The Third Plenary Session of the 12th Party Central Committee at work in the Great Hall of the People

Broad reforms of the economic structure that focus on cities were adopted last week by the Third Plenary Session of the 12th Party Central Committee.

The one-day session was held on October 20 after a six-day preparatory meeting. The principal order of business was the unanimous adoption of an economic reform decision made by the Party Central Committee. By combining basic Marxist principles with China's current situation, the decision explains the necessity and urgency of speeding up the reforms of the country's entire economic structure, with special attention devoted to the urban economy. The document adopted by the session defines the nature, sets the orientation and tasks and outlines the policies and principles of the reforms.

The second major action taken was the scheduling of a national conference of Party delegates next September in accordance with Article 12 of the Party Constitution. Two items will be on the agenda: (1) discussion and adoption of the proposals on the essentials of the Seventh Five-Year Plan for China's economic and social development, and (2) election of additional members of the Party Central Committee, and other organizational matters.

About 1,000 delegates will attend the national conference. They will include members and alternate members of the Party Central Committee and members of the Central Advisory Commission and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Delegates will also include principal leaders of the provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, Military Commands as well as Party, government, military and mass organizations at the central level who are not members of the abovementioned committee or commissions, and Party members - especially young and middle-aged ones - who have made major contributions to work in various fields since the 12th Party Congress (in September 1982) will also participate in the conference. All the delegates will have the right to vote and to elect.

Last week's Third Plenary Session of the 12th Party Central Committee was attended by 321 Party Central Committee members and alternate members. Another 297 delegates were present as non-voting members, including members of the Central Advisory Commission and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and major leaders from relevant local and central departments. The session was chaired by Hu Yaobang, Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Ziyang, Li Xiannian and Chen Yun, all members of the Standing Committee of the Party Central Committee's Political Bureau. Ye Jianying, also member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau, was absent due to illness.

The session calls on the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all China's nationalities to study conscientiously the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Reform of the Economic Structure" and work seriously and effectively, with full confidence and courage, to make the reform successful in an all-round way, and strive for a new and better situation for socialist modernization.