Chapter 3 Section 2 The Historical Background of the Central Working Conference

Posthumously remembering this Central Work Conference, it is best to be able to introduce the brewing and preparation process of this conference.But I can't do it from my recollection.This is not because I can't remember after such a long time, but because I didn't know the relevant plot at the time.I don't know when, who first proposed to hold this meeting and how to propose it; What kind of discussion among the Standing Committee members went through, and how did they finally make a decision; it is not clear how Hua Guofeng’s report was drafted at the opening of the Central Work Conference, and whether the opinions of other Standing Committee members were solicited during the drafting process; However, Hua Guofeng made some revisions to his original manuscript; and so on.None of this was known to me at the time, and I still don't know it to this day.So I have no choice but to say nothing here.Of course, researchers of party history will try to find out these situations, and I also hope to find out such historical facts (see appendix).

Of course, the historical background of this meeting was clear to me at the time: On October 6, 1976, the "Gang of Four" was "isolated and reviewed", pulling them down from their status as rulers of the party and the country.The elimination of this group of evil elements, which has caused disasters to the country and the people, has opened the way for the rebirth of the Communist Party of China. This is something that the whole country is happy about.However, the positions and views of Hua Guofeng and others who hold the highest power of the party and the country did not change immediately.Hua Guofeng's personal worship of Mao Zedong was very deep, and he was limited by his own level. At the same time, in order to safeguard his own vested interests, he did not and did not dare to completely negate the theory, line, principles, and policies of the "Cultural Revolution", and he was unwilling to let the Deng Xiaoping, who was many times superior to himself in terms of political and ideological level, wisdom, and ability to govern the party and the country, came out to lead the party and the country. Therefore, during nearly half a year from October 1976 to March 1977, he put forward the requirements To expose and criticize the "Gang of Four" and focus on criticizing the "extreme right line" of the "Gang of Four".

Hua Guofeng relied on Wang Dongxing, who rose to an important position in the Party Central Committee during the "Cultural Revolution", as his closest assistant.Wang Dongxing participated in the smashing of the "Gang of Four" and made great contributions.At the First Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, Wang Dongxing became the vice chairman of the Central Committee and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. He also served as the director of the General Office of the Central Committee and secretary of the party committee, the director and secretary of the party committee of the Central Security Bureau, and the political commissar and secretary of the party committee of the 8341 Army , Director of the Office of the Editorial Committee of Chairman Mao's Works and Secretary of the Party Committee.Under Wang Dongxing, there are two small teams, Li Xin and Guo Yufeng, one in charge of ideology and politics, and the other in charge of organization.People like Wu De are still in use, elected as a member of the Central Committee at the 11th National Congress and a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee.Hua Guofeng, Wang Dongxing and others put forward and insisted on implementing the policy of "two whatevers" in their actual activities.Later, people learned that there are three versions of the "two whatevers" that are more or less the same.The earliest one was put forward by Wu De at the third meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fourth National People's Congress on November 30, 1976, "We should work hard to do what Chairman Mao instructs and what Chairman Mao affirms."The second version was drafted by Li Xin and a theoretical study group led by him. After many comments and revisions by Wang Dongxing, it was finally delineated by Hua Guofeng. It was published on February 7, 1977. The thesis in the editorial titled "Learn Documents and Grasp the Guidelines" jointly published by People's Daily, Red Flag Magazine, and Liberation Army Daily: "We will firmly uphold all the decisions made by Chairman Mao. We will follow the instructions unswervingly.” Hua Guofeng said at the Central Work Conference in March 1977 that “all decisions made by Chairman Mao must be upheld, and all words and deeds that damage Chairman Mao’s image must be stopped.” is the third version.According to this policy, it will not be easy for Deng Xiaoping to come forward to lead the Chinese Communist Party and our country, and the "Tiananmen Incident" and many unjust and wrongly convicted cases will not be rehabilitated. We will continue to implement the set of policies proposed in the "Cultural Revolution" policy.

Such a policy is naturally strongly opposed by the broad masses of cadres, including many respected old comrades. In May 1977, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China under the chairmanship of Hua Guofeng forwarded Deng Xiaoping's letter criticizing the "two whatevers", and the situation began to change.The Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee held more than two months later restored all of Deng Xiaoping's removed positions, and the subsequent First Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee elected Deng Xiaoping as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and vice chairman of the Central Committee.After the 11th National Congress, the work of exposing and criticizing the "Gang of Four" also made progress.Especially when Hu Yaobang presided over the Organization Department of the Central Committee, a large number of cadres persecuted during the "Cultural Revolution" were rehabilitated and returned to leadership positions.However, since the power to deal with major cases is in the hands of the central task force, many major cases remain unresolved.

In February 1978, the Second Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee and the First Session of the Fifth National People's Congress were held (I attended this Central Plenary Session, and I was a representative of the Fifth National People's Congress).At this time, the State Council was also reorganized.Many old comrades who were persecuted during the "Cultural Revolution" held leading positions in state organs.my country's economic construction began to enter the right track.But at that time, they were ideologically imprisoned by the "two whatevers", and they still talked about opposing "bourgeois legal rights", learning from Dazhai in agriculture, and learning from Daqing in industry.I participated in the drafting of the "Government Work Report" made by Hua Guofeng of the Fifth National People's Congress. The basic tone of the document cannot be changed. Without their opinions, we can only do "I have spoken, and my soul is saved."

As for the many major issues of right and wrong left over from exposing and criticizing the "Gang of Four", they have not been resolved.For example, regarding the nature of the "Tiananmen Incident", the general public and party members and cadres demanded redress, but Wang Dongxing, Wu De, and Zhang Yaoci came out to oppose it. Therefore, not only many revolutionary youths who went to Tiananmen to mourn Premier Zhou and opposed the "Gang of Four" on Qingming Festival in 1976 also While in captivity, some people were thrown into prison for committing the crime of vicious attack because they published speeches calling for redress of the "Tiananmen incident" and criticizing Wu De.Democracy within the party and in society continued to be severely suppressed.Inner-Party democracy and social democracy are originally interrelated.The personality cult and personal arbitrariness in the party have not been criticized, and there is no shortage of people who play trumpets and carry sedan chairs.Of course, the mass cadres are extremely dissatisfied with the situation that continues to emerge after the smashing of the "Gang of Four".

But the fall of the "Gang of Four" was a great liberation for the Chinese people after all.People dare to speak more than before, and no one can restore the situation after the "Tiananmen Incident" was suppressed that the high-pressure policy was imposed on the people, and the people were temporarily helpless.People are getting active.After entering 1978, the situation has improved. At the same time, there are many problems that need to be solved, and the most important thing is that the ideological line has not yet been corrected. In May 1978, "Guangming Daily" published the article "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth", which had a huge impact in various regions and departments of the country.However, as soon as the article was published, it was attacked by some people, and encountered quite stubborn resistance during the discussion.On the way forward, different people have different ideas and different propositions. A discussion is needed to allow various ideas and propositions to collide and compete to find a solution.

Against such a historical background, I was delighted to learn that a central working conference was about to be held, and I received a notice asking me to attend the conference. In the process of writing this postscript, I found a material about the convening of the Central Work Conference in the pile of old papers. After some research, I made some preliminary judgments. The material I found was the transcript of the conversation between Deng Xiaoping and Wei Guoqing on October 14, 1978, which I copied at that time.Wei Guoqing asked Deng Xiaoping two questions.The first question is that the General Political Department is going to issue an instruction to study and discuss the article "Practice is the only criterion for testing truth" among cadres in the entire army, and ask Comrade Xiaoping's opinion.Deng Xiaoping replied: "Ye Shuai proposed to hold a theoretical retreat, so that we can simply talk about it, so as not to talk about it behind the scenes. The talk is about emancipating the mind, starting the machine, and not being rigid in the mind... Ye Shuai said that this article should be printed and distributed throughout the country.” Regarding Ye Jianying’s proposal to hold a theoretical retreat, at the closing meeting of the Central Work Conference Hua Guofeng also mentioned in his speech.

I could hear Hua Guofeng very clearly when he spoke that day. He said that when the Standing Committee of the Central Committee listened to the report on the State Council retreat held from July to September 1978, everyone thought the retreat was a success. Ye Jianying was very satisfied with what he heard. , proposed to hold such a retreat on theoretical issues as well, to discuss the standard of truth.Many people know about this matter, and everyone believes that the theoretical retreat in 1979 after the Third Plenary Session was proposed by Ye Shuai.In fact, the theoretical retreat that Ye Shuai proposed was the Central Work Conference. Of course, the content of the later Central Work Conference was much richer, but the content of the theoretical retreat that Ye Shuai wanted to hold was also a main content of the Central Work Conference.

This can be seen from the conversation between Deng Xiaoping and Wei Guoqing.Deng Xiaoping said that this theoretical retreat can play the role of "simply putting it out and talking about it, so as not to talk about it behind the scenes".To put it bluntly, whose face should I be?Of course, this was done at the Central Working Conference in the presence of Hua Guofeng, Wang Dongxing and others.The theoretical retreat that Ye Shuai talked about was not the one held in 1979 after the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee. When the theoretical retreat was held in 1979, the issues had already been laid out, and they had been laid out in a big way at the Central Work Conference.The theoretical retreat that Ye Shuai talked about has been realized as the Central Work Conference, not the one in 1979. I can further prove this point from Deng Xiaoping’s conversation when he answered Wei Guoqing’s second question.The second question Wei Guoqing asked Deng Xiaoping was whether or not Deng Xiaoping's speech in the Northeast in September could be published.That speech was very famous, and it talked about the standard of truth.Deng Xiaoping's answer was "you can talk about it first among a small number of cadres in the government, send a notice to the army, and wait for a retreat."It can be seen that in Deng Xiaoping's mind, this retreat will be held soon, not the one held in 1979 later.

The time when Deng Xiaoping talked with Wei Guoqing was only twenty-five or six days before the Central Work Conference was held.It seems that shortly after October 14, the central government proposed to hold a central meeting, and the result of the discussion was to hold that central working conference.The notice of the central working conference was issued at the end of October and early November, so the central government decided to hold the central working conference at the end of October, that is, within half a month of this speech.This is the only reliable material I know of the preparations for the Central Work Conference.