The Central Work Conference of the CPC Central Committee in December 1978

The Central Work Conference was held in Beijing from November 10 to December 15, 1978. 212 persons respectively in charge of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, major military regions and central departments attended the conference. Hua Guofeng presided over the opening ceremony and announced the three issues of the conference: Firstly, to discuss “The Decision on Accelerating the Speed of Agricultural Development” and “The Working Regulations of Rural People's Communes (Trial Draft)”; secondly, to agree on the arrangements for the national economic plan in 1979 and 1980; thirdly, to discuss Li Xiannian’s speech at the State Council meeting on theoretical matters. Before these issues, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee decided to discuss first the shift of the focus of the whole Party’s work to socialist modernization from the following year. The shift of work focus received everyone’s warm support and unanimous approval. The criterion of testing truth, the change of ideological line, or the rehabilitation of a series of unjust, false and wrong cases that were of general concern both inside and outside the Party at that time were not mentioned. In the group discussion, Chen Yun first proposed that in order to achieve stability and unity within the Party, the central government should decide to solve problems left over from the “Cultural Revolution” and historical legacy by rehabilitating a number of major unjust, false and wrong cases. He suggested redressing six issues left over from the history, such as the case of the 61 traitors group including Bo Yibo, Tian’anmen Incident and the conclusion about Tao Zhu and Peng Dehuai. His suggestion received enthusiastic response from the participants.

On November 25, on behalf of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, Hua Guofeng announced that the Political Bureau decided to completely rehabilitate several major cases that occurred during the “Cultural Revolution”, such as the April Fifth Movement, Criticizing Deng Xiaoping and Countering the Trend toward Reversing Right-wing Verdicts, Criticism of the Cultural Revolution from Some Senior Communist Leaders in February 1967, the case of the 61 traitors group including Bo Yibo, and the conclusion about Peng Dehuai, Tao Zhu, Yang Shangkun and others, and to revoke relevant materials; to review Kang Sheng and Xie Fuzhi. When discussing Li Xiannian’s concluding speech at the State Council meeting on theoretical matters, many people were in favor of reforming the economic management system and boldly introducing foreign advanced technology and equipment. When discussing the arrangements for the national economic plan in 1979 and 1980, many comrades agreed with the “three shifts” put forward in the National Planning Conference; they also criticized the tendency of rushing for economic success and the imbalance in the national economy occurring after the smashing of “The Gang of Four”. It was hoped that the government would generally adjust the imbalance in the next two or three years, and seek truth from facts, be down-to-earth, and never make the mistakes in 1958. On December 13, the closing meeting was held, and Hua Guofeng, Ye Jianying and Deng Xiaoping made their speeches.

Hua Guofeng criticized himself on “two whatevers”, acknowledging that they were not well considered and fettered everyone’s thoughts to varying degrees, which was not conducive to implementing the Party’s policies in a realistic manner. He announced that the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee would be held after the meeting to further determine the policies and tasks after the shift of the focus of the whole Party’s work. Ye Jianying made three points. Firstly, there should be a good leadership, especially for the Central Committee. Secondly, democracy and legal system should be strengthened. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress should shoulder the responsibility of formulating laws and improving the socialist legal system as soon as possible. Thirdly, all comrades should study hard and emancipate their minds.

Deng Xiaoping made an important speech entitled “Emancipating the Mind, Seeking Truth from Facts, and Moving Forward in Unity”. He pointed out that emancipating the mind was currently a major political issue and democracy an important condition for that. Dealing with the problems left over from history aimed to smoothly shift the focus of the whole Party’s work and to move forward. We should keep learning, be alert to new situations and attempt to solve new problems. Because of the importance of these speeches, the conference lasted for another two days.

Comrades agreed that Deng Xiaoping’s speech pointed out the most important and critical issues in the realization of historical turning point and modernization, the guiding ideology for the upcoming Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee, and the main tasks and direction of the Party in the future. The 36-day Central Work Conference ended on December 15. It broke the shackles of “two whatevers”, turned the meeting originally prepared to discuss economic work into one to prepare for bringing order out of chaos and creating a new situation in an all-round way, and made full preparations for the successful convening of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Party