The 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China has decided on an overall rectification of Party style and a consolidation of Party organizations over a period of three years beginning in the latter half of 1983. The Second Plenary Session of the 12th Party Central Committee has discussed the question of how to carry out this important decision and decided that the overall consolidation of the Party should begin in winter this year.

(1) The Necessity and Urgency of Party Consolidation

Ours is a long-tested, great Marxist Party. In spite of the serious damage sustained by our Party in the 10-year domestic turmoil, the ranks of our Party remain, on the whole, politically pure and highly militant. Since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee, our Party has reaffirmed the Marxist line, accomplished a shift of the focus of work of the Party and state, launched the socialist modernization drive with economic construction as the central task, handled in an appropriate manner many major issues left over from the past, systematically summed up the historical experience gained since the founding of the People's Republic, restructured the government organizations and readjusted the leading bodies at all levels, strengthened the building of socialist democracy and legal system, waged struggles to combat grave criminal activities in the economic sphere and other serious crimes and to rectify various acts detrimental to the interests of the state and the people, and conducted education in reviving and promoting the fine traditions of the Party and in socialist and communist ideology. As a result of such work and struggles, initial success has been achieved in rectifying Party style and consolidating the Party organizations, the situation in the Party has noticeably improved, and the healthy force has gained the dominant position in the Party. This abundantly proves that our Party, by relying on its own strength, is fully capable of overcoming its seamy side, of correcting its mistakes, and of forging ahead with greater vigour.

However, while carrying out the intense work and struggles mentioned above in the last few years, our Party did not have the time to carry on an overall and systematic rectification of the many problems existing in the spheres of ideology, style of work and organization of the Party. Education among the Party members has been neither widespread nor adequate. The pernicious influence of the 10-year domestic turmoil has not been eradicated. It is entirely correct that we have adopted the policy of opening to the outside world and enlivening the national economy. But, under the new historical conditions, there has been an increase in the corrosive influence of decadent bourgeois ideology and remnant feudal ideas, while the work and struggles we have undertaken to resist and overcome such corrosive influence have not been effective enough. For these reasons, there are still many serious problems in the Party. Some Party members lack a correct understanding of the great significance of setting things to rights and have not shifted their stand on to the Marxist line; other members have a vague and confused idea about the basic principles and superiority of the socialist system and about the bright communist future. On the ideological front, some members turn a blind eye to anti-Marxist and anti-socialist ideas, and some even openly spread these ideas. Some Party members and cadres have succumbed to individualism in a serious way. Seeking to advance personal interests and the interests of a small group, they have unscrupulously resorted to all means to harm the interests of the state and the people and embarked on the road of committing crimes. A number of Party members and cadres have a very weak sense of organization, are lax in discipline, and are listless and inert, failing to play an exemplary vanguard role. Some Party organizations are soft, weak and lax, or are even in a state of paralysis, failing to play their role as fighting bastions. The Party has not yet cleared its ranks of three types of persons, namely, persons who rose to prominence by following the counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing in "rebellion," those who are seriously factionalist in their ideas, and those who indulged in beating, smashing and looting. Such serious impurities in ideology, style of work and organization, which are of great harm to the Party, must be resolutely and effectively dealt with.

Our Party is faced with the new historical task of carrying out socialist modernization. This is a great, glorious and yet extremely arduous task. The strong leadership of the Communist Party is indispensable to the socialist cause. The Party Central Committee pointed out long ago that it is essential to uphold and also to improve Party leadership. Today, in addition to the serious impurities in ideology, style of work and organization as mentioned above, there are many other aspects in our Party which do not conform to the needs of the new situation and new tasks facing us. The general aim and requirements of the present Party consolidation are, under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought and by relying on the revolutionary consciousness of all comrades in the Party, correctly using the sharp weapons of criticism and self-criticism and enforcing Party discipline, to expose and deal with manifestations of the serious impurities that exist in the Party in ideology, style of work and organization, so as to bring about a fundamental turn for the better in the style of the Party, raise the ideological level of the whole Party and the level of its work, strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses of the people, and strive to build the Party and make it a strong core of leadership for the cause of socialist modernization.

The present Party consolidation is a major step which our Party must take to achieve fresh great victories in the new historical period. It is a fundamental guarantee for achieving, under the precondition of constantly raising the economic results, the magnificent goal of quadrupling the nation's gross annual output value of industrial and agricultural production by the end of this century, a goal set forth at the 12th Party Congress, and it is also a fundamental guarantee for building China into a modern, culturally advanced and highly democratic socialist country.