Political Report at the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China

On September 15, 1956, Liu Shaoqi made a political report to the Eighth Congress of the Communist Party of China on behalf of the Seventh Central Committee of the Party. First published in the People's Daily on September 17, 1956, the report was included in the Documents of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, published by the People’s Press in February 1957. It was included in the Selected Works of Liu Shaoqi (Part II) published by the People's Press in 1985. The main contents are as follows:

(1) Analyzing the current situation and the Party's task.

It is pointed out that due to the founding of New China and the decisive victory in the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce, a series of fundamental changes have taken place in the internal and external relations of our country.

The task confronting the Party now is to turn China into a great socialist country as quickly as possible by relying on the hundreds of millions of working people who have been liberated and are now organized, uniting with all the forces at home and abroad that can be united with, and turning to full account all conditions that are favorable to us.

In order to fulfill this gigantic task, we should correctly sum up the experience gained in past struggles, complete the socialist transformation of our country, strengthen our socialist construction, improve and perfect the political life of our country, correctly handle international affairs, and further consolidate our Party.

(2) Explaining the Party’s general line in the transitional period.

It is pointed out that the establishment of the People's Republic of China signifies the basic completion of the bourgeois-democratic revolution and the beginning of the proletarian-socialist revolution in China, and the beginning of the transitional period from capitalism to socialism in China.

According to the specific conditions of our country, the Central Committee of the Party has laid down the general line of our Party in the transitional period. This is to gradually accomplish socialist industrialization in a fairly long period of time, and gradually accomplish the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce.

The Party's general line during the transitional period is a beacon guiding our work in every field. Wherever we deviate from it, we shall make right deviationist or “Left” deviationist errors.

(3) Summarizing the work of socialist transformation and pointing out that the emergence of the climax of the socialist transformation movement is not a fortuitous phenomenon, but the inevitable result of the maturity of various social conditions in China since 1949.

The development of a strong socialist economy in our country has laid the material basis for the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce, but to accomplish the task of socialist transformation, we must also adopt policies and measures suited to conditions in China.

Our work in the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce has not been without shortcomings and mistakes; our policy has not been mature from the very beginning, and some deviations have occurred in the course of its implementation.

Nevertheless, the extremely complex and arduous historical task of converting a system of private ownership of the means of production into a system of socialist public ownership has basically been accomplished in our country. The question of who will win in the struggle between socialism and capitalism has now been solved.

(4) Summarizing the implementation of the First Five-Year Plan, we believe that the First Five-Year Plan can be over-fulfilled as a whole; deploying the Second Five-Year Plan

The basic tasks for the deployment of the Second Five-Year Plan are: (A) to continue industrial construction centered on heavy industry, promote the technical transformation of our national economy and lay a firm foundation for the socialist industrialization of our country; (B) to continue socialist transformation and consolidate and extend the system of collective ownership and ownership by all the people; (C) to develop, while expanding capital construction and completing socialist transformation, the production of industry, agriculture and handicrafts and, correspondingly, transport and commerce; (D) to train qualified personnel for construction and improve scientific research so as to meet the needs of socialist economic and cultural development; (E) to strengthen national defense and increase people's material and cultural well-being while expanding industrial and agricultural production.

The development goals of industry, agriculture, commerce, culture and education are put forward.

(5) In terms of the country's political life, it is proposed that in order to greatly develop the socialist construction that our country has begun and complete the socialist transformation, we must continue to consolidate the people's democratic dictatorship and continue to improve the work of the state.

At present, an important task in the work of the state is to further expand democratic life and carry on the struggle against bureaucratism. Another important issue in the work of the state is the need to appropriately readjust the administrative functions and powers of the central and local authorities. This also accords with the need to extend democracy and overcome bureaucratism. Correctly handling minority issues is an important task in our national work. It is an important task in conducting state affairs to deal correctly with questions concerning the ethnic groups. We should redouble our efforts to help the ethnic groups progress economically and culturally, so that they can play a positive role in the country's socialist construction.

(6) In order to make our country a great socialist state, we must unite not only with all the forces at home that can be united with but with all the forces throughout the world that can be united with and work to bring about favorable international conditions. Our firm and steadfast policy in international affairs is to work for world peace and human progress.

(7) In terms of Party leadership and Party building, it is pointed out that along with the victory in the revolution and the changes that have taken place in China, the Party has also undergone great changes.

The Party has become the party that leads the whole country's political power. The leadership strength of the Communist Party of China stems from Marxism-Leninism—its ideological weapon, its correct political and organizational lines, its rich experience in struggle and work, and its ability to crystallize the wisdom of all the people and turn that wisdom into a unified will and disciplined action.

Not only in the past, but in the future too, the leadership of such a party is essential in order to enable China to deal effectively with complex domestic and international affairs. In order to maintain the correct and sound leadership of our Party in the future, the fundamental problem lies in trying to reduce the ideological mistakes of Party organizations and Party members. In order to effectively combat subjectivism, the Party's leading organs at all levels should considerably improve investigation and research into actual conditions.

In order to make the Party's leadership work conform to the objective reality, facilitate the gathering of the experience and opinions of the masses, and reduce the chance of making mistakes, we must implement the principle of collective leadership of the Party and expand democracy within the Party without exception in all levels of Party organizations.

The 8th Party Congress approved Liu Shaoqi's report and made the “Resolution on Political Report”.