Adhering to the Four Cardinal Principles

Deng Xiaoping's Important Speech at the Party's Theoretical Work Principles on March 30, 1979. Later took place in Vol. 2 of Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping. After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC, a new right leaning new trend of thought has emerged in the ideological field, a very small number of people in society and within the Party. When the Party was trying to restore order and cure the chaotic ideological situation, these people used this situation to spread their ideas by distorting the slogan of “emancipating the mind” under the guise of “social reform”, they exaggerated the Party's past mistakes, attempted to deny the Party's leadership and negate the socialist road. As a response to this mistaken trend of thought, Deng Xiaoping made a long speech about adhering to the Four Cardinal Principles.

The speech is divided into three parts: (1) The circumstances and tasks; (2) Realizing the four modernization must persist in the four cardinal principles; (3) The tasks of ideological and theoretical work. In the first part, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the main task in the present and for a fairly long time to come is to carry out modernization construction. Whether we can realize the four modernizations will decide the destiny of our country and people. Under the realistic conditions of China, to succeed in the four modernizations of socialism is to adhere to Marxism and to hold high the great banner of Mao Zedong Thought. Since it represents the greatest and most fundamental interests of the people, socialist modernization construction is our greatest politics at present. Now, every Party member and Youth League member, and every patriotic citizen must surmount all difficulties under the unified leadership of Party and government, and by hook or crook contribute all forces to realizing the Four Modernizations.

In the second part, Deng Xiaoping proposed that China's “national construction, we must likewise act in accordance with our own situation and find a Chinese path to modernization.” He said: In our democratic revolution, we had to act in accordance with China’s specific situation and follow the path discovered by Comrade Mao Zedong of encircling the cities from the rural areas.  Now when we launch the National construction, we must also adapt to own situation, and find a Chinese path to modernization. To accomplish modernization of a Chinese type, we must proceed from China’s special characteristics. In view of still remaining wrong ideological tendencies which attempt to deny the leadership of the Party and the socialist path in the process of rectifying chaos, Deng Xiaoping put forward and expounded for the first time the Four Cardinal Principles: if we want to realize the Four Modernizations in China, we must uphold the Four Cardinal Principles in the ideology and politics fields. He said: also some Party comrades have not yet freed themselves from the evil influence of the ultra-Left ideology of Lin Biao and the “Gang of Four”. A handful have gone so far as to spread rumors and calumnies, attacking the principles and policies adopted by the Central Committee since the toppling of the “Gang of Four” and particularly since the Third Plenary Session as running counter to Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. These cardinal principles should be seen as the basic preconditions for realizing the Four Modernizations.

These four cardinal principles are: Firstly, we must keep to the socialist path; Secondly, we must uphold the dictatorship of the proletariat; Thirdly, we must uphold the leadership of the Communist Party; Fourthly, we must uphold the Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought. The Central Committee considers that we must now repeatedly emphasize the necessity of upholding these four cardinal principles, because certain people (even if only a handful) are attempting to undermine them. In no way can such attempts be tolerated. No Party member and, needless to say, no Party ideological or theoretical worker, must ever waver in the slightest on this basic stand. To undermine any of the Four Cardinal Principles is to undermine the whole cause of socialism in China, the whole cause of modernization.

In the third part, Deng Xiaoping pointed out that Marxist ideological and theoretical work cannot be divorced from current politics. By studying in depth the new conditions and new problems encountered by China in realizing the four modernizations, and by working out solutions to those problems—solutions that will serve as guidelines for our action—our ideological and theoretical workers will be making a major contribution to Marxism and a genuine effort to hold high the banner of Mao Zedong Thought. On the one hand, we have to continue to eliminate the pernicious “Left” trend of thought once disseminated by the “Gang of Four”. On the other hand, we should make great efforts to fight resolutely against the “Right” trend of thought that doubts or opposes the Four Cardinal Principles, and so we should make new and convincing expositions of Four Cardinal Principles based on the wealth of new facts. Only in this way can we educate the people of the whole country, including our youth, the workers and all the officers and men of the People's Liberation Army, and convince people abroad who look to present-day China for the truth. “This is a momentous theoretical and political task, and it certainly cannot be accomplished just by rehashing the same old arguments copied from a book.” Deng Xiaoping's important speech laid the political foundation for China's socialist reform and pointed out the correct direction for China's Reform, Opening-up and modernization.

On May 11, the Central Committee of the CPC approved Deng Xiaoping's speech, pointing out that “this is an extremely important guiding document” and demanded that “all members of the Communist Party in the urban areas, all members of the Communist Youth League, all army soldiers and officers, all leading staff and cadres of various state organs and enterprises, teachers and students in the colleges and universities, and in rural areas cadres at and above the rural production brigades should disseminate the ideas therein and arrange different methods of study learning and discussion on it.”