The Eighth National Congress of the CPC

It was held in Beijing from September 15 to September 27, 1956. The Congress was attended by 1,026 delegates and 107 alternate delegates, representing 10.73 million Party members. Among those who invited to attend the Congress were representatives of fraternal parties from more than 50 countries, representatives of democratic parties and democratic people without party affiliation in China. Mao Zedong delivered the opening speech and announced that the task of the Congress was to sum up the experience gained since the Seventh Congress and to unite the Party and all the forces that could be united at home and abroad in the struggle to build a great socialist China. The Congress heard a political report by Liu Shaoqi, a report by Deng Xiaoping on the revision of the Party Constitution, and a report by Zhou Enlai on the proposals for the Second Five-Year Plan for the development of the national economy. 68 delegates, including Zhu De, Chen Yun, Dong Biwu, Peng Dehuai, Li Fuchun and Bo Yibo, made speeches and also 45 delegates made written speeches. The Congress correctly analyzed the changes in the main contradictions in the country after the basic completion of the socialist transformation, indicating that the main contradiction in the country was no longer between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, but between the people's need for rapid economic and cultural development and the current situation in which the economy and culture could not meet the needs of the people, and that the main task was to concentrate on developing the social productive forces, industrializing the country, and gradually meeting the material and cultural needs of the people. Summing up the experience of the First Five-Year Plan, the Congress adhered to the policy of economic construction which was both anti-conservative and anti-adventurous, i.e., steady progress in a comprehensive and balanced manner, and put forward the proposal of the Second Five-Year Plan (1958-1962) for the development of the national economy. The Congress also put forward such tasks as further expanding the democratic life of the country and establishing a perfect socialist legal system. It focused on the building of the Party under the conditions of governance, emphasizing the need to adhere to democratic centralism and the collective leadership system, oppose the cult of personality, develop democracy within the Party, and strengthen the ties between the Party and the masses. After thorough discussions, the Congress adopted the "Revised Constitution of the Communist Party of China", the "Resolution on the Political Report of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China" and the "Proposal for the Second Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy". Besides these, it also elected 97 members and 73 alternate members of the Eighth Central Committee. At the subsequent First Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee, Mao Zedong was elected Chairman of the Central Committee, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Zhu De and Chen Yun were elected Vice-Chairmen, and Deng Xiaoping was elected as the general Secretary of the department attached to the Central Committee. The Eighth National Congress was a congress of great significance held at a new historical period when China was faced with the comprehensive construction of socialism. The political line of focusing on economic construction set by the Eighth Congress is of long-term importance to the development of China's socialist cause and the building of the Party.