The Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the CPC

It was held from March 5 to March 13, 1949 in Xibaipo, Pingshan County, Hebei Province. The Plenum was attended by 34 members of the Central Committee, 19 alternate members of the Central Committee, and 11 individuals from other Party organizations. It was presided over by a Bureau composed of Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Ren Bishi.

Mao Zedong presided over the opening session and made the "Report at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China" on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee on March 5. Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi and 27 others also spoke at the Plenum.

The Plenum focused on the strategic shift of the Party's work center of gravity, i.e., the shift of the work center of gravity from the countryside to the cities. According to Mao Zedong's report, the Plenum advocated that from now on, the Party's work center of gravity should have shifted from the countryside to the cities and implemented a way of working in which the cities would lead the countryside. The Plenum discussed in depth the question of how to realize the shift of the Party's work center of gravity. The Plenum made it clear: the Party should immediately begin to embark on various construction undertakings, learn step by step to manage the cities and re-build them, and we should make the restoration and development of production in the cities as our central task.

The Plenum also determined a series of basic policies for the Party after the victory. On the political front, it analyzed the basic contradictions in Chinese society after the national victory of the revolution. Mao Zedong pointed out in his report that "After the country-wide victory of the Chinese revolution and the solution of the land problem, two basic contradictions will still exist in China. The first is domestic, that is, the contradiction between the working class and the bourgeoisie. The second is external, that is, the contradiction between China and the imperialist countries." On the economic front, the Plenum scientifically analyzed the socio-economic components of China after the victory of the revolution and concluded that the state-run economy, the cooperative economy, the private capitalist economy, the individual economy and the state capitalist economy would be the several main forms that would constitute the economy of New China. For these several economic components, the Party should have adopted different targeted policies. As for foreign affairs, it must have adhered to the foreign policy of independence and autonomy, "set up a separate kitchen " and "clean up the house before hosting guests".

Besides these, the Plenum emphasized the need to strengthen the ideological construction of the Party and prevent the penetration of bourgeois ideas into the Party ranks, foresightedly raised the important issue of preventing "sugar-coated bullets" from attacking the Party, and further put forward the important idea of "two imperatives", stressing that, in accordance with Mao Zedong's proposal, “The comrades must be taught to remain modest, prudent and free from arrogance and rashness in their style of work. The comrades must be taught to preserve the style of plain living and hard struggle.” According to Mao Zedong's proposal, the Plenum made provisions prohibiting the birthday celebration of Party leaders and the use of the names of Party leaders as place and street names.

The Plenary Session was held at the turning point of the Chinese Revolution and was a meeting of profound historical significance for the CPC to lay the foundation for the establishment of New China. This Plenum drew a grand blueprint for New China, determined the general policy of it, made full preparations politically, ideologically and theoretically for the promotion and greeting of the national victory, promoted and developed the various construction projects of New China, and ensured the transformation of China from new-democracy to socialism, and had a tremendous guiding effect.