Chapter 60 Nine, answer friends

Comrade Yifang: I received a letter on September 10th, in which you said, “As a witness of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, as a senior scholar, everyone is waiting for Guangyuan’s voice. Even if you tell some stories and feelings, everyone is very happy. important". I want to tell you that I haven't forgotten my social responsibility. I have written a lot in the past two or three months, and it has begun to be published in journals.This year, the fifth issue of "Hundred Years Tide" has published an article I wrote with about 70,000 words entitled "Records of the Central Work Conference Before the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee", commemorating the 20th anniversary of reform and opening up.In addition, I have written several articles on the question of the standard of truth and other related articles of various lengths, most of which have been published in journals.

A lot has been said about the Third Plenary Session, but few people seem to know how it was held.Because there has been no careful introduction to the situation at that time, many situations are unknown, or there are many misinformation.I want to tell you frankly that you said in your letter: "I think the greatest historical achievement of the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee is the slogan that the party and the government must be separated. I think this is the goal of reform." As far as I know, during the Central Work Conference, although Deng Xiaoping emphasized the need to use economic methods to manage the economy, it is hard to say that he has already put forward the slogan of separating the party from the government.Regarding the issue of the separation of the rural people's communes from the government and the communes, I had submitted a proposal by a researcher at the Academy of Social Sciences to the meeting at the Central Work Conference, but this issue was not well resolved.

The economic reform of our country was conceived at the State Council retreat held four months before the Central Work Conference.At the opening of the Central Working Conference, the discussion of Li Xiannian's speech at the State Council retreat was one of the three topics.Discussing this topic will make the Central Work Conference and the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee more intensified in the atmosphere of economic reform, but at that time it is more important to resolve the issue of political line and ideological line, so there are not many discussions on the issue of reform.However, solving the political and ideological problems created the necessary conditions for our country's reform and opening up, and made our country enter the reform period of the primary stage of socialism.

The greatest historical achievement of the Central Work Conference and the Third Plenary Session was in solving the political and ideological lines, not in separating the party from the government.In the communiqué of the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, there is a paragraph pointing out that my country’s economic management system has serious shortcomings, and calls for “under the unified leadership of the party to seriously resolve the phenomenon that the party, the government, and the enterprise are not separated, and the party replaces the government, and the government replaces the enterprise.” Of course it is important, but it cannot be overestimated.

I think that since we are talking about commemoration, we should try to talk about the truth of history as much as possible.For example, when we talk about the Third Plenary Session, we have to talk about the Central Work Conference that made full preparations for the Third Plenary Session.The Central Working Conference was held for 36 days, while the Third Plenary Session was only held for 5 days, and on the first day, the whole day was spent for the members of the Central Committee who did not attend the Central Working Conference to read the speech at the closing meeting of the Central Working Conference.The Third Plenary Session is a meeting without a theme report.Hua Guofeng presided over the Third Plenary Session of the Central Committee, but on the first night of the meeting (as mentioned above, the daytime should be set aside for the members of the Central Committee who did not attend the working meeting to read the documents) and talked about the opening method of the meeting.And Deng Xiaoping's speech at the Central Work Conference actually became the theme report of the Third Plenary Session.

Another example is that many people think that the success of the opposition to the "Two Whatevers" can correct the mistakes of "one big and two publics" in the countryside in a practical and realistic way. Issues left over from the "Cultural Revolution", etc.At that time, because Mao Zedong opposed the household contracting of production, the draft regulations on the work of rural people's communes put forward by the Third Plenum of the Central Committee also included two words "not allowed" - "not allowed to contract production on a household basis, and not allowed to divide the land and work alone".

Another example is that people think that the theoretical work retreat held in January 1979 was proposed by Ye Jianying. In fact, the task of the theoretical retreat proposed by Ye Jianying was completed at the Central Work Conference.I am a participant of the State Council retreat and a participant of the Central Work Conference. I was an unofficial participant in the Third Plenary Session (the nine comrades who are going to be by-elected as members of the Central Committee by the Third Plenary Session are formal participants) , I was also a participant in the theoretical retreat after the Third Plenary Session, and I did experience that historical turning point.Now my body is okay, which enables me to recall, think, and research. If I don’t write down what I know, it really doesn’t make sense.And I should not just tell some stories and express some feelings, but should write this history as carefully as possible.Now I will write such a reply letter to you first.You can tell those comrades who want me to write something, that since I started too late to do these things, what I have written now, and what I may print in the future does not satisfy myself, and I am going to write it here. After the first commemoration, get help from others and do some research to make it better.