X. Strengthen Party Leadership To Ensure the Success of Reforms

Reform of China's economic structure will be carried out over a fairly broad area and in a fairly deep-going way. It will have a direct bearing on the nation's future and affect the vital interests of millions upon millions of workers, peasants and intellectuals. All Party comrades should stand in the forefront of the reform which represents the trend of our times. This reform is an exploratory and innovative undertaking by the masses and it is very complex. We are generally now at the stage of accumulating experience in the reform of the entire economic structure which focuses on cities, and the vast number of cadres are not familiar with this work. Leading Party and government functionaries at all levels have to be sober-minded and give meticulous guidance. They should emancipate their minds, seek truth from facts and proceed from reality and carry out Party policies creatively by integrating them with the actual situation in each locality, department and unit. Full consideration should be given to the particularities of the regions concerned in reforming the economic structure in minority nationality regions. All moves in the reform have to be tested in practice, through which new experience will be acquired. Errors can hardly be avoided, but we should make every effort to prevent them whenever possible. Once an error does occur, we must try to discover it promptly, resolutely correct it, draw the lessons and continue to go ahead. We should take active but prudent steps in carrying out reforms. We should carry them out firmly where we are sure of success, make reforms one by one when the conditions are ripe, and make experiments when we are not sure of success. We must not try to accomplish the whole task at one stroke. All major reforms which affect the whole country will be arranged by the State Council under a unified plan. All localities, departments and units should be encouraged to conduct exploratory and pilot reforms. Nevertheless, any reform involving the overall situation or one that is extensive in scope must first be approved by the State Council.

Party organizations in numerous localities and enterprises will undergo consolidation next year. Reform should be closely linked with this. Party consolidation should promote economic growth, which is an indicator of how successful it is. While carrying out the reform, we must strengthen the leadership over Party consolidation, making sure that the consolidation will not become a mere formality. The more we enliven the economy and invigorate enterprises, the more we must pay attention to combating the corrosive influence of capitalist ideas, eliminating the decadent practice of seeking personal gain by abusing one's position and authority and preventing any action that seriously harms the interests of the state and the consumers, and the more we should strengthen the building of a fine Party style and sense of discipline and maintain healthy inner-Party political life. In ideological and organizational work in the new historical period, we must firmly carry out the Party's guiding principle that such work should help fulfil the general task and reach the general goal set by the Party and be closely linked with economic construction and reform of the economic structure. We should actively support cadres and the masses who are keen on reforms. When errors or deviations appear in the course of reform, apart from those seriously violating the law and discipline which must be dealt with according to law, we should adopt a policy of persuasion, criticism and education towards the persons concerned and must not stick political labels on them. People with different views and approaches about reforms may discuss their differences. We must not divide the cadres and masses by calling some people "reformers" and others "conservatives." We should have faith in comrades who fall behind the developing situation for a time, confident that they will understand things better in the course of reform. In the past five years of rural reform, many comrades who had doubts about it have been convinced by the facts and have changed their views. The Central Committee has adhered to the principle of patient education in guiding rural reform, thereby ensuring its smooth progress. This is a valuable experience in solving ideological problems inside the Party on the question of major policies, and we should keep to this principle in the future. By citing the facts about reform, we should provide Party members and the masses with lively education in the theory and policies of the reform. This will help them realize that socialism with Chinese characteristics should be full of vitality, different from the rigid pattern of the past and fundamentally different from the capitalist system. This will deepen their understanding of scientific socialism so that they devote themselves to making reforms.

The reform of economic structure will lead to tremendous changes not only in people's economic life, but also in their mental outlook and way of life. We should build socialist civilization with both a high material level and high cultural and ideological level. This is our Party's unswerving principle. While trying to create a socialist economic structure full of vigour, we should work to create a cultured. healthy and scientific way of life for the whole society that meets the requirements of expanding the modern forces of production and social progress. and eliminate backward and decadent ideas and ignorance. We should foster throughout society an active, forward-looking and enterprising attitude and overcome such forces of habit as complacency, mental sluggishness, fear of change and conventionality. Such an approach to life and such an attitude are important aspects of a socialist civilization that has a high cultural and ideological level. They give great impetus to reform of the economic structure and the building of a socialist civilization with a high material level. Comrade Mao Zedong said, "Mankind makes constant progress and nature undergoes constant change; they never remain at the same level. Therefore, man has constantly to sum up experience and go on discovering, inventing, creating and advancing. Ideas of stagnation, pessimism, inertia and complacency are all wrong. They are wrong because they agree neither with the historical facts of social development nor with the historical facts of nature so far known to us."[注释2] This statement is a graphic expression of one of the fundamental points of view of the Marxist world outlook and conception of history. The Chinese Communists take the constant promotion of social development and progress as their historical mission. Our Party led the masses of the people under reactionary rule in the past in making revolution to overthrow the old order. Under the socialist system with the people as masters of the country, our Party has been leading the masses in conscientiously carrying out reforms and building China into a modern, powerful socialist country with a high level of culture and democracy.

The current situation is very favourable to reform. The people are highly creative in this endeavour. By relying on their wisdom and strength and adhering to the four cardinal principles,[注释3] we will certainly succeed in our reform and fulfil the general task and reach the general goal set by the Party's 12th National Congress.

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[注释1]

V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Eng. ed., Progress Publishers. Moscow, 1966, Vol. 35, p. 475

[注释2]

Quoted in "Premier Zhou Enlai's Report on the Work of the Government to the First Session of the Third National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China" (December 21-22, 1964).

[注释3]

This means keeping to the socialist road, upholding the people's democratic dictatorship, upholding leadership by the Communist Party, and upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.

(NO. 44 OCTOBER 29, 1984)