The Tenth National Congress of the CPC

It was held in Beijing from August 24 to August 28, 1973. A total of 1,249 delegates attended the Congress, representing 28 million Party members nationwide. The Congress had three agendas: Zhou Enlai’s political report on behalf of the Central Committee; Wang Hongwen’s report on behalf of the Central Committee on the revision of the Party constitution and proposed the "Constitution of the Communist Party of China (Draft)" to the Congress; and the election of the Central Committee.

Mao Zedong presided over the Congress. Zhou Enlai delivered a political report on behalf of the Central Committee, which was drafted by Zhang Chunqiao. The report continued to affirm the “Cultural Revolution” of the proletariat and the “theory of continuing revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat”. It did not correctly analyze the causes of the Lin Biao incident and summarize the necessary lessons, but made it a priority to criticize Lin Biao's "extreme rightist essence". As for Wang Hongwen, he made a report to the Congress on the revision of the Party Constitution. The basic spirit of this draft revision of the Party Constitution was the same as that of the Party Constitution adopted at the Ninth Party Congress, which was the product of the “Left” guiding ideology. Thus, the Congress adopted the political report of the Central Committee, the report on the revision of the Party Constitution and the “Constitution of the Communist Party of China”.

The Congress, finally, elected 195 Central Committee members and 124 alternate Central Committee members, forming the Tenth Central Committee. The strength of Jiang Qing's counter-revolutionary group was consolidated with this election. At the same time, some old cadres who had been struck during the “Cultural Revolution” and excluded from the Ninth Central Committee, such as Deng Xiaoping, Wang Jiaxiang, Wulanfu, Li Jingquan, Tan Zhenlin and Liao Chengzhi, were reelected to the Central Committee.

Against the backdrop of the resurgence of ultra-left thinking, the Party's Tenth Congress continued the “Left” mistakes of the Ninth Congress in terms of ideological, political and organizational lines.