Page 14 - RESOLUTION OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CHINA ON THE MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS AND HISTORICAL EXPERIENCE OF THE PARTY OVER THE PAST CENTURY

new, dynamic institutional guarantees as well as the material conditions for
rapid development.

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, the Party stood at a crucial
historical juncture in which it was confronted with the question of which
course the Party and the country should take. The Party came to recognize

that the only way forward was to launch a program of reform and opening up;
otherwise, our endeavors in pursuing modernization and building socialism
would be doomed to failure. In December 1978, the 11th Central Committee
held its third plenary session. At the session the Party decisively abandoned

the policy of taking class struggle as the key link, and initiated a strategic shift
in the focus of the Party and country’s work, thereby ushering in a new
period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. This marked a
great turning point of far-reaching significance in the Party’s history since the

founding of the People’s Republic of China. The Party also made the
momentous decision to completely renounce the Cultural Revolution. Over
the more than 40 years that have passed since then, the Party has never
wavered in following the line, principles, and policies adopted at this session.

After the third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee, Chinese
communists, with Comrade Deng Xiaoping as their chief representative,
united and led the whole Party and the entire nation in conducting a

thorough review of the experience gained and lessons learned since the
founding of the People’s Republic. On this basis, and by focusing on the
fundamental questions of what socialism is and how to build it and drawing

lessons from the history of world socialism, they established Deng Xiaoping
Theory, and devoted their efforts to freeing minds and seeking truth from
facts. The historic decision was made to shift the focus of the Party and the
country’s work onto economic development and to launch the reform and
opening up drive. Chinese communists brought the essence of socialism to

light, set the basic line for the primary stage of socialism, and made it clear
that China would follow its own path and build socialism with Chinese
characteristics. They provided sensible answers to a series of basic questions
on building socialism with Chinese characteristics, and formulated a

development strategy for basically achieving socialist modernization by the
middle of the 21st century through a three-step approach. They thus
succeeded in founding socialism with Chinese characteristics.

After the fourth plenary session of the 13th Central Committee, Chinese
communists, with Comrade Jiang Zemin as their chief representative, united
and led the whole Party and the entire nation in upholding the Party’s basic

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