The Third Plenum of the 10th CPC Central Committee 

Communique of the Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China

THE Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held in Peking from July 16 to 21, 1977.

Comrade Hua Kuo-feng, Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, presided over this session, which was of tremendous historic significance, and made an important speech.

Comrades Yeh Chien-ying and Teng Hsiao-ping, Vice-Chairmen of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, attended the session and they also made important speeches.

Comrades Li Hsien-nien, Chen Hsi-lien, Chi Teng-kuei, Wang Tung-hsing, Wu Teh, Hsu Shih-yu, Wei Kuo-ching, Li Teh-sheng and Chen Yung-kuei, Members of the Political Bureau of the C.P.C. Central Committee, and Comrades Wu Kuei-hsien, Su Chen-hua, Ni Chih-fu and Saifudin, Alternate Members of the Political Bureau, also attended the session. Comrade Liu Po-cheng, Member of the Political Bureau, was absent on sick leave.

Members and Alternate Members of the Central Committee attended the session. Principal leading comrades of a number of localities and army units were present as observers.

At the opening of the plenary session, on Chairman Hua's proposal, all comrades present rose in silent tribute to the memory of our great leader and teacher Chairman Mao Tsetung, to the memory of our esteemed and beloved Premier Chou En-lai, Chairman Chu Teh of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Vice-Chairman Kang Sheng of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Vice-Chairman Tung Pi-wu of the N.P.C. Standing Committee and other proletarian revolutionaries of the older generation and to the memory of Members and Alternate Members of the Central Committee and other comrades who had died since the Second Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee.

The plenary session unanimously adopted the "Resolution on Confirming the Appointment of Comrade Hua Kuo-feng as Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China." The plenary session expressed full support for the resolution appointing Comrade Hua Kuo-feng Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Military Commission of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, which was adopted by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on October 7, 1976 in accordance with the arrangements made by the great leader and teacher Chairman Mao before his death. The plenary session unanimously agreed that Comrade Hua Kuo-feng is Chairman Mao's good student and successor and our good leader and supreme commander. The resolution adopted by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in that extraordinary period of fierce struggle waged by our Party against the anti-Party clique of Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan and at that crucial moment of the Chinese revolution was entirely correct and most timely; it won the warm support of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities throughout the country. The resolution not only played a decisive role at the time in shattering the plot of the "gang of four" to usurp Party and state power and in stabilizing the situation throughout the country, but was of great, far-reaching significance for consolidating our Party leadership, consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country and ensuring our country's continued, victorious advance along Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line.

The plenary session unanimously adopted the "Resolution on Restoring Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping to His Posts." The plenary session, after earnest discussions, expressed full support for the suggestion made at a central working conference in March 1977 by Chairman Hua Kuo-feng on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee that the Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Party Central Committee make an official decision so that Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping could resume work. The two letters by Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping to Chairman Hua, Vice-Chairman Yeh and the Party Central Committee, which the Central Committee on May 3, 1977 decided to circulate, had the approval of comrades throughout the Party. The plenary session unanimously decided to restore Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping to his posts of Member of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and of its Standing Committee, Vice-Chairman of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Vice-Chairman of the Military Commission of the C.P.C. Central Committee, Vice-Premier of the State Council and Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.

The plenary session was unanimous in its view that, in the nine months and more since the shattering of the "gang of four," the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua has held high the great banner of Chairman Mao and led the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities throughout the country in deepening the great political revolution to expose and criticize the "gang of four," and great victories have been won. The strategic policy decision advanced by Chairman Hua and the Party Central Committee -that is, to achieve stability and unity in our country, consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, consolidate and develop the achievements of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and bring about great order across the land in the course of the fierce struggle between the two classes and the two lines - has won full approval from the Party, the army and the people. The whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities in our country are more united and the dictatorship of the proletariat is more consolidated than ever before; a vigorous revolutionary atmosphere prevails all over the land and a new leap forward is taking shape in the national economy. Practice proves that the political line and the organizational line of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua and the whole series of important measures taken by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee in implementing the strategic policy decision of grasping the key link in running the country well are entirely correct.

The plenary session unanimously adopted the "Resolution on the Anti-Party Clique of Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan." The resolution pointed out that the action taken by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee headed by Comrade Hua Kuo-feng in carrying out Chairman Mao's behests and shattering the Wang-Chang-Chiang-Yao anti-Party clique and the series of resolute measures taken against them are entirely correct, and that the plenary session gave its unanimous approval. The plenary session held that the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua, in leading our Party to smash the "gang of four" at one blow, eliminated a scourge inside the Party, averted a major split and retrogression in our country and thus saved the revolution and the Party. This is a tremendous victory for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, for Mao Tsetung Thought and for Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line.

The resolution pointed out that the gang of Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan was a counter-revolutionary conspiratorial clique. They completely opposed the basic principles "Practise Marxism, and not revisionism; unite, and don't split; be open and aboveboard, and don't intrigue and conspire," and engaged in conspiratorial activities aimed at splitting the Party and usurping Party and state power. In the early period of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, they worked hand in glove with Lin Piao and company to sabotage this revolution. After the Tenth Party Congress, the Wang-Chang-Chiang-Yao "gang of four" resorted to various underhand methods in wantonly opposing the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Mao in an attempt to realize their wild ambitions to seize overall leadership of the Party, the government and the army and make Chairman Mao a figurehead. Seizing the opportunity of the Second Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the Party and the Fourth National People's Congress, they plotted to form their own "cabinet" and attempted to overthrow Comrade Chou En-lai. Going their own way contrary to Chairman Mao's directives, they feverishly attacked and fabricated accusations against Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping. They bitterly hated and wildly opposed the decisions of Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee on the appointment of Comrade Hua Kuo-feng first as Acting Premier of the State Council and then as First Vice-Chairman of the C.P.C Central Committee and Premier of the State Council, and attempted to overthrow Comrade Hua Kuo-feng. They vehemently carried out conspiratorial activities to oppose the Party and disrupt the army and tried to overthrow a large number of leading comrades of the Party, government and army at the central and local levels. They went to the extreme of tormenting our great leader Chairman Mao when he was seriously ill. After Chairman Mao passed away, they stepped up their criminal activities to usurp supreme Party and state leadership, plotted to overthrow the Party Central Committee headed by Comrade Hua Kuo-feng and bring about a counterrevolutionary restoration, and attempted to turn the Marxist Communist Party of China into a revisionist party, turn our dictatorship of the proletariat into a fascist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and turn socialist China again into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country.

The resolution pointed out that, under the cloak of Marxism-Leninism, the anti-Party clique of Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan wantonly tampered with Chairman Mao's great theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, distorted the Party's basic line, deliberately reversed the relations between ourselves and the enemy in the historical period of socialism, and pushed an ultra-Right counterrevolutionary revisionist line ideologically, politically and organizationally. The "gang of four" is a bunch of bourgeois careerists and conspirators, a band of out-and-out ultra-Rightists and a sinister cabal of old and new counter-revolutionaries. They are typical representatives of the landlords and the bourgeoisie and of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang inside our Party. Their social basis consists of the landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries, bad elements and the new and old bourgeoisie. All their criminal activities stemmed from their reactionary class nature. Our Party's struggle against the "gang of four" is a continuation of the protracted struggle waged by the Chinese Communist Party and the masses of revolutionary people under its leadership against the Kuomintang reactionaries, a continuation of the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie and a continuation of the struggle between Marxism and revisionism.

The resolution said that the struggle between our Party and the Wang-Chang-Chiang-Yao anti-Party clique is the 11th major struggle between the two lines in the history of our Party. The great victory won by our Party in this struggle should be attributed to the great leader and teacher Chairman Mao Tsetung, to the wise leader Chairman Hua Kuo-feng, Vice-Chairman Yeh Chien-ying and the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua and to our great Party, great army and great people.

The resolution pointed out that it has been established by a vast amount of evidence collected and verified through investigation that Chang Chun-chiao is a Kuomintang special agent, Chiang Ching a renegade, Yao Wen-yuan an alien class element and Wang Hung-wen a new bourgeois element. The plenary session expressed its greatest revolutionary indignation at the anti-communist, anti-popular and counterrevolutionary crimes of the "gang of four." In accordance with the demand of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities throughout the country and the provisions of the Party Constitution, the plenary session unanimously resolved:

1. To expel the bourgeois careerist, conspirator, counter-revolutionary double-dealer and new bourgeois element Wang Hung-wen from the Party once and for all and dismiss him from all posts both inside and outside the Party;

2. To expel the bourgeois careerist, conspirator, counter-revolutionary double-dealer and Kuomintang special agent Chang Chun-chiao from the Party once and for all and dismiss him from all posts both inside and outside the Party;

3. To expel the bourgeois careerist, conspirator, counter-revolutionary double-dealer and renegade Chiang Ching from the Party once and for all and dismiss her from all posts both inside and outside the Party; and

4. To expel the bourgeois careerist, conspirator, counter-revolutionary double-dealer and alien class element Yao Wen-yuan from the Party once and for all and dismiss him from all posts both inside and outside the Party.

The plenary session fully agreed with the decision of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee to convene the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party of China before the due date and fully approved the preparations made by the Political Bureau of the Central Committee for convening the congress. It unanimously endorsed the agenda for the 11th National Congress of the Party: (1) the political report of the Central Committee; (2) revision of the Constitution of the Communist Party of China and a report on the revision of the Party Constitution; and (3) election of the Central Committee. The plenary session discussed and in general approved the political report of the Central Committee, the report on the revision of the Party Constitution and the draft of the revised Party Constitution. It decided to convene the 11th National Congress of the Party at an appropriate time this year.

The Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee consolidated and carried forward the great victories in smashing the "gang of four" and made full preparations politically, ideologically and organizationally for convening the 11th National Congress of the Party. In accordance with Chairman Mao's teaching about "reliance on the political experience and wisdom of the collective," the plenary session gave full play to democracy. The session proceeded throughout in a warm atmosphere of unity, militancy and liveliness and triumphantly fulfilled its tasks.

The plenary session held that the international situation is developing in a direction favourable to the people of China and the people the world over. We must uphold the principles of proletarian internationalism, firmly implement Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and policies in foreign affairs, strengthen our unity with the international proletariat and the oppressed people and the oppressed nations all over the world, strengthen our unity with the countries of the third world, unite with all countries subjected to aggression, subversion, interference, control and bullying by imperialism and social-imperialism and oppose the hegemonism of the two superpowers, the Soviet Union and the United States. We must strengthen our unity with all genuine Marxist-Leninist Parties and organizations the world over and carry through to the end the struggle against modern revisionism with the Soviet revisionist renegade clique at the core.

The present international and domestic situation is excellent. The plenary session called on the whole Party. the whole army and the people of all nationalities throughout the country to hold high the great banner of Chairman Mao at all times, carry out his behests, rally still more closely round the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua, adhere to the Party's basic line, persevere in continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat, implement the strategic policy decision of grasping the key link in running the country well, carry the great struggle to expose and criticize the "gang of four" through to the end, grasp revolution, promote production and other work and preparedness against war, deepen the mass movements to learn from Taching in industry and from Tachai in agriculture, from Lei Feng and from the "Hard-Boned 6th Company" of the People's Liberation Army, and greet the convocation of the 11th National Congress of the Party with new achievements in socialist revolution and socialist construction!

Unite to win still greater victories!

(NO. 31 JULY 29, 1977)