This is a speech made by Comrade Hu Yao-bang, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, at the closing session of the Second National Congress of the Chinese Scientific and Technical Association on March 23, 1980. For the news report on the congress, see page 3 in our last issue. - Ed.

EXACTLY two years ago, we called a national science conference here in Beijing. Since then our scientific research work has yielded some new fruitful results and there has been a further expansion of our contingent of scientists and technicians. Our work in popularizing science has been reactivated and the Party and government are giving better leadership to the work in science and technology.

But it must also be admitted that so far we have failed to bring about an upsurge in the movement to love and study science on a nationwide scale.

Why is this?

We somewhat underestimated the adverse effects of a decade of sabotage by Lin Biao and the gang of four; we were somewhat overambitious and overanxious in regard to the process of the four modernizations considering how large our country is, with more than 900 million people who have long been poor and backward. This also applies to our plan for the pace of development of our scientific undertakings. It is precisely with a view to effectively changing this state of affairs that we have advanced the policy of readjusting, restructuring, consolidating and improving the national economy.

While continuing to eliminate the vestiges of power and the pernicious ideological influence of Lin Biao and the gang of four, and continuing to implement the various Party policies in a big way, we have firmly shifted the focus of the work of the whole Party on to the four modernizations. In agriculture we have succeeded in reaping good harvests for several years on end. The policy of readjusting, restructuring, consolidating and improving the national economy has begun to make its strength felt. The Party's political, ideological and organizational lines have won widespread, popular support. Throughout the country the political situation of stability and unity and liveliness is becoming more consolidated and is being steadily developed. In short, our country has put an end to the serious turmoil caused by Lin Biao and the gang of four in the ten years when they had their way and it is heading for the four modernizations under Party leadership, in an orderly way and with great confidence.

Not long ago, our Party held the Fifth Plenary Session of its 11th Central Committee in order to ensure that the political situation of stability and unity will continue to consolidate and develop and guarantee the continuity and steadiness of the line, principles, policies and the collective leadership of the Party for a long period of time. In this way, the four modernizations programme will achieve a decisive victory in the 1980s.

Thus comrades can see what difficult circumstances we came through in the last few years. The contradictions we faced were multifarious and complex and many problems were waiting for solution. All we could do was first to tackle and solve the most urgent among these weighty problems, with the result that other equally important problems had to be put off for the time being. This is the main reason why some important issues in our scientific research and education that called for immediate solution have not been solved to this day.

Science is a tremendous force that propels history forward. Science is being transformed with increasing rapidity into an enormous productive force. Without advanced science and technology, there can be no four modernizations. Mastery of the most advanced contemporary science and technology is the fundamental issue that affects our country's future. We must, through down-to-earth organizational work, turn the Party's great call for a march on science into a real, voluntary action of the millions, into part of their daily life.

Some people call us the pragmatic faction. This is of course wrong. In the first place, our Party today is not and should not be divided into factions; it is an advanced, fighting collective, with solidarity and unity. Secondly, our Party, while taking a practical approach to problems, has always kept to our great ideal. We Communists should be men with both great ideals and the ability to take feasible measures to translate our ideals into reality.

What measures should be taken to develop our scientific undertakings?

The first important one is to form with great resolve a contingent of truly socialist-minded, competent cadres with expertise.

Is there such a contingent of cadres? We now have a contingent of cadres 18 million strong. But quite a number of them are either not qualified or not well qualified. One, they are not qualified or not well qualified politically; two, not qualified or not well qualified in ability. They either do not fully understand the line, principles and policies of the Party or do not have professional knowledge and competence. The way to solve this problem is twofold.

One is to promote outstanding people of talent with professional knowledge and competence and loyal to the cause of socialism to leading posts. New China has brought up several million people with a secondary technical school education and above. Most of them, now in the prime of life, have undergone 10 to 20 years of tempering and testing and raised their political and vocational level to a considerable extent. Many among them are even better qualified than some of the leading cadres we have now. But the great majority have not been promoted to responsible posts and so their ability has not yet been brought into full play.

Another is to organize all cadres to conscientiously study the science, technology and knowledge of management related to their own work. Chairman Mao in his work On the People's Democratic Dictatorship written in 1949 had said: "The serious task of economic construction lies before us. We shall soon put aside some of the things we know well and be compelled to do things we don't know well. This means difficulties." "We must overcome difficulties, we must learn what we do not know.

We must learn to do economic work from all who know how, no matter who they are. We must esteem them as teachers, learning from them respectfully and conscientiously. We must not pretend to know when we do not know. We must not put on bureaucratic airs. If we dig into a subject for several months, for a year or two, for three or five years, we shall eventually master it."

Thousands upon thousands of cadres warmly responded to this call made by Chairman Mao; they learnt well, and this made it possible for us to win great victories in socialist transformation and socialist construction. That was the first time in our Party history that we studied anew. The situation now confronting us is very much like the situation at that time, except that our present task is even heavier and more urgent. We will follow Chairman Mao's teaching in this regard and, for the second time in our Party history, start another movement to study things anew, and do so on an even greater scale. History will once again prove that the vast number of our cadres are able to master things which they do not now understand!