THE Third Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to shift the focus of the Party's work on to socialist modernization. In the new historical period, we must conscientiously uphold the Party's rules and regulations, establish a good Party style of work in real earnest, strengthen and improve the Party's leadership and create a Party-wide and nationwide political situation in which we have both democracy and centralism, both freedom and discipline, both personal ease of mind, liveliness and unity of will, stability and unity. Only in this way can we give full play to the revolutionary enthusiasm and activism in work of the broad masses of Party members and unite with the whole Party and people of all nationalities in the country to successfully fulfil the great tasks of realizing the four socialist modernizations.

Through prolonged revolutionary struggles, especially through the Yanan rectification movement and the Seventh National Congress of the Party, our Party summed up in an all-round way the.positive and negative experience in handling inner-Party relationships and gradually formed the guiding principles for inner-Party political life, the main contents of which are seeking truth from facts, integrating theory with practice, maintaining close ties between Party members including Party leaders and the masses, carrying out criticism and self-criticism, and upholding democratic centralism. Following these principles, comrades of the whole Party united as never before, took concerted action and thus won victories in the War of Resistance Against Japan and the War of Liberation.

During the socialist revolution and construction since nationwide liberation, the broad masses of Party members have basically retained the Party's fine traditions and good style of work. But owing to victory in the revolutionary struggle and the Party's position as the ruling political party in the whole country, some comrades became conceited and complacent. Owing to imperfections in the democratic centralism of the Party and state, and owing to the influence of feudal and bourgeois ideas, unhealthy tendencies, such as isolation from reality and the masses, subjectivism, bureaucratism, arbitrariness and privilege seeking somewhat developed within the Party. At the same time, because of the shortcomings and mistakes in guiding inner-Party struggle, normal inner-Party political life was impaired to a certain extent. During the Cultural Revolution in particular, Lin Biao and the gang of four, out of their needs in usurping Party and state leadership, took advantage of serious mistakes made by the Party at that time, feverishly engaged in feudal-fascist, anarchist and factionalist splitting activities, wilfully trampled underfoot the Party's rules and regulations and abolished the Party's leadership. As a result, Party organizations, the Party spirit of the membership, and the Party's fine traditions and style of work were seriously impaired. Since the overthrow of the gang of four, thanks to the great efforts of the Party Central Committee to rectify the Party style and discipline, the Party's fine traditions and style of work have been revived. But extensive education and complicated struggle are still needed in order to heal the wounds inflicted on the Party by Lin Biao and the gang of four. With a view to completely restoring and further developing the fine traditions and style of work of the Party, improving its democratic life, safeguarding its centralized leadership, strengthening its unity, consolidating its organization and discipline and enhancing its fighting capacity, the Party Central Committee, proceeding from the present situation of the Party, re-issues to the whole membership the following guiding principles for inner-Party political life.

(1) Adhere to the Party's Political Line And Ideological Line

Adhering to the Party's political line and ideological line is the most fundamental among the guiding principles for inner-Party political life. The basic contents of the political line put forward by the Party Central Committee are to unite with the people of all nationalities throughout the country, mobilize all positive factors, work with one heart and one mind, go all out, aim high, and achieve greater, faster, better and more economical results in building a modern, powerful socialist country. [1] This Marxist-Leninist line that reflects the supreme interests of the people of the whole country must be firmly carried out by comrades of the whole Party.

The ideological line is the basis upon which the Party formulates and carries out its political line. The Party's ideological line calls for persisting in the socialist road, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party's leadership and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The essential points of the dialectical materialist way of thinking and method of work which the Party has consistently advocated are to proceed from reality in all cases, integrate theory with practice and seek truth from facts. Lin Biao and the gang of four for a long time distorted and tampered with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, violated its essence, departed from the criterion of practice, regarded every word of Comrade Mao Zedong as truth, as law and dogma, and thus seriously trammelled people's thinking. It is therefore necessary to emphasize doing away with blind faith, emancipating the mind, taking practice as the sole criterion for testing truth, conscientiously studying the new conditions and solving new problems. Only thus can we develop Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought and truly defend and uphold the great banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought.

To uphold the correct political and ideological lines, it is necessary to oppose two erroneous tendencies:

First, it is essential to oppose ossified thinking and the practice of proceeding in all cases from books. The idea that once something is written in a book it cannot be changed, whatever is not in books cannot be mentioned, cannot be done, is an anti-Marxist idea, a tremendous obstacle to the implementation of the Party's political line. In taking stock of the situation, considering problems and handling affairs, we must proceed from objective reality, combine the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism with current developments at home and abroad and with the concrete practice of socialist modernization; we must integrate the Party's line, principles and policies with the specific conditions of our own regions and units and engage in realistic study so as to solve the various theoretical and practical problems which arise in the course of the current revolutionary struggle and modernization.

Second, it is essential to oppose and repudiate the erroneous views and revisionist trends of thought that negate the socialist road, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the Party's leadership and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. Socialism is the only correct road that will lead China to prosperity and strength; the dictatorship of the proletariat is the guarantee for victory in socialist revolution and construction; the Party is the force at the core leading the entire Chinese people in accomplishing the four modernizations; Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought is the theoretical basis guiding our revolution and construction. In the struggle for the four modernizations, we must steadfastly adhere to these four fundamental principles.

(2) Uphold Collective Leadership, Oppose the Making of Arbitrary Decisions by Individuals

Collective leadership is one of the highest principles of Party leadership. Party committees, from the Central Committee down to the grassroots, must follow a system of combining collective leadership with division of labour and individual responsibility in accordance with this principle. All major issues touching on the Party's line, principles and policies, on the planning of important tasks, on the major appointments, removals, transfers of cadres and other questions on the handling of cadres, on important questions involving the people's interests, and on matters which leading organs at higher levels assign to lower Party committees for collective decision - all these issues, on the merits of each case, should be submitted to the Party committees concerned, to their standing committees or secretariats, or to the leading Party groups for collective discussion and decision, and no individual is allowed to make arbitrary decisions.

Under no circumstances is it permissible to replace the leadership of Party committees and their standing committees by any other form of organization.

Within the Party committees, the principle that the minority is subordinate to the majority must be strictly observed in deciding issues. The relationship between the secretary and the members of the Party committee is not one between superior and inferior, the secretary is a member on an equal standing with other members of the Party committee. The secretary or the first secretary should be good at concentrating the committee members' opinions, and is not allowed to make a practice of "what I say goes" or behave in a patriarchal manner.

There should be mutual support, mutual understanding and close co-operation between the leading members. All committee members should consciously safeguard the prestige of the collective leadership of the Party committee. While carrying out criticism and self-criticism, they should uphold principles and make criticisms with the aim of helping others.

In discussing major issues, the Party committee should allow the committee members to speak out freely whatever they wish to say. If differences arise during the discussion, the Party committee should take the opinions of the minority into serious consideration but avoid endless discussion which does not reach a decision and thus holds.up the progress of work.

Upholding collective leadership does not mean diminishing or negating the role of the individual; collective leadership must be combined with division of labour and personal responsibility.

In division of labour with personal responsibility, the secretary or the first secretary should shoulder the principal responsibility for organizing the activities of the Party committee and handling its day-to-day work. The important role of the secretary or the first secretary in the Party committee should not be scaled down or denied under the pretext of collective leadership.

It is necessary to understand and handle the relations between leaders, Party, class and masses correctly according to Marxist principles. Publicity in relation to leading members should be realistic and no unprincipled glorification of them is allowed. It is impermissible to praise leading members of the proletariat in the sycophantic terms used by the exploiting classes, nor is it permissible to distort history or cook up facts in publicizing the contributions of leading members. There should be no celebration of the birthdays of leading members, nor should they be sent gifts or congratulatory messages. No memorial hall should be built for any living person, and not too many such halls should be built for late leaders. No street, place, enterprise or school should be named after a leading member of the Party. Except for diplomatic occasions, when a leader is out on official business it is forbidden to organize welcomes and send-offs, put up slogans, beat drums and gongs and hold banquets in his honour.

(3) Safeguard the Party's Centralized Leadership and Strictly Observe Party Discipline Democratic centralism is the Party's fundamental principle of organization. By pushing an ultra-Left line and practising anarchism, Lin Biao and the gang of four sabotaged both democracy and centralism; both freedom and discipline. This pernicious anarchic influence has not been eliminated to this day. For this reason, it is necessary to seriously reiterate the principle that "the individual is subordinate to the organization, the minority is subordinate to the majority, the lower level is subordinate to the higher level, and the entire membership is subordinate to the Central Committee." Every Party member should take the safeguarding of the Party's centralized leadership and strict observance of Party discipline as the principle guiding his own words and deeds.

All Party members, especially members of the Party committees at all levels, must firmly carry out the decisions of the Party committee. They may reserve whatever dissenting views they have or state them to the Party committee at a higher level; but before the Party committee at their level or a higher level makes any change in the decision, they must unconditionally carry out the original decision except under special emergency conditions in which serious consequences will immediately arise from its implementation.