The Twelfth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the CPC (Enlarged)

It was held in Beijing from October 13 to October 31, 1968. The Plenum was held under highly irregular circumstances.

Mao Zedong presided over the Plenum and spoke at the opening and closing sessions. During the Plenum, Lin Biao, Kang Sheng, Jiang Qing, Xie Fuzhi and others in their speeches criticized the so-called "February Countercurrent" and slandered Chen Yi, Ye Jianying, Xu Xiangqian, Nie Rongzhen, Li Fuchun, Li Xiannian and other revolutionaries of the old generation as "anti-Chairman Mao", "reversing the case for Wang Ming's line", "reversing the case for traitors, secret agents and capitalist roaders". They argued that "the February Countercurrent" was "a preview of the restoration of capitalism”. It was “the most serious anti-Party incident". At the same time, the Plenum also attacked the so-called “Yang, Yu, Fu” incident as "the evil wind of reversing the case for the 'February backlash'", and accused Zhu De, Chen Yun, Deng Zihui and Wang Jiaxiang of being "consistently right-deviationists".

The Plenum adopted the "Decision on the Selection of Delegates to the Ninth Congress" and the "Decision on the Draft Constitution of the Communist Party of China"; it also adopted a resolution approving the "Investigation" report on the issue of Liu Shaoqi, i.e., the "Report of Investigation into the Crimes of Liu Shaoqi, Traitor, Secret Enemy Agent and Scab". Thus, the Plenum imposed the charge of "traitor, secret enemy agent and scab" on Liu Shaoqi and made a completely wrong political conclusion and the organizational punishment of expelling him from the Party permanently and revoking all his posts inside and outside the Party. This was one of the biggest unjust cases in the history of the People’s Republic of China.

This was a Plenum of the Central Committee held under the extremely abnormal circumstances of the proliferation of “Left” thinking and the serious destruction of democracy inside and outside the Party. The political conclusions and organizational punishment of Liu Shaoqi, the attacks and criticisms on a large number of old proletarian revolutionaries, and the high praise for the “Cultural Revolution” were all totally wrong.