Page 13 - 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

practical errors concerning class struggle in a socialist society became
increasingly serious, and the Central Committee failed to rectify these

mistakes in good time. Under a completely erroneous appraisal of the
prevailing class relations and the political situation in the Party and the
country, Comrade Mao Zedong launched and led the Cultural Revolution.
The counter-revolutionary cliques of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing took advantage
of Comrade Mao Zedong’s mistakes, and committed many crimes that

brought disaster to the country and the people, resulting in ten years of
domestic turmoil which caused the Party, the country, and the people to
suffer the most serious losses and setbacks since the founding of the People’s
Republic. This was an extremely bitter lesson. Acting on the will of the Party

and the people, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee resolutely
smashed the Gang of Four in October 1976, putting an end to the catastrophic
Cultural Revolution.

From the founding of the People’s Republic to the eve of reform and
opening up, the Party led the people in completing the socialist revolution,
eliminating all systems of exploitation, and bringing about the most extensive

and profound social change in the history of the Chinese nation and a great
transformation from a poor and backward Eastern country with a large
population to a socialist country. Despite the serious setbacks it encountered
in the process of exploration, the Party made creative theoretical
achievements and great progress in socialist revolution and construction,

which provided valuable experience, theoretical preparation, and material
foundations for launching socialism with Chinese characteristics into a new
historical period.

Through tenacious struggle, the Party and the people showed the world
that the Chinese people were not only capable of dismantling the old world,
but also of building a new one, that only socialism could save China, and that

only socialism could develop China.

III. Reform, Opening Up, and Socialist Modernization

In the new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization, the

main tasks facing the Party were to continue exploring a right path for
building socialism in China, unleash and develop the productive forces, lift
the people out of poverty and help them become prosperous in the shortest
time possible, and fuel the push toward national rejuvenation by providing

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