Forty-six years have elapsed since the founding of the great, glorious and correct Communist Party of China. We commemorate this glorious day with great pride at a time when the great proletarian cultural revolution has won tremendous victories.

Under the guidance of the great leader Chairman Mao, the Chinese Communist Party, by heroic struggle, bloodshed and sacrifices, has turned the scarred and battered and poor and backward semi-feudal, semi-colonial old China into a great, prosperous and vigorous socialist state. Holding high the great banner of proletarian revolution and of internationalism in the struggle against imperialism, modern revisionism and the reactionaries of all countries, our Party has defended Marxism-Leninism and given powerful support to the revolutionary movements of all peoples, thereby becoming the mainstay of the international communist movement.

Why has the Chinese Communist Party been able to win such great victories? It is because our Party was founded and trained by the great leader Chairman Mao himself and built up in accordance with the revolutionary theory and style of Mao Tse-tung's thought.

Mao Tse-tung's thought marks a new stage in the development of Marxism. In the present era, if we depart from Mao Tse-tung's thought, we will be departing from the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism and it will be impossible to build a genuine Marxist-Leninist political party. It is precisely Mao Tse-tung's thought which has illuminated the road for our Party's victorious advance. All our Party's victories are great victories of Mao Tse-tung's thought.

During the stage of democratic revolution, Chairman Mao blazed the trail for the Chinese revolution by criticizing and repudiating Right and "Left" opportunism and by integrating Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution. Led by Chairman Mao, our Party held high the great banner of armed struggle, encircled the cities from the rural areas and finally defeated Japanese imperialism and U.S. imperialism and its lackeys, the Chiang Kai-shek reactionaries, after decades of bloody war and founded the state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. "The development, consolidation and Bolshevization of our Party have proceeded in the midst of revolutionary wars; without armed struggle the Communist Party would assuredly not be what it is today."

After the victory of the democratic revolution, Right opportunists in the Party spread all sorts of fallacies and tried to halt the revolution and put capitalism into practice. At that vital moment, Chairman Mao set the course right by criticizing and repudiating the Right opportunist line and led our Party in advancing from the democratic revolution to the socialist revolution without interruption. In just a few short years, the 500 million peasants were guided on to the broad road of socialist collectivization, and the socialist transformation of capitalist industry and commerce and the handicrafts was basically completed.

With the coming to power of the Khrushchov clique of renegades in the Soviet Union, the Soviet Communist Party which had been founded by Lenin himself changed into a revisionist party and the first socialist state became a state under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. This has also occurred in a number of other socialist countries.

After the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production was in the main completed in our country, an undercurrent for the restoration of capitalism also occurred in our Party. How could our country avoid changing political colour? How could our Party avoid becoming a revisionist party? These were the most important questions, questions of the greatest concern, put to us by the proletariat and revolutionary people throughout the world. The great Chinese Communist Party is able to answer these questions and solve the problems involved. This is because we have our leader of genius Chairman Mao and we have the invincible thought of Mao Tse-tung.

When the seas are in turmoil, heroes show their true mettle. Our great leader Chairman Mao has scientifically summarized the experience of the class struggle in our socialist society, the historical experience of the dictatorship of the world proletariat, and particularly the deplorable and painful lessons of the usurpation of the leadership of the Party and state by the Khrushchov revisionist clique, and has advanced an overall set of theories and policies for preventing our Party and country from changing political colour.

Chairman Mao has expounded the theory of classes, class contradictions and class struggle in socialist society in a comprehensive, systematic and scientific way. He pointed out: "During this [socialist] historical stage, classes, class contradictions and class struggle continue to exist, the struggle between the road of socialism and the road of capitalism goes on and the danger of a capitalist restoration remains. It is necessary to recognize the protracted and complex nature of this struggle. It is necessary to heighten our vigilance. It is necessary to undertake socialist education. It is necessary to have a correct understanding of the problems of class contradictions and class struggle and to handle them correctly, to distinguish between the contradictions between the enemy and ourselves on the one hand and those among the people on the other and to handle them correctly. Otherwise a socialist country like ours will turn into its opposite, it will degenerate, and there will be a comeback."

In order to prevent the usurpation of the Party leadership by revisionism and the restoration of capitalism, Chairman Mao urged that class struggle be carried out in a deep and comprehensive way throughout the Party and the country and that the three great revolutionary movements [class struggle, the struggle for production, and scientific experimentation] be unfolded. He advocated the socialist education movement and the reorganization of the revolutionary class ranks in order to repulse wild attacks by the capitalist and feudal forces. He advocated the cultivation and training of tens of millions of successors to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat in the storms and waves of class struggle.

In the last few years, Chairman Mao has further developed the theory of making revolution under conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat. He pointed out that the revolution's main target under this dictatorship is the handful of Party people in authority taking the capitalist road. The theory, line, principles and policies formulated by Chairman Mao for the great proletarian cultural revolution and a series of his other writings and directives constitute a milestone in the development of Marxism. They indicate that Marxism has developed to a completely new stage - the stage of Mao Tse-tung's thought.

The great proletarian cultural revolution initiated and led by Chairman Mao himself is a great revolution aimed at solving the problem of preventing the dictatorship of the proletariat from turning into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, the problem of preventing the proletarian political party from degenerating into a revisionist political party.

The most striking characteristic of class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat is that the class enemies strive to usurp Party and government leadership through the handful of people in authority taking the capitalist road who have sneaked into our Party, and through them to change the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and change the Communist Party into a revisionist party. The handful of Party people in authority taking the capitalist road are the most dangerous enemy. It is possible to prevent our country and our Party from changing political colour only by launching the great proletarian cultural revolution, overthrowing the handful of Party people in authority taking the capitalist road, eliminating their pernicious influence within the Party and state organs, actively smashing bourgeois ideology and fostering proletarian ideology, and establishing the absolute authority of Mao Tse-tung's thought in the whole Party. Only by carrying out the mass movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution can our Party develop, grow stronger and become consolidated in the new stage of the socialist revolution. This is a great truth.

The top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road, who was exposed by the revolutionary masses during the great proletarian cultural revolution, has all along been opposed to the great, invincible thought of Mao Tse-tung and has been trying with might and main to change our Party into a revisionist party, a bourgeois party.

During the years when the War of Resistance Against Japan was raging, this top Party person indulged in empty talk about "self-cultivation" of Communists while making no mention of armed struggle or the seizure of political power. After the victory of the anti-Japanese war, he openly preached the parliamentary road, urging our Party to turn its army over to the Kuomintang and to become "officials" in the Kuomintang parliament and reactionary government. If we had followed his advice, our Party would have degenerated into a revisionist party like that of Thorez or Togliatti and become a tool in the pay of the bourgeoisie.

After nationwide victory, he went all out in publicizing the theory that "exploitation has its merits." He talked loudly about "allowing the capitalists to exist and develop for several decades more" and advocated the vigorous development of the "three horses, one plough and one cart" type of rich-peasant economy, in a vain bid to build a capitalist society in China. In order to enforce this reactionary political line, he shamelessly urged Party members to take the lead in hiring labour and in exploiting others. He talked such nonsense as: "Those who exploit can still be socialists," Party members who become rich peasants can "retain their Party membership," "there is no harm if there are 10,000 rich-peasant Party members in northeast China" and "the Party regulations and constitution permit individual farming and hiring of hands, and it is dogmatic to forbid exploitation."

This was out-and-out betrayal of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung's thought. It is clearly stipulated in our Party's general programme that "the Communist Party of China is the vanguard of the Chinese working class" and that its aim is to "uproot the system of exploitation" in China and "the achievement of . . . communism." If rich peasants and other exploiters were eligible for Party membership and Party members took the lead in exploiting others, as the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road urged, then would not our Party become a party of rich peasants and the exploiting classes? There have never been "regulations and a constitution" of a proletarian political party which permit its members to hire hands and exploit others. Only the "regulations and constitution" of bourgeois political parties permit their members to do so.

When the socialist transformation of the ownership of the means of production in China was basically completed, this top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road talked a lot about the dying out of class struggle. He alleged that "domestically, the major class struggle has basically come to an end" and that "the question of which will win, socialism or capitalism, has now been settled." Like Khrushchov, he attempted to turn the Communist Party into a "party of the entire people." He advocated pulling a number of representatives of the bourgeoisie into the Party and openly declared that if capitalists "joined the Party, it would be all the better." He also said that "the most important task of the state is to organize the life of society" and that "the main task of the Party is to expand the productive forces at the quickest possible rate."

The "party of the entire people" is pure nonsense aimed at deceiving people. Like the state, a political party is an instrument of class struggle. As long as the Communist Party exists, it cannot possibly be of the entire people. A so-called party of the entire people is in fact an out-and-out bourgeois political party. The central task of the Communist Party can only be to engage in class struggle, enforce the dictatorship of the proletariat and strengthen it. Otherwise, it is not a genuine Communist Party. Any talk of "organizing the life of society" or "expanding the productive forces," while negating the class nature of the state and society, is just a fraud of the old-line revisionists. These ideas of the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road are the same as what Khrushchov advertised: to place "the economic and production problems . . . at the centre of the activities of the Party organizations" and make them "the cornerstone of all their work." If we acted in this way, then our Marxist-Leninist Party would surely become a revisionist party as in the Soviet Union and all of China would change colour.

During the great proletarian cultural revolution, personally initiated and led by Chairman Mao, we have exposed and overthrown the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road, smashed the counter-revolutionary revisionist line he pursued and shattered his scheme to turn the dictatorship of the proletariat into a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and to transform our Party into a revisionist party. This is a great victory for Mao Tse-tung's thought, a great victory for Party-building which takes Mao Tse-tung's thought as its guide.

Our Party had the fortitude and courage to launch the great proletarian cultural revolution and has stood the stern tests of this great movement. This is eloquent proof that our Party is the strongest Marxist-Leninist Party at the highest level.

Chairman Mao teaches us: "The supersession of the old by the new is a general, eternal and inviolable law of the universe." Through the great proletarian cultural revolution, we have got rid of the handful of Party people in authority taking the capitalist road, the masses of Party members have tempered themselves in the revolutionary fire, and new blood has been infused into the Party. This has made our Party healthier and more vigorous and given it greater fighting strength. To consolidate our Party in the mass movement of the great proletarian cultural revolution marks a new era in the building of a proletarian political party.

The great proletarian cultural revolution has purified the proletarian headquarters and greatly strengthened Party leadership. The handful of Party people in authority taking the capitalist road declared that this revolution meant "discarding Party leadership." This is a complete calumny. This revolution has been carried out under the direct leadership of the Central Committee of the Party headed by the great leader Chairman Mao. This is the strongest and greatest Party leadership. What the handful of Party people in authority taking the capitalist road meant by "Party leadership" was their issuing orders and giving commands. That is absolutely impermissible! The great proletarian cultural revolution is aimed precisely at dismissing them from office, seizing power from them and overthrowing their "leadership."

The great proletarian cultural revolution has proved that the vast majority of our Party members are good or comparatively good. Those persons in authority taking the capitalist road who sneaked into the Party are just a handful. The vast majority of Party members are resolute in following Chairman Mao's teachings, in taking the side of Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line and in struggling against that handful. This is the mainstream and the most fundamental fact.

In commemorating the 46th anniversary of the founding of the Party, the whole Party and the people throughout the country should respond warmly to the call of Comrade Lin Piao, the close comrade-in-arms of Chairman Mao, to bring about a new upsurge in the creative study and application of Chairman Mao's works.

Comrade Lin Piao holds highest the red banner of Mao Tse-tung's thought, studies Chairman Mao's works with the best results and applies them most effectively. For several decades, he has consistently carried out Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line most faithfully, firmly and thoroughly. The method advocated by Comrade Lin Piao of studying Chairman Mao's works with specific problems in mind, studying and applying his works in a creative way, combining study with application, studying first what must be urgently applied so as to get quick results, and of striving hard to apply what one is studying has proved effective and universally suitable and should be further popularized throughout the country. In the fires of the great proletarian cultural revolution, every member of the Communist Party should use Mao Tse-tung's thought to remould himself, make great effort to destroy the bourgeois world outlook and establish the proletarian world outlook, eliminate self-interest and foster devotion to the public interest, and establish in his mind the absolute authority of Mao Tse-tung's thought. We should resolutely carry out everything that conforms to Mao Tse-tung's thought, and resolutely resist and oppose anything that runs counter to Mao Tse-tung's thought, so as thoroughly to repudiate and smash the landlord and bourgeois slavishness advocated by the top Party person in authority taking the capitalist road. Proletarian revolutionaries who have not yet joined the Party should set still stricter demands on themselves, take Mao Tse-tung's thought as their guide at all times, constantly remould their ideology and make progress, and strive to join the ranks of the Chinese Communist Party led by Chairman Mao.

In commemorating the Party's 46th anniversary, every Communist Party member should gain a deeper understanding and a better grasp of the theories and policies concerning the great proletarian cultural revolution advanced by Chairman Mao, modestly learn from the masses, keep in close contact with them and, with them, carry this revolution through to the end. We should keep firmly to the general orientation of the struggle, thoroughly criticize and repudiate the handful of top Party persons in authority taking the capitalist road, eliminate their pernicious influence on all fronts, actively promote the great alliance of proletarian revolutionaries and the revolutionary "three-in-one" combination, carry out the tasks of struggle, criticism and transformation effectively in our organizations; observe proletarian revolutionary discipline and make serious efforts to carry out the policy of "taking firm hold of the revolution and promoting production." Communist Party members should play a leading role and set examples in all these aspects. Those Party members who were deceived by the bourgeois reactionary line, duped by the book on "self-cultivation" and joined conservative organizations, should quickly return to Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line, draw lessons from all this and strive to be Communists worthy of the name.

In commemorating the Party's 46th anniversary, every Communist Party member should firmly bear in mind Chairman Mao's teachings, always maintain the Party's style of plain living and hard work, and guard against attacks by the sugar-coated bullets of the bourgeoisie. Among the handful of Party people in authority taking the capitalist road who were exposed in the great cultural revolution, there are some who degenerated precisely because they could not resist corruption by bourgeois ideology. The overturning of the chariot in front should serve as a warning for the chariot behind. Party members holding leading positions in revolutionary committees and revolutionary mass organizations at all levels in particular should heighten their vigilance because once in power, their status has changed and they are confronted with new, rigorous tests and are under the constant attack of the sugarcoated bullets of bourgeois ideology.

We are proud beyond measure to have the greatest leader of genius like Chairman Mao. Comrade Mao Tse-tung is the greatest Marxist-Leninist of the present era. In the past 46 years, he has led our Party in defeating one enemy after another and bypassing one hidden shoal after another, and built our Party into a fully mature Marxist-Leninist Party. It is the highest honour for the entire Party and the greatest happiness for the entire Party and the people of the whole country that our Party has a great leader like Chairman Mao. We are tremendously proud to be members of the great Chinese Communist Party. Every member should value this honoured title, live up to Chairman Mao's expectations of us, make new contributions to the people, and be a true Communist Party member.

Long live the great, glorious and correct Chinese Communist Party!

Long live the invincible thought of Mao Tse-tung!

Long live Chairman Mao, the great teacher, leader, supreme commander and helmsman!

(Hongqi editorial No. 11, 1967)