Communique Issued by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CPC

Contained in Selection and Compilation of Important Documents since the Third Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee (Vol. I). The communique pointed out that nationwide mass movement to expose and criticize Lin Biao and the “Gang of Four” had in the main been completed victoriously, the stress of the Party's work should shift to socialist modernization as of 1979.

The plenary session also discussed the question of how to speed the growth of agricultural production and arrangements for the national economic plans for 1979 and 1980 and adopted relevant documents in principle, and examined and solved a number of important questions left over from history and the question of the contributions and faults, the correctness and incorrectness of some important leaders.

The communique is divided into five parts to elaborate the major strategic decisions made by the plenary session.

(1) It emphasized that the conditions for the transformation of the Party's work centre have ripened, thus, we should now adapt ourselves to meet the developments at home and abroad, now is an appropriate time to take the decision to end the large-scale nationwide mass movement to expose and criticize Lin Biao and the “Gang of Four” and to shift the emphasis of our Party's work and the attention of the people of the whole country to socialist modernization.

The “Communique” pointed out that carrying out the four modernizations requires great growth in the productive forces, which in turn requires diverse changes in those aspects of the relations of production and the superstructure which are not in harmony with the growth of the productive forces, thus four modernizations is a broad and comprehensive revolution which requires reforms in all unsuited management methods, actions and thinking mode which hinder such productivity growth. The meeting reiterated that the large-scale turbulent class struggles of a mass character have in the main come to an end. Class struggle in socialist society should be carried out on the principle of strictly differentiating the two different types of contradictions and correctly handling them in accordance with the procedures prescribed by the Constitution and the law.

The meeting re-summarized the Party's political line in the new era, which is: “The whole Party, the whole army and the people of all our nationalities to work with one heart and one mind, enhance political stability and unity, mobilize themselves immediately to go all out, pool their wisdom and efforts and carry out the new Long March to make China a modern, powerful socialist country before the end of this century.”

(2) Decisions have been made to adjust the national economy and accelerate agricultural development.

The “Communique” pointed out that: “Adopting a number of major new economic measures, conscientiously transforming the system and methods of economic management, actively expanding economic co-operation on terms of equality and mutual benefit with other countries on the basis of self-reliance, striving to introduce and adopt the world's advanced technologies and equipment and greatly strengthening scientific and educational work to meet the needs of modernization.”

The session points out that one of the serious shortcomings in the structure of economic management in our country is the over-concentration of authority, and it is necessary boldly to shift it under guidance from the leadership to lower levels so that the local authorities and industrial and agricultural enterprises will have greater power of decision in management under the guidance of unified state planning. Big efforts should be made to simplify bodies at various levels charged with economic administration, act firmly in line with economic law, attach importance to the role of the law of value. These measures will bring into full play the initiative, enthusiasm and creativeness of four levels, the central departments, the local authorities, the enterprises and the workers, and invigorate all branches and links of the socialist economy.

The plenary session holds that the whole Party should concentrate its main energy and efforts on advancing agriculture as fast as possible because agriculture, which the foundation of the national economy, has been seriously damaged in recent years and remains quiteweak on the whole. Taking this as the guideline, the plenary session set forth a series of policies and economic measures aimed at raising present agricultural production. The most important are as follows: the right of ownership by the people's communes, production brigades and production teams; the economic organizations at various levels of the people's commune must conscientiously implement the socialist principle of "to each according to his work," work out payment in accordance with the amount and quality of work done, and overcome equalitarianism; small plots of land for private use by commune members, their domestic side-occupations, and village fairs are necessary adjuncts of the socialist economy, and must not be interfered with; and raise the price of agricultural and sideline products and reduce the price of agricultural and industrial products.

(3) Put forward the task of perfecting socialist democracy and strengthening socialist legal system.

The “Communique” pointed out that the session had a serious discussion on some major political events which occurred during the “Cultural Revolution”, and it also discussed some historical problems left over from the "Cultural Revolution" according to the principle of seeking truth from facts and correcting mistakes. The session held a solemn discussion on the question of democracy and the legal system, and since for a period in the past democratic centralism was not carried out in its true sense, centralism being divorced from democracy and there being too little democracy.

Therefore, is necessary to lay particular emphasis on democracy at present, and on the dialectical relationship between democracy and centralism. It reiterated the established "principle of three not’s" of not seizing on others' faults, not putting labels on people and not using the big stick, and adcocated that this principle should be applied to firmly guarantee the civil rights stipulated in the Constitution.

The “Communique” pointed out that in order to safeguard people's democracy, it is imperative to strengthen the socialist legal system, democracy should be institutionalized and written into law in such a way so as to ensure the stability, continuity and full authority of this democratic system and laws, so that strict law abidance and law enforcement will be promoted and those who infringe the laws should be punished. We should guarantee the equality of all people before the laws and deny any privilege of being above the law.

(4) The session had a thoroughgoing discussion on continuing to inherit and bring into full play the Marxist style of study advocated by Comrade Mao Zedong and re-established the ideological line of seeking truth from facts.

The session unanimously agreed that only if comrades of the whole Party and the people of the whole country, under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, emancipate their thinking, dedicate themselves to the study of new circumstances, things and questions, and uphold the principle of seeking truth from facts, proceeding from reality and of linking theory with practice can our Party smoothly shift the focus of its work, correctly work out the concrete path, policies, methods and measures for carrying out the four modernizations and correctly reform those aspects of the relations of production and the superstructure that do not suit to the requirement of swiftly developing productive forces.The session highly evaluated the discussion of whether practice is the sole criterion for testing truth, noting that this is of far-reaching historic significance in encouraging comrades of the whole Party and the people of the whole country to emancipate their thinking and follow the correct ideological line.

The “Communique” pointed out that the lofty task of the Party Central Committee on the theoretical front is to lead and educate the whole Party and the people of the whole country to recognize Comrade Mao Zedong's great feats in a historical and scientific perspective, comprehensively and correctly grasp the scientific system of Mao Zedong Thought and integrate the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought with the concrete practice of socialist modernization and develop it under the new historical conditions.

(5) Basing itself on the experience and lessons drawn from the history of our Party, the plenary session decided to improve the practice of democratic centralism within the Party, to amplify the Party rules and regulations and to enforce strict discipline in the Party.

The session held that just as a country has its laws, the Party should have its rules and regulations. We must improve the democratic centralism of the Party and strengthen the collective leadership of the Party Central Committee and Party committees at all levels; oppose individual worship and give less publicity to any individual; people in the Party should call each other "comrade" and not address each other by their official titles; no personal view by a Party member in a position of responsibility, including leading comrades of the Central Committee, is to be called an "instruction" ; the session points out that the Party members' right to raise criticism within the Party concerning the leadership at higher levels, up to Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee, must be guaranteed and any practice that does not conform to the Party's democratic centralism and the principle of collective leadership should be resolutely corrected.

Disciplinary measures should be taken against all violators of Party discipline with no exception, so that there is a clear distinction between merits and faults, awards and punishments, so that honesty prevails and bad tendencies are eliminated.

The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee is a great and far-reaching turning point in the history of the CPC since the founding of new China, it ushered in a new era of Reform and Opening-up and concentrated efforts on socialist modernization, and the “Communique” was the program of action which marked this great turning point.