Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee

It was held in Beijing from June 27 to 29, 1981. The agenda of this meeting was: (1) to consider and adopt the “Resolution on Certain Historical Issues of the Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”; (2) to re-elect and co-opt the main leading members of the Central Committee. The meeting was attended by 195 members of the Central Committee, 114 alternate members of the Central Committee, and 53 people in attendance.

The “Resolution on Certain Historical Issues of the Party since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China”, adopted unanimously by the Plenary Session, applied Marxist dialectical and historical materialism to make a correct summary of the major historical events of the Party in the past 32 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially the Cultural Revolution, and scientifically analyzed the correctness and errors of the Party's guiding ideology in these events. It analyzed the subjective factors and social causes of the mistakes, evaluated the historical position of Mao Zedong in the Chinese Revolution in a factual manner, and fully discussed the great significance of Mao Zedong Thought as the guiding ideology of the Party. The “Resolution” affirmed the correct path of building a strong modern socialist country suitable for China's situation, which has been gradually established since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, and further pointed out the direction in which the socialist cause of China and the work of the Party should continue to advance.

The plenary session unanimously agreed to Hua Guofeng's request to resign as chairman of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. The plenary session re-elected and co-opted the main leading members of the Central Committee, electing Hu Yaobang as Chairman of the Central Committee; Zhao Ziyang and Hua Guofeng as Vice Chairmen; and Deng Xiaoping as Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau consisted of Hu Yaobang, Ye Jianying, Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Ziyang, Li Xiannian, Chen Yun and Hua Guofeng, and co-opted Xi Zhongxun as the Secretary of the Central Committee. The Sixth Plenary Session of the Eleventh CPC Central Committee was another meeting of great significance in the history of the Communist Party of China after the Third Plenary Session, a meeting to sum up experience and unite to move forward. This plenary session has gone down in history as the historical task of accomplishing the rectification in the guiding ideology of the Party.