The Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the CPC

It was convened in Beijing on September 28, 1986. The central theme of the Plenary Session was to discuss the topic of socialist spiritual civilization construction, and adopted the “Resolution of the CPC Central Committee with Regard to the Guiding Principles of the Construction of a Socialist Spiritual Civilization”. The Plenary Session was attended by 199 members of the Central Committee and its 126 alternate members; by 161 members of the Central Advisory Commission, by 122 members of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and by 25 relevant leading responsible comrades. Comrades Hu Yaobang, Deng Xiaoping, Zhao Ziyang, Li Xiannian and Chen Yun, members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee , presided over the Plenary Session.

From the height of the overall layout of socialist modernization, the “Resolution” clarified the strategic position, fundamental tasks and basic guidelines of the construction of socialist spiritual civilization, and is the first programmatic document for strengthening the construction of socialist spiritual civilization in China in the new historical period. The “Resolution” pointed out that the socialist spiritual civilization guided by Marxism is an important feature of socialist society, which provides spiritual impetus and intellectual support for the development of material civilization and a strong ideological guarantee for its correct development direction. The construction of socialist spiritual civilization is a major issue related to the rise and fall of socialism and success or failure. The basic guidelines for the construction of socialist spiritual civilization are that the construction of socialist spiritual civilization must be the spiritual civilization which promotes socialist modernization, the spiritual civilization that promotes comprehensive reform and the implementation of opening up to the outside world, and the spiritual civilization that adheres to the Four Cardinal Principles. The fundamental objective of the construction of socialist spiritual civilization is to adapt to the needs of socialist modernization, cultivate morally cultured and disciplined socialist citizens with lofty ideals, and improve the ideological and moral quality and scientific and cultural quality of the entire Chinese nation. The “Resolution” stressed that engaging in bourgeois liberalization, i.e., denying the socialist system and advocating the capitalist system, is fundamentally contrary to the interests of the people and the historical trend, and that it is resolutely opposed by the people at large. The “Resolution” had a great and far-reaching impact on promoting the construction of material and spiritual civilization in China, promoting comprehensive Reform and Opening-up to the outside world, and for building socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The Plenary Session adopted the “Resolution of the Sixth Plenary Session of the Twelfth Central Committee of the CPC on the Convening of the Thirteenth National Congress of the Party”, agreed to convene the Thirteenth National Congress of the CPC in Beijing in October 1987.