(2) The Tasks of Party Consolidation

The Party Central Committee holds that the tasks for the present Party consolidation are the achievement of ideological unity, the rectification of the Party's style of work, the strengthening of discipline and the purification of the Party organization.

First, the achievement of ideological unity means making further efforts to bring about a high degree of ideological and political unity throughout the Party and correcting all erroneous "Left" and Right tendencies that run counter to the four basic principles and to the Party line that has been adopted since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee.

The entire history of our Party shows that maintaining a high degree of ideological and political unity is a basic condition to winning victory in revolution and construction. The line, principles and basic policies of the Party since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee have been worked out by combining the four basic principles with the concrete practice under the present historical conditions, through the process of correcting "Left" errors and combating Right mistakes, and in compliance with the requirements of socialist modernization. Proven correct in practice, they have won the wholehearted support of the masses of Party members and cadres. All Party organizations and members must maintain unity with the Central Committee on the basis of persisting in the four basic principles and in the Party line adopted since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee. This is required by the Party's political discipline. Whether a Party organization or Party member can do this constitutes the main criterion for judging the ideological and political soundness and the sense of discipline of that Party organization or member.

On this question, there are now two erroneous tendencies in the Party. One is that a number of Party members and cadres who have not yet freed themselves from the shackles of past "Left" ideas distort the four basic principles and assume a resisting attitude towards the Party line, principles and basic policies adopted since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee; some even feign compliance while covertly opposing the Party line, principles and policies or openly refuse to carry them out. The other tendency is that some Party members and cadres, who have failed to stand the test of historical setbacks and succumbed to the corrosive influence of bourgeois ideology, doubt and negate the four basic principles, deviate from the Party line, principles and basic policies adopted since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee, and propagate bourgeois liberalization. Both these erroneous "Left" and Right tendencies are incompatible with the character and programme and historic mission of the Party.

Most of those who have committed such mistakes have done so because of their ideology and understanding, and they should be helped to deepen their understanding and correct their mistakes by studying and summarizing the historical experience and through patient criticism and education. As for the few who persist in their wrong political stand and refuse to correct their mistakes, they should be seriously criticized and ideological struggles should be carried out against them; in addition, due disciplinary action should be taken against them.

To maintain political unity with the Party Central Committee does not mean professing unity in words alone, but everyone must uphold unity in deeds. It is essential to resolutely change the state of flabbiness in ideological-political work, to correctly and willingly carry out the line, principles and policies of the Party Central Committee, and to resolutely resist and overcome the influence of erroneous "Left" and Right tendencies.

To maintain political unity with the Party Central Committee, one must integrate the line, principles and policies of the Party Central Committee with the actual conditions of one's locality, department or unit; one must also bring into full play one's own initiative and creativity and work in an independent and responsible way. It is essential to overcome subjectivism, conduct careful investigation and study, proceed from reality and seek truth from facts in all matters, and combine revolutionary vigour with scientific approach. Only thus can we ensure that the line, principles and policies of the Party Central Committee be correctly carried out, and only thus can we continuously enrich and develop them with the new experience gained in practice and carry the cause of the Party forward.

Second, rectifying the Party style means promoting the revolutionary spirit of serving the people wholeheartedly, checking various acts of seeking personal gains by taking advantage of one's power and position, and opposing the bureaucratic attitude of not holding oneself responsible to the Party and people.

Our Party has no particular interest of its own other than the interests of the working class and the masses of the people. For more than half a century, our Party has continuously achieved successes in the revolution and in construction precisely because it has by its deeds demonstrated its selfless character and the spirit of serving the people wholeheartedly, thereby winning the people's sincere love and trust. During the years of revolutionary wars, the Party would not have been able to hold its ground and avert defeat if it had not worked for the interests of the masses, won them over, relied on them and obtained their full support. This is easy for our comrades to understand. However, in the long years since our Party took over the political power of the whole country, quite a number of our comrades have become unclear in their thinking about such necessity. They fail to understand that the question of the Party's style is a question of life and death for a party in power. Because the Party's position has changed, all its activities concern the interests of the people and the destiny of the country; if it is divorced from the masses and does not take resolute measures to correct it, then the Party will inevitably lose the people's trust and support and will meet with failure.

Now, some Party members and cadres have totally forgotten the basic principle of serving the people wholeheartedly. They are not correctly using the power and working conditions given them by the Party and the people to work for the welfare of the masses, but are seeking personal gains by every possible means for themselves and for those close to them. They ask the Party for higher positions and better treatment. They openly violate financial regulations and discipline, sabotage state plans, violate state economic policies and illegally retain taxes and profits; they invent all sorts of pretexts to squander, waste and occupy state and collective funds and property. With regard to the distribution of housing, the increase in wages and many other matters - such as the employment, education, promotion, job assignments and changing from rural residence registration to urban residence registration for their children, relatives and friends as well as foreign affairs work - they take advantage of their power and position, conveniences provided by their work and personal relations to seek special privileges, violate the law and discipline, and encroach upon the interests of the state and the masses. They ignore the law, protect and shield criminals, and they even take a direct part in unlawful activities, such as smuggling, selling smuggled goods, corruption, accepting bribes and profiteering.

Some Party cadres in leading positions are seriously affected by bureaucratism; their revolutionary will has been waning, eating three full meals a day yet doing no work. They pay no attention at all to the weal and woe of the people; they are unconcerned about the expansion of production, the reform of government structure and the development of socialist ethics and culture; and they argue back and forth, trying to shift the responsibility on to others and even counteracting each other's efforts in their work. Their serious neglect of duty has caused horrifying waste in the country's production and construction, serious errors in state administration and huge economic and political losses for the Party and government.

These unhealthy tendencies and decadent phenomena, which are seriously sabotaging the nation's socialist modernization, have greatly impaired our Party's image among the people, weakened the confidence of the Party members and the masses in the superiority of the socialist system and the bright future of communism, and dampened their enthusiasm for politics, production, work and study. We must be resolved to solve this problem in the present Party consolidation and resolutely eradicate these unhealthy tendencies. Party members and cadres who took advantage of their power, position and other conveniences to seek personal gains after the Party Central Committee promulgated the Rules of Conduct for Inner-Party Political Life in March 1980 should be required to make self-criticisms. Those who have committed grave mistakes should be dealt with according to Party discipline and administrative discipline, and those who have violated the law should be punished according to law. Those who have profited at the government's expense should, on the basis of thorough investigations and on the merit of each case, be required to return what they had unlawfully taken or pay compensations. Those who committed such mistakes before the promulgation of the Rules of Conduct should also be handled in all seriousness if their mistakes are particularly serious or if they refuse to mend their ways. Necessary disciplinary action should also be taken against bureaucratists who have neglected their duties with serious consequences, and some should be dismissed from the leading posts or expelled from the Party.

Third, the strengthening of discipline is to adhere to the Party's organizational principle of democratic centralism, oppose the patriarchal system, factionalism, anarchism and liberalism which completely ignore Party organizations and discipline, and correct the softness, weakness and laxness of the Party organizations.

To maintain the Party's strict organizational discipline and uphold democratic centralism is an important guarantee for the realization of the Party's programme and tasks and for the strengthening of the Party's fighting capacity.

At present, the pernicious influence of the 10-year domestic turmoil has not been eradicated among a number of Party organizations and members, and violations of the Party's system of democratic centralism are rather serious. Some leading cadres place themselves above the Party organizations, where collective leadership exists in name only. In fact, only one or two individuals make the final decisions. Some of them have even turned the units under their charge into territories where their will holds sway and where they rule as overlords. In other cases, some Party members and cadres disregard the Party's organizational principle and Party discipline, and are seriously affected by anarchism, liberalism, decentralism, departmentalism and sectarianism. It should be pointed out in particular that up to now factionalism which developed during the 10-year domestic turmoil among a number of Party members and cadres has not yet been overcome. They still maintain factionalism instead of the Party spirit. They use their faction as the line of demarcation and appoint people by favouritism while elbowing out of their way those who hold different views; they form cliques to pursue selfish interests, seriously impairing the unity and solidarity of the Party and hindering the Party from carrying out its line, principles and policies. Party activities in a number of Party organizations are far from regular, with neither criticism nor self-criticism; Party discipline is not strictly observed, and violations of Party discipline and other unhealthy tendencies are not checked and corrected. Instead of taking the lead in criticism and self-criticism and combating unhealthy tendencies, some leading cadres, abiding by the principle of giving no offence to others, evade contradictions wherever possible, while others suppress criticism and retaliate against those who criticize them. These phenomena must be done away with completely during the present consolidation of the Party. After the Party consolidation, criticism and self-criticism should become an established practice in the Party organizations, especially within the leading bodies, so as to bring about a vigorous and lively situation in which there are both democracy and centralism, unity and strict discipline.

Fourth, to purify the Party organizations means to sort out elements who persist in opposing and harming the Party, and expel them from the Party in accordance with the Party Constitution.

Purifying the Party organizations is a major purpose of the present consolidation of the Party. Since the three types of persons oppose and harm the Party, they are bound to be a hidden peril if they are not thoroughly sorted out and expelled. To sort out and expel the three types of persons is of crucial importance in our effort to purify the Party organizations. The first type, those who rose to prominence during the "cultural revolution," refers to those persons who closely followed Lin Biao, Jiang Qing and their ilk, formed factions and cliques, seized political power in "rebellion," rose to high positions, and committed evil with serious consequences. The second type, those who are seriously factionalist in their ideas, refers to those who in the "cultural revolution" period vigorously publicized the reactionary ideology of the Lin Biao and Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary cliques, and formed cliques for doing evil. After the downfall of the "gang of four," they have continued, either openly or covertly, with their factionalist activities. The third type, those who indulged in beating, smashing and looting during the "cultural revolution" period, refers to those who during the "cultural revolution" framed and persecuted cadres and the masses, extorted confessions by torture, and seriously ruined their victims' health; it also refers to those chief elements and those behind the scenes responsible for the smashing of institutions, the seizure of files by force and the damaging of both public and private property; it also refers to those who plotted, organized and directed violent confrontations which resulted in serious consequences. The basis for distinguishing whether a person belongs to the three types of persons is the damage done to the Party and the people and not the title or membership in a particular faction during the "cultural revolution." A serious and prudent attitude should be taken in determining whether a person belongs to any of the three types, and his performance during the "cultural revolution" should be analysed from a historical point of view. Wherever and whenever controversy arises, it should be submitted to the Party committee at the higher level for discussion and decision. In principle, the three types of persons should be expelled from the Party, except those who have proved to have really mended their ways after a long period of examination.

With the exception of the three types of persons mentioned above, the principle of dealing with different cases in different ways will be applied to Party members and leading Party cadres who made mistakes or had other problems during the "cultural revolution." Mistakes of a general character will not be brought up again during this Party consolidation. As for those who committed serious mistakes but conclusions have not yet been drawn and they have not been dealt with, conclusions will be drawn and due measures taken during this Party consolidation; as for those who have already received a judgment and have been dealt with, their cases will not be considered again this time if no new major problems have been discovered.

Those who stubbornly resist the policies of the Party Central Committee adopted since the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee, those who have committed grave crimes in economic matters and other criminal offences, and those who have seriously violated the law and discipline must all be expelled from the Party.

For those who are expelled, appropriate arrangements should be made in work for those who are still fit to be cadres; those unfit to be cadres should be provided with opportunities to find jobs and earn a living. Ideological help and political concern should be shown them, and they should be encouraged and helped to remould their ideology and make progress.