In accordance with the strategic decision of the 12th National Congress of the Party on promoting the cultural and ideological progress of our socialist society as well as its material progress, and in light of the guidelines set by the Party's National Conference in 1985 and of the requirements of China's all-round reform, the Sixth Plenary Session of the 12th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has reviewed the achievements made in the past few years in the building of a society that is advanced culturally and ideologically and has studied the problems that have arisen in the process. The Central Committee believes that to ensure the smooth progress of the drive for socialist modernization, it is of great immediate and long-range importance to clarify, in the new situation the guiding principles for China's cultural and ideological development and to improve our work in that area.

I. The Strategic Importance of Building a Socialist Society With an Advanced Culture and Ideology

The overall scheme of China's socialist modernization is as follows: Taking economic development as the key link, we are to continue to reform our economic and political structures and at the same time speed up the country's cultural and ideological progress, making sure that these aspects of our work are co-ordinated and promote each other. From this perspective all our Party comrades should understand the strategic importance of promoting socialist culture and ideology.

Socialist culture and ideology guided by Marxism are important characteristics of a socialist society. During the socialist period, material progress lays the groundwork and furnishes practical experience for cultural and ideological progress, which, in turn, gives intellectual impetus and support to the former and provides a powerful guarantee for its correct orientation. Our success in building socialism depends on our effort to build a society with a socialist culture and ideology.

Thanks to our success in restoring order in all fields, launching all-round reform and achieving material progress since the Third Plenary Session of the Party's 11th Central Committee in December 1978, we have accomplished much in building such a society. Encouraging the emancipation of people's minds, adhering to the ideological line of seeking truth from facts and bringing into full play the scientific spirit and creative vigour of Marxism, our Party has abandoned a series of ossified concepts and raised its understanding of socialism to a new height. Political stability and unity have prevailed throughout the country, democracy and the legal system are being gradually perfected and the initiative of the cadres and masses has increased. Mass activities for promoting cultural and ideological progress are becoming more and more widespread and are yielding much fresh experience. A social climate of respect for knowledge and talents is being fostered, and our educational, scientific and cultural endeavours are thriving. The Party's fine tradition is developing and the work style of its members and general standard of social conduct is improving. These are the main trends. We must recognize, however, that in many ways our work to promote socialist culture and ideology has not been adapted to the needs of socialist modernization, reform and the opening of the country to the outside world. We must acknowledge that we lack adequate understanding of the importance of our work in this area, that we still have some problems to solve regarding the principles guiding it and that both in the Party and in society at large there remain some grievously negative phenomena that will take redoubled effort on our part to eliminate. Unless we have an overall view of how things stand in our work to promote socialist culture and ideology, and unless we fully understand that it is urgent and will be of long duration, we shall not be able to keep up our efforts, and the general interest will suffer.

Reform means the development and perfection of the socialist system. The progress of the reform in all areas reflects the tremendous changes that have taken place in China in the past few years. Our policies of launching all-round reform and opening to the rest of the world have infused our socialist cause with great vitality and have significantly promoted socialist culture and ideology. Development of the socialist commodity economy and improvement of socialist democracy have led to profound changes in people's ideology and outlook. At the same time they have placed higher demands on us in our effort to foster socialist culture and ideology. This is a great historic test for us: Will we be able to meet these demands by shaping public opinion, values and the cultural and social environment so as to facilitate socialist modernization and reform? Will we be able to resist the decadent bourgeois and feudal ideologies and avoid the danger of deviating from the right direction? Will we be able to arouse the boundless enthusiasm and initiative of the people of all our nationalities, so that through the efforts of several generations we can build a modern, powerful socialist country? We should be confident that with the Party's correct leadership, with the guidance of Marxism, with our basic socialist economic system and policies, with the people's democratic state power and socialist legality and, in particular, with the people's firm support for socialist construction and reform, we shall achieve socialist modernization, so long as we do our best to promote the cultural and ideological progress of our socialist society along with its material progress.

In short, because our work in promoting socialist culture and ideology is of strategic importance, we must ensure that it is capable of pushing forward China's socialist modernization, promoting the all-round reform and the opening to the outside world and embodying the four cardinal principles.[注释1] That is a basic guiding principle for our work in this area.