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1978
Special> 30 Years of Reform and Opening Up> Beijing Review Archives> 1978
UPDATED: November 29, 2008
Communique of the Third Plenary Session Of the 11th Central Committee of The Communist Party of China
(Adopted on December 22, 1978)
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The plenary session unanimously endorsed the policy decision put forward by Comrade Hua Kuo-feng on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on shifting the emphasis of our Party's work and the attention of the people of the whole country to socialist modernization.

The session thoroughly discussed questions in agriculture and held that the whole Party should concentrate its main energy and efforts on advancing agriculture as fast as possible. It agreed to distribute to the provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions for discussion and trial use the Decisions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Some Questions Concerning the Acceleration of Agricultural Development (Draft) and the Regulations on the Work in the Rural People's Communes (Draft for Trial Use). It discussed arrangements for the national economic plans for 1979 and 1980 and approved them in principle.

The session seriously discussed some major political events which occurred during the Great Cultural Revolution and certain historical questions left over from an earlier period. It decided to cancel the erroneous documents issued by the Central Committee in regard to the movement "to oppose the Right deviationist wind to reverse correct verdicts" and the Tien An Men events and also examined and corrected the erroneous conclusions which had been adopted on Peng Teh-huai, Tao Chu, Po I-po, Yang Shang-kun and other comrades.

The plenary session elected Comrade Chen Yun an additional Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee, elected Comrades Teng Ying-chao, Hu Yao-pang and Wang Chen additional Members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, and elected a 100-member Central Commission for Inspecting Discipline headed by Comrade Chen Yun.

The session highly evaluated the discussion of whether practice is the sole criterion for testing truth, noting that this is of far-reaching historic significance in encouraging comrades of the whole Party and the people of the whole country to emancipate their minds and follow the correct ideological line.

The session emphatically pointed out: Comrade Mao Tsetung was a great Marxist. The lofty task of the Party Central Committee on the theoretical front is to lead and educate the whole Party and the people of the whole country to recognize Comrade Mao Tsetung's great feats in a historical and scientific perspective, comprehensively and correctly grasp the scientific system of Mao Tsetung Thought and integrate the universal principles of Marxism Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought with the concrete practice of socialist modernization and develop it under the new historical conditions.

Basing itself on the experience and lessons drawn from the history of our Party, the plenary session decided to improve the practice of democratic centralism within the Party, to amplify the Party rules and regulations and to enforce strict discipline in the Party. The Party members' right to make criticisms within the Party concerning the leadership at higher levels, up to Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, must be guaranteed and any practice that does not conform to the Party's democratic centralism and the principle of collective leadership should be resolutely corrected.

THE 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held its third plenary session in Peking between December 18 and 22, 1978. It was attended by 169 Members and 112 Alternate Members of the Central Committee. Hua Kuo-feng, Chairman of the C.P.C. Central Committee, and Yeh Chien-ying, Teng Hsiaoping, Li Hsien-nien, Chen Yun and Wang Tunghsing, Vice-Chairmen, were present. Comrade Hua Kuo-feng presided over the session and made important speeches.

A central working conference held prior to the session made full preparations for it.

The plenary session decided that, since the work of the Central Committee following its second plenary session had proceeded smoothly and the large-scale nationwide mass movement to expose and criticize Lin Piao and the "gang of four" had in the main been completed victoriously, the stress of the Party's work should shift to socialist modernization as of 1979. The plenary session discussed the international situation and the handling of foreign affairs, reaching the view that the foreign policy of the Party and the government was correct and successful. The plenary session also discussed the question of how to speed the growth of agricultural production and arrangements for the national economic plans for 1979 and 1980 and adopted relevant documents in principle. The plenary session examined and solved a number of important questions left over from history and the question of the contributions and faults, the correctness and incorrectness of some important leaders. In order to meet the needs of socialist modernization, the plenary session decided to strengthen democracy in Party life and in the political life of the state, put forward in explicit terms the Party's ideological line, strengthen the Party's leading organs and set up a Central Commission for Inspecting Discipline. The plenary session elected Comrade Chen Yun an additional Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee, and elected Comrades Teng Ying-chao, Hu Yao-pang and Wang Chen additional Members of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. In view of the changed situation in Party life since the llth National Congress of the Party and current urgent needs in Party work, the plenary session decided, in a provisional measure, to add nine Members to the Central Committee-- Comrades Huang Kecheng, Sung Jen-chiung, Hu Chiao-mu, Hsi Chung-hsun, Wang Jen-chung, Huang Huoching, Chen Tsai-tao, Han Kuang and Chou Hui --subject to future confirmation by the 12th National Congress of the Party. The plenary session elected Comrade Chen Yun First Secretary of the Central Commission for Inspecting Discipline, Comrade Teng Ying-chao Second Secretary, Comrade Hu Yao-pang Third Secretary, Comrade Huang Ke-cheng Permanent Secretary, and Wang Ho-shou and other comrades Deputy Secretaries. Permanent members and members of the commission were also elected.

plenary session holds that this session and the earlier central working conference are of great importance in our Party's history. Throughout the two meetings, the participants emancipated their thinking on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and spoke freely. They fully revived and brought into full play inner-Party democracy and the Party's fine styles of seeking truth from facts, the mass line, and criticism and self-criticism, and enhanced their unity. The meetings truly brought about "a political situation in which we have both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom, both unity of will and personal ease of mind and liveliness," as Comrade Mao Tsetung advocated. The plenary session decided to spread this atmosphere throughout the Party and the army and among the people of all nationalities in our country.

(l)

The plenary session expresses satisfaction with the work of the Central Committee in the past ten months since the second plenary session. There has been great victory in the momentous nationwide political revolution to expose and repudiate Lin Piao and the "gang of four"; there has been additional restoration and growth of the national economy; there is political stability and unity throughout the country; and significant progress has been made with regard to our foreign policy. All this provides good conditions for the whole Party to shift the emphasis of its work to socialist modernization.

The session points out that our country has achieved new and important successes in developing the international united front against hegemonism and in developing friendly relations with countries in all parts of the world. The visits made by our state leaders this year to Korea, Romania, Yugoslavia, Kampuchea, Iran, Burma, Nepal, the Philippines, Bangladesh, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore and many other countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, the conclusion of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty and the completion of the negotiations for the normalization of relations between China and the United States are important contributions to peace in Asia and the world as a whole. But the grave danger of war still exists. We must strengthen our national defence, and be prepared to repulse at any moment aggressors from any direction. The plenary session holds that the normalization of relations between China and the United States further places before us the prospect of the return of our sacred territory Taiwan to the embrace of our mother- land and the accomplishment of the great cause of reunification. The plenary session expresses welcome to Taiwan compatriots, compatriots in Hongkong and Macao and overseas Chinese, as patriots belonging to one family, to continue making joint and positive contributions to the reunification and construction of their motherland.

plenary session unanimously endorsed the policy decision put forward by Comrade Hua Kuo-feng on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee that, to meet the developments at home and abroad, now is an appropriate time to take the decision to close the large-scale nationwide mass movement to expose and criticize Lin Piao and the "gang of four" and to shift the emphasis of our Party's work and the attention of the people of the whole country to socialist modernization. This is of major significance for fulfilment of the three-year and eight-year programmes for the development of the national economy and the outline for 23 years, for the modernization of agriculture, industry, national defence and science and technology and for the consolidation of the dictatorship of the proletariat in our country. The general task put forward by our Party for the new period reflects the demands of history and the people's aspirations and represents their fundamental interests. Whether or not we can carry this general task to completion, speed socialist modernization and on the basis of a rapid growth in production improve the people's living standards significantly and strengthen national defence -- this is a major issue which is of paramount concern to all our people and of great significance to the

(2)

In preparing for the great task of socialist modernization, the session reviewed the experience and lessons of economic construction since the founding of the People's Republic. The session holds that the fundamental policy put forth in the report On the Ten Major Relationships which Comrade Mao Tsetung made in 1956, summing up China's experience in economic construction, is an objective reflection of economic law and also an important guarantee for the political stability of society. This report still is significant for guidance today. It has been shown in practice that whenever we maintain the society's necessary political stability and work according to objective economic law, our national economy advances steadily and at a high speed; otherwise, our national economy develops slowly or even stagnates and falls back. While we have achieved political stability and unity and are restoring and adhering to the economic policies that proved effective over a long time, we are now, in the light of the new historical conditions and practical experience, adopting a number of major new economic measures, conscientiously transforming the system and methods of economic management, actively expanding economic co-operation on terms of equality and mutual benefit with other countries on the basis of self-reliance, striving to adopt the world's advanced technologies and equipment and greatly strengthening scientific and educational work to meet the needs of modernization. Therefore, there can be no doubt that our country's economic construction is bound to advance rapidly and steadily once again.

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