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Sailing Through the Rough Sea to Achieve Our Goal of World Significance
Following are excerpts of the signed article in June 25's People's Daily in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 1921, which consists of four parts.
Part IThis year marks the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China which has exercised State power for 52 years. The emergence of the Communist Party in China is an epoch-making event. Its birth, development and growth as well as its holding of power in a large country with one-sixth of the world's population have brought profound change in the historical destiny of the Chinese nation and in the world pattern.
In the course of 80 years, the CPC, with brand-new world outlook, united with and led the masses of the people in heroic struggles for national liberation, national independence, social progress and people's happiness, after experiencing war and peace, revolution and holding of power, construction and reform, setbacks and victories, has scored brilliant achievements in the democratic revolution and socialist revolution and in construction, becoming a strong political force pushing history forward.
The brilliant achievements scored and twists and turns experienced by the CPC are closely linked with its special historical mission. With firm proletarian Party spirit, it needed to fulfill the tasks of democratic revolution and the socialist revolution; it needs to realize socialist modernization in a poor and backward large country and accomplish the great cause of the reunification of the motherland; it needs to safeguard and promote world peace and development in extremely intricate and complicated international environment and fierce international competition. In the face of this series of arduous and major historical problems, the CPC, with its intelligence, courage and resourcefulness, will-power and control capability, led the people of the whole country in saying good-bye to miserable past and writing a new, magnificent chapter, and ushered in a bright future.
The strength and life of the CPC lie in its progressiveness and in its ability to control the trends of development of the times, the change of the situation and the tide of world progress, standing ahead of the times, it has led the people in pioneering and innovative work. The Party's first-generation central leading collective with Mao Zedong at the core, complying with the tide of the proletarian revolution and under the circumstance in which there was no precedent to follow, led the people in winning victory in the New Democratic Revolution, establishing a new era in which the people have become masters of their destiny; the Party's second-generation central leading collective with Deng Xiaoping at the core, implemented the great policy of reform and opening up and, persistently proceeding from China's national conditions and the reality that China is in the primary stage of socialism, led the people in successfully blazing a trail of building socialism with Chinese characteristics; the Party's third-generation central leading collective with Jiang Zemin at the core, in the face of the development trend featuring the multi-polarity of the world and economic globalization, with the "three represents" (the CPC represents the requirement to develop advanced productive forces, an orientation toward advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China) as the guide, deepen revolution, expand opening up, seize the opportunity, speed up development, meet challenges, overcome risks and constantly open up new phase in the drive for socialist modernization.
Part IIAs soon as it was founded, the CPC was faced with the heavy historical missions of overthrowing the "three big mountains": opposing imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism.
The complexity and arduousness of the tasks of national liberation and democratic revolution lie in the fact that China was a country that had been under the feudal autocracy for over 2,000 years, and a boundless sea of petty production. Petty production featuring "a heap of loose sand" could not spontaneously generate democratic and socialist thinking. Dr. Sun Yat-sen was a great patriot and democrat. The Revolution of 1911 he led overthrew the 2,000-year-old feudal autocracy in China, establishing indelible exploits for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. However, the Revolution of 1911 failed to thoroughly solve the anti-feudal and anti-imperialist problem, the fruits of the revolution were quickly usurped by feudal warlords. To really solve China's problems and rescue the hundreds of millions of Chinese people from the abyss of misery, there must be the emergence of an advanced class and the leadership of its advanced political party.
The failure of the Revolution of 1911 and the outbreak of the Russian October Revolution enabled Dr. Sun to clearly see that the darkness and corruption of society was worse than that of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911); Europe and America were strong, but the people there were poor and in hardship; future revolution must follow the example of Russia, otherwise it wouldn't be successful. So the task of leading China's democratic revolution historically fell on the shoulders of the working class and its advanced political party.
The Communist Party of China, as the vanguard of China's working class, has gradually become matured in the practice of revolution and has gradually developed and grown stronger. , its understanding about the nature, targets, tasks, road and guiding thought, the leading force and the force to rely on has also deepened step by step.. Deviation occurred in any issue may cause setbacks to the revolution and the payment of heavy price. For instance, the right-capitulationist error in 1927 led to the failure of the First Great Revolution; the "left" dogmatist error in 1934 led to the failure in the fifth campaign against "encirclement and suppression'. However, it was through these setbacks that our Party had gradually become matured, our Party had created Mao Zedong Thought in the course of integrating Marxism with the reality of Chinese revolution, and built itself into a Party that combines theory with practice, maintains close ties with the masses, and adopts criticism and self-criticism. Such a Party, the army led by such a Party, the extensive united front led by such a Party-have become our three magic weapons with which we defeated the enemies to win victories.
The Chinese nation is a nation ardently loves freedom and having a revolutionary tradition. In modern times, the process of imperialism and feudalism reducing China into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society was also a process of the Chinese people waging heroic struggle against imperialism and its lackeys. But in the nearly 80 years of time from the Opium War in 1840 to the May 4th Movement in 1919, due to the lack of advanced theory for its guidance and the lack of the leadership of an advanced political party, the struggles carried out by the Chinese people all failed. Only the CPC, which found a scientific theory and a correct road for the Chinese people and after waging 28 years of arduous struggle that it finally won victory in the democratic revolution. This has declared an end to the history in which Western powers were bullying the Chinese nation, and an end to the history in which the laboring people suffered oppression and enslavement for thousands of years, the Chinese people have since stood up in the world, have won democracy and freedom and become masters of their own country.
The New Democratic Revolution led by the CPC was an epic marking victory of brightness over darkness and progress over reaction. The victory of this struggle tells people the truth that "without the Communist Party, there would have been no New China" and this is the theme of the epic.
Part IIIWith the founding of New China as the hallmark, the CPC began to exercise power nationwide and ushered in the new era in which the laboring people have become masters of the country. For a political party of the working class, the progress from revolution to ruling the country meant that it was faced with a series of new problems and difficulties. To tackle these problems and difficulties was more arduous and complicated than making revolution. How to administer the country and how to organize social production, create wealth and work harder for the benefit of the people, that was a heavier and greater historical mission for the CPC after it led the Chinese people in seizing political power, it was also a great social experiment that concerned the rise and decline of the State and the future of the people.
Shortly after the founding of New China, the Party led the people in accomplishing the task of the rehabilitation of the national economy in only a little more than three years, winning great victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, completing the agrarian reform and other democratic reforms, thus uprooting the economic base of the feudal system. That was the continuation and deepening of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal task. In 1956, under the guidance of the Party line for the transitional period, we realized the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft and capitalist industry and commerce, established the socialist basic system and achieved important progress in socialist industrialization.
However, in the face of our tremendous achievements, because we did not fully understand "what is socialism" and "how to build socialism", and there had emerged mistakes and deviations in our road of advance, and even serious setbacks such as the "cultural revolution".
With the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Party Central Committee as the indication, our Party made a profound summary of the historical experiences and lessons drawn in socialist construction, effected the shift of the emphasis of the Party's work and the new historical turn and entered a new period of reform and opening up.
In this momentous reform and opening drive, Deng Xiaoping led the whole Party, in line with the basic theory of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought, in comprehensively summing up the basic experience of socialist construction, correctly formulating the Party's basic line with "economic construction as the central task, and the two basic points of adhering to the four cardinal principles and adhering to reform and opening up" as the main contents, thus forming a scientific theory of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, i.e., Deng Xiaoping Theory.
Deng Xiaoping Theory has helped raise the whole Party's understanding of socialism to a new height and into a completely new realm. There is not an immutable model for socialism which is a historical process that ultimately leads to common prosperity through developing productive forces. China's primary stage of socialism is a historical stage in which one important task is to gradually shake off the undeveloped state and basically realize socialist modernization. In this primary stage, the basic economic system is taking public ownership as the mainstay and allowing the common development of the diversified economy. the distribution system is taking the principle of distribution according to work done as the mainstay and allowing the coexistence of multiple distribution methods. We should uphold and improve the socialist market economic structure, the market, under the macro-control of the State, plays a basic role in the allocation of resources. When we think over problems and handling affairs, the fundamental criteria for us to judge everything done is to see whether it helps develop socialist productive forces, helps enhance the overall national strength of the socialist country, help improve people's living standards. It is necessary to correctly handle the relations between socialism and capitalism, it is both necessary to make full use of all fruits of civilizations it created and to guard against the corrosion of its decadent and moribund ideas. We should persist in opening to the outside world, introduce foreign capital, bring in science and technology, learn from and draw on the advanced operational forms, management methods, as well as all other useful knowledge and culture of developed capitalist countries. Science and technology are the primary productive forces, and we should pay full attention to the tremendous role played by scientific and technological progress in enhancing comprehensive national strength, improving people's living standards, strengthening socialist competitiveness, etc.
Facts effectively indicate that Deng Xiaoping Theory is the correct theory that guides the Chinese people in successfully realizing socialist modernization in the course of reform and opening up; the Party's basic line is the most reliable guarantee for the victorious advance of our cause. Under the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Party's basic line, our Party has led and united with the people of all nationalities of China in scoring achievements of world attention. These achievements fully reflect the tremendous power of Deng Xiaoping Theory and the Party's basic line, and fully reflect the maturity of the Party's third generation of the leading collective with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core and their outstanding abilities to control the whole situation under complicated situation and to lead large-scale socialist modernization drive.
All these represent a monument in history; and a banner in the world. Without the leadership of the CPC, there would be no China's socialist modernization, that is the conclusion of history.
Part IVThe 80 years of the Communist Party of China is composed of two grand historical chapters-the seizure and exercise of political power. People are concerned about and want to know what strength does the CPC use to unite the hundreds of millions of people to place itself forever in an invincible position. In the final analysis, it is because the Party represents the requirement of the development of productive forces, the orientation toward advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.
The advanced nature of the CPC is realized through the exemplary and vanguard role of its members and its cadre ranks. It is a political party that has strict discipline, a strong will power, a noble character, solemn missions and takes wholehearted service for the people as its fundamental principle. As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Party, we cherish memory of and express thanks for those thousands upon thousands of Party members who have made contributions at their work posts in different historical periods for national liberation and the prosperity of the country, particularly those personages and the Party's friends who have made contributions to the cause of the Chinese people and who and the Party have treated each other with all sincerity and shared weal and woe during different historical periods.
In the next 50 years from now to the middle of the 21st century, we are to build a strong and prosperous, democratic and culturally advanced modernized socialist country.
As we celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, we deeply feel that Comrade Jiang Zemin's "three represents" important thinking is of extremely important significance.
The blue sea is surging forward violently, let's see the correct path in man's world. No matter how complicated the situation is before us, so long as we act in compliance with the requirements of the "three represents", , build our Party to become more staunch, more untied and have full combat effectiveness, we can certainly pool all the wisdom and strength of the Chinese people and realize the lofty goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Let's rally more closely around the Party Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core, and forge ahead toward this goal!
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