The Thirteenth National Congress of the CPC

It was convened in Beijing from October 25 to November 1, 1987. The agenda of the Congress was: (1) To hear and review the report of the Twelfth Central Committee; (2) To review the report of the Central Advisory Commission; (3) To review the report of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection; (4) To consider and adopt the “Amendments to Some Articles of the Constitution of the CPC”; (5) To elect the Thirteenth Central Committee, the new Central Advisory Commission, and the new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. There were 1,936 official delegates and 61 specially invited delegates who attending the Congress, representing more than 46 million Party members nationwide.

Deng Xiaoping presided over the opening ceremony of the Congress. Zhao Ziyang, on behalf of the Twelfth Central Committee, made a report entitled "Advancing along the Path of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics". For the first time, the Congress put forward and systematically elaborated the theory of the primary stage of socialism, pointing out that this assertion contains two meanings: First, our society is already a socialist society, and China must adhere to but not leave socialism; second, our socialist society is still at the primary stage. From this new understanding of the primary stage of socialism, the Congress summarized the fundamental line of the Party in the primary stage of socialism as follows: To lead and unite the people of all nationalities, focus on economic construction, adhere to the Four Cardinal Principles, adhere to Reform and Opening-up, self-reliance, hard work and entrepreneurship, in order to build our country into a modern socialist country which is prosperous, strong, democratic and culturally advanced. To sum up, it was the "One Central Task, and Two Basic Points" line. Practice has proved that the Party's basic line is the lifeline of the Party and the country, and must be firmly adhered to without wavering.

In April 1987, Deng Xiaoping for the first time clearly proposed the "three-step" strategy for economic construction and achieve modenization. The Thirteenth Party Congress further clarified that the "three-step" development strategy for China's economic construction as follows: the first step is to double the gross national product (GNP) compared with 1980 and solve the problem of people's food and clothing; the second step is to double the GNP by the end of the 20th century and bring people's living to a moderately prosperous level; the third step is that by the middle of the 21st century, the per capital GNP will reach the level of moderately developed countries, the people will be relatively well off, and modernization will be basically achieved and continue to move forward on this basis. The "three-step" development strategy proposed by Deng Xiaoping was a major achievement of the CPC in exploring the laws of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The Congress adopted the relevant report of the Plenary Session and elected the new Central Committee, consisting of 175 members and 110 alternates, the Central Advisory Commission consisting of 200 members, and the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission, consisting of 69 members. On November the 2nd the First Plenary Session of the Thirteenth CPC Central Committee elected the Political Bureau of the CC and its Standing Committee; elected Zhao Ziyang as General Secretary of the Central Committee; decided that Deng Xiaoping would be the Chairman of the Central Military Commission; and approved Chen Yun as the Director of the Central Advisory Commission and elected Qiao Shi as the Secretary of the Central Disciplinary Inspection Commission.