party and the government, the public’s anxiety over rising prices, and dissatisfaction with the corrupt phenomena existing among some party member cadres, to engage in activities inciting opposition to the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist system.

On April 15, 1989, Hu Yaobang passed away. The Party Center fully affirmed the outstanding contributions Hu Yaobang had made to the cause of China’s revolution, construction, and reform over sixty years of revolutionary life. During the period when the Center was holding memorial activities, a small number of people seized the opportunity to spread rumors, incite the masses to hold demonstrations, and serious incidents occurred in Beijing of crowds rushing the Zhongnanhai Xinhuamen gate. In some other cities, criminal activities of beating, smashing, looting, and burning were carried out by lawless elements. On April 24, the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau met to analyze and study the development of the situation, concluding that a planned and organized political turmoil against the Party and against socialism had been placed before them. On April 26, People’s Daily published an editorial titled “We Must Take a Clear-Cut Stand Against Turmoil,” pointing out to the entire Party and the people of the whole country the nature of this struggle. However, a small number of people with ulterior motives continued to incite the masses to occupy Tiananmen Square and carry on various illegal activities, which ultimately developed into a counter-revolutionary riot.

At this critical moment bearing on the life and death of the Party and the state, the Central Political Bureau — with the resolute and forceful support of Deng Xiaoping and other veteran revolutionaries — relied on the people, took a clear-cut stand against the turmoil, and on June 4 took resolute measures to swiftly suppress the counter-revolutionary riot in the Beijing area. Beijing and other major and medium-sized cities quickly restored normal order. The victory in this struggle defended the socialist nature of our state’s sovereign power, safeguarded normal social order and the fundamental interests of the people.

The occurrence of this political turmoil was not accidental; it was the result of the interaction of multiple international and domestic factors. As Deng Xiaoping pointed out, “this turmoil was bound to come sooner or later. It was determined by the international macro-climate and China’s own micro-climate, and was bound to come — it was not subject to human will.”

From the perspective of the international environment: the capitalist world, having overcome crises after the end of the Second World War, saw rapid development of productive forces driven by the new techno-scientific revolution; while some socialist countries, due to serious errors in decision-making, fell into quite serious difficulties in economic construction and social development, and the superiority of the socialist system was not well demonstrated, affecting the image of socialism in people’s minds and giving rise to the erroneous perception that “socialism is inferior to capitalism.” Some political forces in certain Western countries had long been implementing “peaceful evolution” against socialist countries, supporting and fostering various anti-communist and anti-socialist activities. In this sense, this political turmoil was first and foremost stirred up by hostile forces and social trends of thought that are anti-communist and anti-socialist internationally. From the perspective of the domestic environment: the leader who presided over the Center’s work for a period of time, while advancing reform and opening up and developing the economy, failed to ensure that the guideline of opposing bourgeois liberalization was earnestly implemented; the trend of bourgeois liberalization not only was not contained, but developed and even spread unchecked.

This political turmoil prompted the Party to reflect more calmly on the past, the present, and the future.

On June 9, 1989, Deng Xiaoping met with military commanders at the corps level and above of the troops under martial law in the capital, and gave a clear answer to the fundamental question — which China and indeed the whole world were paying close attention to — of in which direction China would develop and which road it would take. He pointed out: the line, guidelines, and policies established at the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, including the “three-step” development strategy, are not wrong; the basic line of “one center and two basic points” summarized at the Thirteenth National Congress of the Party is not wrong. The basic line, guidelines, and policies we have formulated will continue to be implemented, steadfastly and without wavering. Deng Xiaoping believed that if there was any error, it was that upholding the Four Cardinal Principles had not been consistent enough — they had not been used as a basic ideological framework to educate the people, students, and all cadres and Communist Party members; and if anything was insufficient, it was that reform and opening up had not gone far enough. Deng Xiaoping’s important speech summed up the experience and lessons of ten years of reform and opening up, and pointed the correct direction for China’s reform and development after the political turmoil.

The Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee and the Formation of the New Central Leadership Collective

In June 1989, the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee convened. In view of the serious errors Zhao Ziyang had committed at the critical moment bearing on the life and death of the Party and the state — supporting the turmoil and splitting the Party — the plenary session decided to remove him from all leadership positions within the Party. The plenary session adjusted the membership of the central leadership bodies and elected Jiang Zemin as General Secretary of the Central Committee.

Jiang Zemin stated at the plenary session: “Some personnel adjustments have been made to the central leadership bodies at this session, but the line and basic policies since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee have not changed and must continue to be implemented. On this most fundamental question, I want to state two things very clearly: one is steadfast and unwavering; the other is comprehensive implementation, consistently applied.”

Before and after the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee, Deng Xiaoping on multiple occasions solemnly proposed: we must now truly establish a new third-generation leadership. The third-generation leadership collective must have a core, and we must consciously safeguard this core — Comrade Jiang Zemin. He emphasized: the key to China’s problems lies in the Communist Party having a good Political Bureau, and especially a good Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. As long as this link does not go wrong, China will be as stable as Mount Tai.

After the plenary session, the new central leadership collective resolutely and comprehensively implemented the Party’s basic line, simultaneously grasping rectification and consolidation and deepening reform on the one hand, and grasping Party building, spiritual civilization construction, and ideological and political work on the other. The national political situation rapidly tended toward stability, the economic situation gradually improved, and a new turning point appeared on the ideological front.

With the new central leadership collective already working effectively, in September 1989, Deng Xiaoping formally submitted to the Central Political Bureau his request to resign from the position of Chairman of the Central Military Commission. In November, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee agreed ★ Jiang Zemin delivers a speech at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee The Party withstood the test of the political turmoil, while also coming to a profound understanding of the problems existing within itself. Deng Xiaoping pointed out that this riot has made our minds clearer. This Party needs to be attended to; it will not do to leave it unattended. After the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee, the Party Center devoted great effort to concentrating on Party building.

to Deng Xiaoping’s request, and decided that Jiang Zemin would serve as Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The plenary session held that Deng Xiaoping, proceeding from the fundamental interests of the Party and the state, resigned from his current position while his health was still good, fulfilling his long-cherished wish — which he had repeatedly expressed over the years — to completely step down from leadership positions, demonstrating the broad-mindedness of a great proletarian revolutionary. The participants expressed their highest respect for his exemplary role in personally practicing the abolition of the lifelong tenure system for cadre leadership positions.

Through the Fourth and Fifth Plenary Sessions of the Thirteenth Central Committee, the central leadership collective smoothly achieved the succession of old and new generations — this was of extremely great significance for ensuring the stability and continuity of the Party’s policies and for achieving the long-term stability of the Party and the state.

Strengthening Party Building and Ideological and Political Work

In August 1989, the Party Center issued a notice on strengthening Party building. In accordance with the spirit of the notice, in the autumn and winter of 1989 and the spring of 1990, Party organizations at all levels earnestly investigated and cleared up key individuals and key matters during the political turmoil, so as to ensure the purity of the Party’s ranks. Subsequently, education was carried out throughout the Party on being a qualified Communist Party member, along with the work of re-registering party members. At the same time, party member standards were strictly enforced, and outstanding individuals from the front lines of enterprise and rural production were cultivated and admitted into the Party.

In strengthening the Party’s ideological construction, in order to help party and government cadres at the county and department level and above to distinguish right from wrong and grasp the correct direction in a complex environment, emphasis was placed on educating them in the basic theories of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, and making this education regular and institutionalized. In accordance with central regulations, all members entering leading bodies were required to undergo corresponding study at party schools, and other leading members were also required to receive periodic training at party schools.

After reflecting on the political turmoil, the Party Center emphasized the need to carry forward the Party’s fine traditions, strengthen close ties between the Party and the masses and between cadres and the masses, carry out anti-corruption and clean governance construction, and resolutely struggle against corrupt phenomena and corrupt elements. Jiang Zemin clearly stated at the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee: “The eyes of the people of all ethnic groups across the country are fixed on us, watching whether we can take concrete action to punish corruption.” In July 1989, the Party Center and the State Council made a decision requiring that, beginning with the leading comrades of the Party Center and the State Council, seven matters of concern to the masses be addressed in terms of stopping corruption and taking the lead in maintaining clean governance and working hard. In March 1990, the Sixth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee passed the “Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Strengthening the Party’s Ties with the People.” The implementation of these measures achieved good results.

In order to resolve the problem of weakened Party leadership, the Party Center emphasized that the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the basic socialist political system must be upheld; the nature and basic system of the Chinese state must not be shaken; no state power organ or social political organization may deviate from the leadership of the Communist Party of China — this is the fundamental guarantee of our state’s social stability and economic development. At the same time, the Party Center further adjusted the relationship between the Party and state power organs and other social political organizations in terms of the leadership system, successively restoring party groups in state organs, economic organizations, and cultural organizations that had been abolished, strengthening Party building in enterprises, rural areas, and universities, and giving play to the role of grassroots Party organizations as political cores and fighting fortresses.

The Party attached importance to strengthening ideological and political work among the people — especially among young students. When Deng Xiaoping analyzed the causes of the political turmoil, he said that the biggest mistake over the ten years was in education, referring mainly to ideological and political education — one hand was relatively firm, the other relatively soft. After the Fourth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee, the Party Center adopted a series of forceful measures to overcome the problem of “one soft hand.” From 1990 to 1991, education and study of Marxist Party-building theory and the history of the Communist Party of China was carried out among the broad masses of party member cadres, and socialist ideological education was carried out among the broad masses of the people. Education on modern and contemporary Chinese history and national conditions also received increasing attention from all quarters. Ideological education systems and working methods were restored and improved.

The Party also strengthened its leadership over the news and public opinion front. In November 1989, Jiang Zemin delivered a speech at a journalism work seminar organized by the Central Propaganda Department, elaborating on the basic guidelines of socialist journalism, and requiring newspapers, radio, and television to serve as the mouthpiece of the Party, the government, and the people, to uphold the party principle of journalism work, and to oppose absolute freedom of the press. The conference put forward the guideline of upholding positive propaganda as the primary approach, and giving play to the correct guiding role of public opinion.

The strengthening of Party building and ideological-political work promoted political stability and social order in our state, creating important ideological and political conditions for the work of rectification and deepening reform.

Responding to a Turbulent International Situation

In the aftermath of the 1989 political disturbance, the U.S. government and Congress issued statements vilifying and attacking the Chinese government, and announced a series of “sanctions” measures. In July, the leaders of the Group of Seven Western nations and the European Community announced the suspension of high-level political contacts with China and the deferral of World Bank loans. Shortly thereafter, the international situation underwent a series of major changes: the Soviet Union dissolved, dramatic upheavals swept Eastern Europe, and the world socialist movement fell into a period of decline.

Confronted with the anti-China wave stirred up by the United States and certain other Western nations, and with the incessant chorus of voices predicting China’s decline, Deng Xiaoping repeatedly stressed the need to maintain stability and persist in reform and opening up—to do one thing well: our own affairs. The key was to manage our own house well. He warned that the fundamental aim of Western pressure on China was to compel China to abandon socialism. This reactionary current must be resolutely and forthrightly resisted. International opinion may pressure us, but we must remain composed, and uphold our image as a state that is independent, unbowed, and unafraid of ghosts. So long as we stay the course on the socialist road we have chosen, no one can crush us.

In September 1989, Jiang Zemin declared with resolve at the rally marking the 40th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China: “Attempting to exclude and isolate China is most unwise, and is fundamentally impossible. No economic sanctions whatsoever can shake our determination to revitalize China and uphold the socialist road by even the slightest degree, nor can they shake our conviction to live in friendship with the peoples of all nations.”

In order to reverse the situation and seize the initiative, the Party and government identified two priorities for diplomatic work in the early 1990s: first, to pursue good-neighborly diplomacy, stabilize and actively develop relations with surrounding countries, and strengthen solidarity and cooperation with developing countries; and second, to break through the Western “sanctions” and restore and stabilize relations with the developed Western nations.

Party and state leaders led by example and actively engaged in diplomatic activities. Between 1990 and 1992, China restored diplomatic relations with Indonesia, normalized relations with Vietnam, achieved significant improvements in Sino-Indian relations, established diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Israel, and South Korea, smoothly managed the transition from Sino-Soviet to Sino-Russian relations, and established or developed normal relations with the newly independent states that emerged from the Soviet Union’s dissolution as well as with the countries of Eastern Europe. By the end of August 1992, the number of countries that had established diplomatic relations with China had reached 154. China also successfully secured the hosting of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Rather than being isolated by the Western “sanctions,” China played an active role in international affairs.

In response to the “sanctions” imposed by the United States and certain other Western nations, China waged a principled, advantageous, and measured struggle. Chinese leaders assessed the situation carefully and adopted a guideline that combined political and economic means, and official and non-governmental channels, to push Japan to take the lead in lifting its “sanctions” against China in 1990. Subsequently, other Western nations and international organizations lifted their “sanctions” against China one after another. By the end of 1991, China’s relations with most Western nations had largely returned to a normal footing.

The United States led the “sanctions” against China, but gradually came to recognize that isolating China might not serve its own interests. Between July and December 1989, U.S. President Bush twice dispatched his National Security Advisor, Brent Scowcroft, as a special envoy to China for consultations. During the most difficult phase of Sino-American relations, Deng Xiaoping stated: “To put the past behind us, the United States should take the initiative—and only the United States can take the initiative.” “Asking China to come begging is out of the question. Even if it takes a hundred years, the Chinese people will not beg for the sanctions to be lifted.” At the same time, the Chinese side continued to engage proactively with the American side, guided by a far-sighted perspective focused on the broader landscape. After the Gulf Crisis erupted, the United States, needing China’s support on the Gulf issue, was compelled to reconsider improving bilateral relations. In November 1993, at the invitation of U.S. President Clinton, Chinese President Jiang Zemin attended the first APEC Leaders’ Informal Meeting held in Seattle, Washington. On the sidelines, the two countries’ top leaders held a formal summit.

Through sustained effort, China effectively met the various external challenges that arose in the wake of the 1989 political disturbance. The Western “sanctions” failed to achieve their aim of forcing China into submission and isolating it; they were ultimately broken. China’s reform and opening up and its modernization drive gained a more favorable international environment. Chinese diplomacy advanced steadfastly in an all-directional direction.

The Results of Rectification and the Completion of the Seventh Five-Year Plan

After the political disturbance, the Party Central Committee placed the temporarily delayed work of rectification back on the agenda. In November 1989, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Thirteenth Central Committee adopted the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Rectification and Deepening Reform, which stipulated that, on the basis of curbing inflation and stabilizing the economic situation, the basic tasks of rectification were to be completed within three years or slightly longer, counting from 1989. This phase of rectification was carried out in roughly two steps: the first step was to adjust the economic structure while placing emphasis on stimulating the market and achieving moderate economic growth; the second step was to gradually shift the focus of rectification and deepening reform toward adjusting the industrial structure and improving economic efficiency.

During the period of rectification, the “vegetable basket” of ordinary people became one of the focal concerns of governments at all levels. In 1988, the state began implementing the “Vegetable Basket Project,” establishing central and local production bases for meat, eggs, dairy products, aquatic products, and vegetables. Through rectification, the overheated economy cooled noticeably, the national economy maintained a growth rate appropriate to actual conditions, and the imbalance between supply and demand eased significantly. The inflation that the people were most concerned about was brought under effective control, the disorder in the circulation sector was initially alleviated, and market order improved markedly. In March 1992, the Fifth Session of the Seventh National People’s Congress announced that the main tasks of rectification had been basically completed, and that this specific phase of economic development could be concluded on schedule.

During the period of rectification, the vast majority of the targets for national economic and social development set out in the Seventh Five-Year Plan were met or exceeded by the end of 1990, and the first-step strategic goal was achieved ahead of schedule. The living standards of the people improved further; the overwhelming majority of regions across the country resolved the problem of adequate food and clothing and began moving toward a Moderately Prosperous Society.

Reform and opening up continued to advance and achieved major breakthroughs in a number of areas.

The establishment of stock exchanges was a landmark measure in deepening reform. In December 1990, the Shanghai Stock Exchange officially opened for business—the first stock exchange to open on the mainland since reform and opening up began. In July 1991, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange officially opened for business. The operation of these two exchanges enabled the centralized trading of stocks, forming two national securities markets—the Shanghai market and the Shenzhen market—and driving the development of the shareholding system. In October 1990, the Zhengzhou Grain Wholesale Market opened and introduced a futures trading mechanism, marking the beginning of futures trading in China. The successful opening of the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges and the introduction of the futures trading mechanism sent a powerful signal to the world that China’s reform and opening up would press forward with unwavering resolve.

The development and opening up of Shanghai’s Pudong district was a major measure to expand openness. Pudong refers to a triangular area east of the Huangpu River, southwest of the mouth of the Yangtze River, and north of the Chuanyang River, immediately adjacent to Shanghai’s most prosperous Bund district. This land of enormous development potential had long gone without effective development—dismissed by some as a “mudflat”—standing in stark contrast to the thriving Puxi district on the western bank. In April 1990, the Party Central Committee and the State Council approved the development and opening up of Pudong, extending to it the policies applicable to economic and technological development zones and certain special economic zones. This was a major decision made by the Party Central Committee after comprehensively assessing the tendencies of the broader international and domestic situation and integrating its approach to the broader landscape of reform and development. It opened a new chapter in the deepening advance of our state’s reform and opening up. Hundreds of thousands of builders poured into Pudong, building bridges and roads, constructing factories and buildings, and a new Pudong district—outward-looking, multi-functional, and modern—rose at the mouth of the Yangtze River. This not only spurred the rapid development of Shanghai, but also exerted a powerful radiating and driving effect on reform, opening up, and economic development in the Yangtze River Delta, the entire Yangtze River basin, and the country as a whole.

With the successful completion of the rectification tasks and the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the cause of reform and opening up and socialist modernization was about to enter a new stage.

X. Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour Talks

With the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the dramatic upheavals in Eastern Europe, the practice of socialism worldwide fell into a period of decline. After the end of the Cold War, the world began moving toward multipolarity, the process of economic globalization accelerated, and a number of neighboring countries displayed vigorous development momentum. Meanwhile, the development of our state’s socialist cause faced enormous difficulties and pressures. Following rectification, our state’s economy had climbed out of its trough, but the deep-seated problems in economic operations had yet to be fundamentally resolved. The serious setbacks suffered by world socialism also had a certain negative impact on our state. Some people lacked confidence in the future of socialism; others harbored doubts about reform and opening up, raising the question of whether China bore the surname “socialist” or “capitalist.” Whether the Party’s basic line could be upheld without wavering, whether opportunities could be seized to accelerate development, and whether reform and opening up and modernization could continue to be pushed forward—these became major questions that Chinese Communists were compelled to answer and resolve.

At a critical juncture in the historical development of the Party and state, from January 18 to February 21, 1992, Deng Xiaoping—then 88 years of age—traveled to Wuchang, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shanghai, and other localities for inspection tours. As he traveled and observed, he delivered a series of important talks.

★ On January 23, 1992, during his inspection tour of Guangdong, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that Guangdong needed to climb several steps and strive to catch up with Asia’s “Four Little Dragons” within 20 years.

On how to advance reform and opening up, Deng Xiaoping stated in his talks that revolution liberates the productive forces, and so does reform. In pursuing reform and opening up, one must be bolder, daring to experiment. Once something has been identified as correct, move forward boldly—dare to try, dare to break through. The reason reform and opening up cannot take big steps forward, the reason people dare not break through, comes down to the fear that there will be too much that is capitalist in nature, that China will go down the capitalist road. The crux of the matter is the question of whether something bears the surname “capitalist” or “socialist.” The criteria for judgment should be mainly whether it is conducive to developing the productive forces of socialist society, whether it is conducive to increasing the composite national strength of the socialist state, and whether it is conducive to raising the living standards of the people. Addressing the criticisms and reproaches leveled at reform and opening up by some, Deng Xiaoping stressed that the Right can bury socialism, and so can the “Left.” China must be on guard against the Right, but above all must guard against the “Left.” He pointed out that it would probably take another thirty years before we could, in all respects, form a complete set of more mature and more settled institutions. The guidelines and policies under this institutional framework would also become more settled.

On the relationship between planning and the market, Deng Xiaoping stated that having more planning or more market is not the essential distinction between socialism and capitalism. Planning and the market are both economic means. He put forward clearly that the essence of socialism is to liberate the productive forces, develop the productive forces, eliminate exploitation, eliminate polarization, and ultimately achieve common prosperity. He also pointed out that for socialism to win the advantage in comparison with capitalism, it must boldly absorb and draw on all the civilizational achievements created by human society, and absorb and draw on the advanced modes of operation and management methods that reflect the laws of modern socialized production from all countries in today’s world, including the developed capitalist countries.

Seizing the moment and accelerating development was one of the major issues Deng Xiaoping repeatedly emphasized in his talks. He pointed out that some neighboring countries and regions were developing their economies faster than us; if we did not develop, or developed too slowly, ordinary people would make comparisons and problems would arise. We must seize the moment, develop ourselves—and the key is to develop the economy. Development is the absolute principle. In the long process of modernization that lies ahead, it is both necessary and achievable to have several phases of relatively fast growth with relatively good results. We must have this ambition! Deng Xiaoping held that the key to resolving China’s development problems was to uphold the Party’s basic line without wavering. He stressed the need to uphold the line, guidelines, and policies established since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, and that the key was to uphold “one center, two basic points.” Without upholding socialism, without reform and opening up, without developing the economy, without improving the people’s lives, there is only a dead end. The basic line must hold for a hundred years and must not be shaken.

In his talks, Deng Xiaoping also expounded on a number of other important ideas of strategic significance. He stressed: throughout the entire process of reform and opening up, we must always pay attention to upholding the Four Cardinal Principles. We must uphold the two-handed approach—one hand grasping reform and opening up, the other hand grasping the crackdown on various criminal activities. Both hands must be strong. By upholding the two-handed approach, socialist cultural and ethical progress can be advanced. Corruption must be opposed throughout the entire process of reform and opening up. Whether China’s affairs can be handled well, whether socialism and reform and opening up can be upheld, whether the economy can develop more rapidly, whether the state can achieve long-term stability and order—in a certain sense, the key lies in people. When all is said and done, the key is that we within the Communist Party must manage our own affairs well and not let things go wrong.

Confronting the decline of world socialism, Deng Xiaoping declared with full confidence: I firmly believe that the number of people in the world who embrace Marxism will grow, because Marxism is a science. Do not panic, do not think that Marxism has disappeared, become useless, or been defeated. How could that be! Some countries have experienced serious setbacks, and socialism may seem to have been weakened, but the people have been tempered through these trials, have drawn lessons from them, and this will promote socialism’s development in a healthier direction. He stressed that consolidating and developing the socialist system still requires a very long historical stage—it requires the persistent and unrelenting efforts of several generations, more than ten generations, or even dozens of generations. We must never let our guard down. We must continue to advance on the road of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. From now until the middle of the next century will be a very critical period; we must work hard with our heads down.

“The east wind comes, and spring fills the eye.” The series of entirely new ideas expounded in Deng Xiaoping’s Southern Tour Talks swept in like a powerful east wind, dispersing the fog that had clouded people’s thinking. They provided profound theoretical answers to the many major questions that had long perplexed and constrained people’s thinking. They constituted yet another manifesto of emancipating the mind and seeking truth from facts—one that would propel reform and opening up and modernization into a new stage. They were not only of great guiding significance for the Fourteenth Party Congress that was soon to convene, but also carried major and far-reaching significance for the entire cause of China’s socialist modernization.

The Southern Tour Talks elevated the brilliant achievements of Deng Xiaoping’s life to a new height. Comrade Deng Xiaoping was an outstanding leader universally recognized by the entire Party, the entire military, and the people of all ethnic groups across the country as enjoying the highest prestige; a great Marxist; a great proletarian revolutionary, statesman, military strategist, and diplomat; the chief architect of China’s socialist reform and opening up and modernization drive; the pioneer of the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and the principal founder of Deng Xiaoping Theory. Without Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese people would not have the new life they enjoy today, and China would not have today’s new landscape of reform and opening up or the bright prospects for socialist modernization. As a great man of his era, the brilliant achievements Deng Xiaoping accomplished and the scientific theory he established have already, and will continue to, transform and influence China and the world.

[1] The “two assessments” held that: during the seventeen years before the “Cultural Revolution,” the educational front was one where the bourgeoisie had exercised dictatorship over the proletariat — a “dictatorship of the black line”; and that the worldview of the majority of intellectuals was fundamentally bourgeois, making them bourgeois intellectuals.

[1] “两个估计”，即”文化大革命”前17年教育战线是资产阶级专了无产阶级的政，是”黑线专政”；知识分子的大多数世界观基本上是资产阶级的，是资产阶级知识分子。

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