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1980s
Special> CPC Celebrates 90th Anniversary 1921-2011> Previous Covers> 1980s
UPDATED: July 1, 2011 NO. 37, 1982
Create a New Situation in All Fields of Socialist Modernization
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The "Left" mistakes made before and during the "cultural revolution" had a deep and extensive influence and caused serious damage. While thoroughly exposing and repudiating the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary cliques, we found it necessary to make a clean sweep of all such "Left" mistakes. This unavoidably involved the mistakes made by Comrade Mao Zedong in his later years. Comrade Mao Zedong's contributions to the Chinese revolution were great and indelible; that is why over long years he enjoyed enormous prestige in the Party and among the people and will continue to do so in the years to come. Whether we had the Marxist courage to conduct self-criticism of our Party's mistakes, including those made by Comrade Mao Zedong, and whether we could conduct such self-criticism correctly and in a historical perspective constituted the key issue deciding whether things could be set right. During the two years before the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee, the question of rights and wrongs in the Party's guiding ideology was not clarified as it should have been and the work of setting things to rights proceeded haltingly; this was because in the early days after the smashing of the Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique, our Party was not ideologically prepared for an overall liquidation of the "Left" mistakes and also because the principal leading comrade in the Central Committee at the time continued to make "Left" mistakes on a series of important issues. The 11th Party Congress announced the end of the "cultural revolution" and reaffirmed the task of building a modern and powerful socialist state, thus playing a positive role in mobilizing the masses. However, the political report to the 11th Party Congress still approved of the erroneous theories, policies and slogans of the "cultural revolution," thus exerting a negative influence by seriously obstructing our effort to set things right. The historic service of the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee was precisely that it thoroughly shattered the heavy chains imposed by the protracted "Left" mistakes, set right the guiding ideology of the Party and reaffirmed the Marxist ideological, political and organizational lines. Subsequently, our Party thoroughly summed up its historical experience in all spheres and scientifically explained numerous questions encountered in practical work, which concerned theory and policy in the building of socialism. The Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China adopted in June 1981 by the Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee marked the successful conclusion of our work in setting the Party's guiding ideology to rights. Drawing on the collective wisdom of the broad sections of cadres and masses, our Party subjected the protracted "Left" mistakes and Comrade Mao Zedong's mistakes in his later years to scientific analysis and criticism, while firmly upholding the fine traditions developed by the Party during long years of struggle, safeguarding the scientific truth of Mao Zedong Thought and affirming Comrade Mao Zedong's historical role. This helped not only to differentiate right from wrong but also to strengthen unity in our ranks, thus providing a basic guarantee for the healthy development of our revolution and construction.

Since the Third Plenary Session, our Party has made every effort to conform to objective reality in formulating and implementing a series of principles and policies and to avoid focusing on the criticism of one erroneous tendency to the neglect of another. In times of historic change, people are apt to think one-sidedly because of the profound influence of old ideas and customs and because of lack of experience in dealing with new things, plus the effect of other social and political factors. In recent years, mistaken ideas representing different tendencies have arisen among sections of the Party members and cadres with regard to such major questions of principle as the Party's policy of mental emancipation, the assessment of Comrade Mao Zedong and Mao Zedong Thought and the appraisal of class struggle at the present stage of socialism. Unable to free themselves completely from the influence of the former "Left" mistakes, some comrades wanted to return, wittingly or unwittingly, to the old track of "taking class struggle as the key link." Others, deviating from the Marxist path, went so far as to doubt or even negate the leadership of the Party and the socialist road. On such major questions of principle, our Party has all along taken a firm stand and waged timely and appropriate ideological struggles on two fronts - against both the "Left" and the Right deviations. On the one hand, in its effort to prevent the recurrence of mistakes that would lead to the broadening of the scope of class struggle, the Central Committee has systematically liquidated the erroneous theory of "continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" put forth during the "cultural revolution," a theory that envisaged a continuing "revolution whereby one class overthrows another," and it has vigorously developed socialist democracy and a socialist legal system and restored and expanded our united front work. On the other hand, the Party has reiterated the four cardinal principles centring on upholding the leadership of the Party [1], criticized and curbed the tendency towards bourgeois liberalism and resolutely cracked down on all types of criminal activity that disrupt socialist construction. In handling various practical problems, we have done our best to act in the scientific and all-sided way as required by Marxism. This has enabled us to deal fairly successfully and relatively speedily with many complex ideological problems and social and political contradictions.

A jumble of problems accumulated during the 10 years of domestic turmoil. Many things that needed to be done or needed to be reformed claimed our attention. Moreover, the progress of new work inevitably gives rise to new problems. The Party therefore had to draw up a list of priorities, do its work systematically and solve problems step by step.

Take economic work for example. The Third Plenary Session first grasped the link of agriculture, laying emphasis on overcoming the long-standing "Left" mistakes in the guidelines in this sphere. This involved restoring and expanding the power of decision of the rural people's communes and their production brigades and teams; restoring the private plots, family and collective sideline production and village fairs; and gradually introducing, in various-forms, the system of responsibility for production in which payment is linked to output. At the same time, the state purchasing prices of grain and some other agricultural products were raised; then the policies providing for a diversified economy were formulated. As a result marked changes have taken place in agriculture, in which vigorous growth has replaced stagnation. For many years, the peasants have not been so happy as they are today. This has done much to start a turn for the better in the whole economic and indeed the whole political situation.

Following the improvement in agriculture, we began to readjust the structure of industry, laying emphasis on remedying the disproportion between light and heavy industries and on readjusting the service orientation of heavy industry. The result has been a rapid expansion of light industry. At the same time, we readjusted the ratio between accumulation and consumption and reduced the scale of capital construction which had been over-extended. This has resulted in improved living standards for the people as well as better proportions between the various branches of the national economy. In other fields, we have, by and large, used the same method - that of tackling the key problem first to facilitate the solution of the rest.

In the final analysis, our Party has been successful in the above efforts because it has adhered to the scientific Marxist principles of combining theory with practice and of recognizing the people as the makers of history. The facts are plain enough. The Party firmly trusts the people, relies on them and acts in compliance with their wishes and the trend of historical development. With the crushing of the Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique, the people placed high hopes on the Party. They demanded that wrongs be set right, that stability and unity be achieved, that efforts be concentrated on socialist modernization and that the level of our country's socialist material and spiritual civilization be raised. It is by crystallizing the will of the people and formulating correct lines, principles and policies that the Party has been able to bring the cause of socialism in our country back on to the sound path. The people's trust in the Party and their support for it are the key to the continuous success of our cause.

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