Unite and Look Forward

Comrades and friends!

The decisions of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Party were adopted after ample and extensive exchanges of views and discussions both prior to and during the session. Its outcome fully testifies to our Party's ability to safeguard and strengthen its unity on the basis of Marxist principles and to the fact that the political life of our Party has now become much healthier.

Some well-intentioned friends at home and abroad have been worried about our Party's ability to achieve complete unity, while a handful of people harbouring evil designs placed their hopes on successfully sowing dissension so as to undermine the unity of our Party. Now, reality has given them a clear answer: No force on earth can break the Chinese Communist Party's strong unity based on Marxist principles.

Comrades and friends!

We, the proletariat, are the class which commands the future, and our Party has lofty ideals and aspirations. The best way for us to celebrate this grand festival, our Party's birthday, is to learn from historical experience and thus unite and look forward, focusing our attention on unresolved problems.

Socialist modernization is a great revolution. We are undertaking this great revolution in a huge oriental nation left economically and culturally backward by ruthless imperialist oppression and plunder. The fact that China entered upon socialism before developed capitalist countries is due to its specific historical conditions, to the correct leadership exercised by our Party and the arduous struggles of the entire people. It represents a development of scientific socialism and is a credit to our Party and the Chinese people. On the other hand, our socialist cause is bound to meet many difficulties arising from our economic and cultural backwardness. This in turn calls for more strenuous and protracted struggle. We are still living under the threat of aggression and sabotage from outside. Therefore, our whole Party, our whole army and our whole people must more actively apply their revolutionary spirit, heighten their revolutionary vigilance and steel their revolutionary will so as to win victory in this great revolution.

We have suffered severe setbacks in our advance to socialism and paid heavily for our errors. However, these errors and setbacks have made us firmer, more experienced, more mindful of our actual conditions, more sober and more powerful. We have learnt much from our reverses and mistakes and shall go on learning more. In this sense, our grievous errors and reverses are but fleeting phenomena. We must not overlook that we have a vast contingent of cadres steeled in struggle, that we have built up a substantial material base, that the whole Party, army and people fervently desire a prosperous motherland, and that we enjoy the superiority of our socialist system. All this and the fact that we now have correct ideological, political and organizational lines, constitute the decisive factor that will apply for a long time to come. There is no doubt whatsoever that our socialist cause and the hundreds of millions of Chinese people have a bright future.

The internal unity of the Party and the Party's unity with the people are the essential condition for the triumph of our cause. While celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, we wish to pay our sincere respects to the workers, peasants and intellectuals who are fighting valiantly on the different fronts, to the glorious People's Liberation Army, the Great Wall of steel that defends our motherland, to the vast numbers of hard-working cadres, to our Party's close aides, the Communist Youth League members who are full of vigour and vitality, and to our fellow-countrymen in Taiwan, Xianggang (Hongkong) and Aomen (Macao) and to Chinese citizens overseas! We wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to all the democratic parties and non-Party personages and friends of all circles who have co-operated with our Party and rendered invaluable support to the people's revolution and to construction.

The unity of the Chinese people with the other peoples of the world is another essential condition for the triumph of our cause. In celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, we wish to express our deep gratitude to all friendly countries which have entered into relations of equality and mutual assistance with us, and to all our foreign friends and comrades who have rendered our Party and people invaluable help.

Let all comrades in the Party and the people of all nationalities in our country unite as one under the great banner of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and work hard to make China a modern and powerful socialist country, which is prosperous, highly democratic and culturally advanced! Let us all strive for the supreme ideal of communism!

(Subheads and boldface are ours.)