Rectify Party’s Ideological Line

The Party's ideological line, also known as the epistemological cognitive line, is the most fundamental guiding principle and ideological basis for the CPC to understand, analyze and deal with problems.

In the long-term practice of revolution, construction and reform periods, the Communist Party of China has established an ideological line of dialectical materialism, that is, to proceed from reality in handling all matters, to integrate theory with practice, to seek truth from facts, and to verify and develop the truth through practice. The Party's ideological line is the basis for the Party to formulate its political line, organizational line and various other principles and policies of it, as well as the guarantee for the correct understanding and implementation of the Party's line, principles and policies. Correct ideological line is the ideological basis for the successful advancement of revolution, construction and reform. The Party's history has demonstrated that whether it adhere to the ideological line of seeking truth from facts or not was closely related to the success or failure of the revolution, construction and reform under the leadership of the Party.

Mao Zedong took the lead in the Party's history in clearly putting forward the urgency of resolving the question of Party's ideological line. In May 1930, he explicitly put forward in his article "Against the Doctrine of Benevolence": "the ideological line of the Communists should be to create favourable new situations through struggle”. In October 1938, in his report “On the New Stage”, he emphasized that "all members of the Communist Party should play exemplary and vanguard role in seeking truth from facts", “because only by seeking truth from facts can we accomplish the determined tasks." In May 1941, he gave a complete explanation of the concept of "seeking truth from facts" in his report “Reform Our Study": “‘Facts’ are all the things that exist objectively, ‘truth’ means their internal relations, that is, the laws governing them, and ‘to seek’ means to study. We should proceed from the actual conditions inside and outside the country, the province, county or district, and derive from them, as our guide to action, laws which are inherent in them and not imaginary, that is, we should find the internal relations of the events occurring around us. ”

The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China restored and re-established the Party's ideological line of seeking truth from facts. In February 1980, Deng Xiaoping pointed out in his speech entitled "Adhere to the Party's Line and Improve Methods of Work": "To seek truth from facts, we must proceed from reality in all things, link theory with practice and hold practice to be the touchstone of truth — that is the ideological line of our Party”. In September 1982, the “Constitution of the Communist Party of China”, adopted at the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, expressed the Party's ideological line in the new era as follows: we should proceed from reality in handling all matters, to integrate theory with practice, to seek truth from facts, and to verify and develop the truth through practice. In November 2012, the 18th National Congress of the CPC made some amendments to the Party Constitution, and further enriched the party's ideological line as follows: “persist in emancipating the mind, seeking truth from facts, keeping up with the times, and being realistic and pragmatic. The Party's ideological line is to proceed from reality in handling all matters, to integrate theory with practice, to seek truth from facts, and to verify and develop the truth through practice. All Party members must adhere to this ideological line, explore new ways, boldly experiment with new methods, go in for innovation, work creatively, constantly study new situations, review new experience and solve new problems, enrich and develop Marxism in practice, and advance the endeavor to adapt Marxism to Chinese conditions.”