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Full Text of Jiang's Speech at CPC Anniversary Gathering(II)
Following is the second part of the full text of an important speech made by Jiang Zemin, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), at a grand gathering marking the 80th founding anniversary of the CPC at the Great Hall of the People Sunday.
II. Correctly understand and fulfill the requirements of the " Three Represent's" in an all-round way In the new century, the great historical tasks for our Party are to continue the modernization drive, accomplish the great cause of the reunification of our motherland, safeguard world peace and promote common development. Facing the profound changes in the domestic and international situations, our Party should follow closely the progressive trends of the world and unite and lead people of all ethnic groups throughout the country in seizing the opportunities and taking up challenges to accomplish the three major historical tasks successfully. To this end, we must unswervingly fulfill the requirements of the "Three Represent's". The "Three Represent's" are the foundation underlying all our efforts to build the Party, the cornerstone for exercising political power and a source of strength of our Party. They are also the fundamental requirements for us to push Party building in an all-round way in the new century, constantly bring forth new ideas in theories, institutions and science and technology, and win fresh victories in building socialism with Chinese characteristics.
In order to remain a representative of the requirements of the development of China's advanced productive forces, it is necessary to bring the Party's theory, line, program, principles, policies and all work into line with the law governing the development of productive forces, make them reflect what is required in promoting the release and development of social productive forces, especially in the development of advanced productive forces so that the living standards of the people improve steadily through the development of productive forces.
Productive forces are the most dynamic and the most revolutionary factor. It is also the ultimate decisive force of social development. The contradictions between productive forces and the relations of production and between economic base and superstructure constitute the basic social contradiction. The movement of this basic contradiction determines the direction of the changes in the nature of society and the direction of social, economic, political and cultural development. The fundamental difference between socialism and capitalism lies in the difference between their relations of production and superstructures. The establishment and constant improvement of the socialist system has opened up a broad road for the release and development of our country's social productive forces. All relations of production and superstructures, irrespective of their nature, develop with the development of productive forces. If they fail to keep up with the requirement of the development of productive forces and have thus become obstacles to the development of productive forces and social progress, readjustments and changes are sure to take place. To be sensitive to and quickly come to grip with the development trend and requirements of our country's productive forces and take practicable steps to promote the constant development of the advanced productive forces by taking economic development as the central task and by formulating and implementing correct lines, principles and policies these are the fundamental expression and fundamental requirements for our Party to stand in the forefront of the times and maintain its advanced nature.
As the vanguard of the working class, our Party emerged in the historical arena as the representative of China's advanced productive forces at its very inception. The purpose of the new democratic revolution led by our Party was to abrogate the privileges of imperialism in China, eliminate exploitation and oppression by the landlord class and the bureaucrat-capitalist class, change the comprador feudal production relations and the rotten political superstructure rooted in such economic base, establish a new political superstructure with the people's democratic dictatorship as the core and release from the roots the fettered productive forces. After the founding of New China, we carried out socialist transformation of agriculture, handicraft industry and the capitalist industry and commerce in order to establish the socialist relations of production, and, on that economic base, bring the socialist superstructure to perfection so as to further release and develop productive forces. It is for the same purpose that we have since the Third Plenum of the 11th Party Central Committee carried out reforms and opening up policies to adjust and reform the part of the socialist relations of production that is incompatible with the demand of the development of the productive forces and to adjust and reform the part of socialist superstructure that is incompatible with the economic base. Over the past twenty-plus years, we have made bold explorations and practice and pushed forward the reforms in economic and political structures and other areas and greatly released and developed the country's social productive forces, bringing about tremendous changes in the national economic development and social progress. The fundamental task of socialism is to develop productive forces, enhance the comprehensive national strength of our socialist country and improve the people' s living standards and in this way reflect the superiority of socialism over capitalism. In all historical stages of the socialist society, it is necessary to make the socialist system improve and develop itself through reforms in line with the demand of the economic and social development. Only by so doing, is it possible to make the socialist system filled with vigor and vitality. All comrades in the Party should firmly implant in mind this basic viewpoint and awareness on socialist reform and development.
The development of human society is a historical process of advanced productive forces replacing the backward ones. Socialist modernization must be built on the basis of developed productive forces. Our purpose of realizing modernization is, fundamentally, to obtain developed productive forces through reforms and development. All comrades in the Party, no matter what posts they are in, should check and review their work regularly to see whether it conforms to the requirements of the development of advanced productive forces. If it does, hold on to it without wavering. If it does not, correct it where necessary. Only by doing so, is it possible for Communists to give a full expression to their advanced nature and to the spirit of the times.
Man is the most decisive factor in productive forces. The Chinese working class, including intellectuals, is the basic force that pushes the advanced productive forces forward in China. The peasant class and other laboring people, closely united with the working class, constitute a major force that pushes the country's productive forces forward. To raise the ideological and ethical standards and scientific and cultural levels of the workers, peasants, intellectuals and other laboring people and the entire population and improve their labor skills and creativity and give full scope to their enthusiasm, initiative and creative power - these should remain the tasks of primary importance that our Party should perform in representing China's advanced productive forces.
Science and technology are the primary productive forces and a concentrated expression and a hallmark of advanced productive forces. The rapid progress in science and technology has given a powerful shove-ahead to the productive forces of the world and the economic and social development of humanity. The future development of science and technology will result in new and major leaps. We must quickly and accurately come to grip with this objective trend and give play to the superiority of China's socialist system and combine it with the mastering, application and development of advanced science and technology so as to make big progress in science and technology and innovation, use advanced science and technology to transform and upgrade the national economy and achieve a leap-frog expansion of our productive forces. This, too, is an important duty our Party should perform in representing the requirements of the development of productive forces.
Although we have made tremendous achievements in socialist modernization, the productive forces in China have generally remained underdeveloped as China is still at the primary stage of socialism and it has a large population, a weak foundation and uneven economic and cultural development. To release and develop our productive forces will remain our central task for a long period of time to come. We must develop the advanced productive forces without letup. As to some existing backward modes of production that do not go along with the requirements of the development of advanced productive forces and the development of the times, we can not repel them summarily and unrealistically; nor should we take the attitude of being contented with what the things are and protecting what is backward. Instead, we should be realistic and prepare the conditions for transforming, improving and upgrading them and, through long-time efforts, gradually make them advanced and applicable.
We must, under the guidance of the Party's basic theories, basic line and basic program, stick to and improve the basic economic system with public ownership as the main body and the common development of multiple sectors; we must persist in and improve the socialist market system; we must hold on to and improve the multiple ways of distribution with the distribution of "to each according to work done" as the main distribution modality; we must continue to improve our opening-up program; we must hold on to and improve the people's democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on worker-peasant alliance; we must hold on to and improve the people's congress system and multi-party cooperation and political consultation led by the Communist Party and the system of regional autonomy of minority nationalities while actively and steadily promoting the reform of the political structure to further expand socialist democracy, rule the country by law and build a socialist state under the rule of law. Through unremitting efforts, we shall constantly improve the socialist relations of production and superstructure and open up a broader thoroughfare for the release and development of productive forces.
To make our Party forever represent the orientation of the development of China's advanced culture is to make the Party's theory, line, program, principles, policies and all its work reflect the requirements of the national, scientific and popular socialist culture that develops toward modernization, the world and the future, enable them to upgrade the ideological and ethical qualities and scientific and cultural qualities of the whole nation and to provide the motive power and support culturally and intellectually.
Socialist society is a society for the development and progress in all areas of endeavor. The socialist modernization is an undertaking that features mutual supplementation and harmonious development of material civilization and spiritual civilization. The comrades of the whole Party must have a comprehensive mastery of the dialectical relations between the two civilizations and while promoting material civilization, it is necessary to promote socialist spiritual civilization. In contemporary China, to develop advanced culture is to develop culture with distinct Chinese characteristics and to build socialist spiritual civilization.
We should have a firm grip on the development trend and requirements of China's advanced culture. We must persist in taking Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as the guide, base ourselves on the practice of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, fix our attention on the frontline of the development of the world's science and culture, develop healthy, progressive, rich and colorful socialist culture with Chinese styles and characteristics to meet the increasing demands of the people, and direct the people to get mentally equipped and upgraded with correct ideas. That is also the fundamental expression and requirement for our Party to remain in the forefront of the times and maintain its advanced nature.
The kind of cultural orientation a political party follows and the kind of culture it promotes constitute the party's ideological and spiritual banner. Over the past 80 years, our Party has held high the marching banner of China's advanced culture, worked hard to build and carry forward the new culture that reflects the requirements of revolution, construction and reform, and cleaned up the old decadent and dying culture which was left over from the old society and infiltrated into China from abroad. As a result, the cadres and masses have been emancipated and encouraged ideologically and mentally, and a correct guiding ideology and a common ideal have taken shape among the whole Party and the people throughout the country to rally popular feeling and unify public wills.
The fundamental task for developing the socialist culture lies in cultivating citizens from generation to generation who have lofty ideals, moral integrity, a better education and a good sense of discipline. We should persevere in arming the people with scientific theories, guiding the people with correct public opinions, molding the people with noble minds, and inspiring the people with superior works. We must stick to and consolidate the guiding status of Marxism, help people build up the correct outlook on the world and life and values, have firm belief in Marxism and socialism, increase confidence in the reform, opening- up and modernization drive, strengthen trust in the Party and the government, and increase the awareness about self-reliance, competition, efficiency, and democracy and the rule of law, as well as the pioneering and innovation spirit. We should continue to implement the strategy of invigorating the country through science and education, further popularize education, enhance its quality and level of the whole society, and make greater efforts to develop scientific and cultural undertakings. We should double our efforts to publicize scientific knowledge, scientific approaches, scientific thinking, and scientific spirit. A vital principle we must follow in developing China's advanced culture is to emphasize the central theme of the socialist culture, persevere in serving the people and socialism, and let a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend. We should master and develop various kinds of modern communication means and promote the spreading of the advanced culture.
Strengthening socialist ideological and ethical building constitutes the essential content of and a key link in developing China's advanced culture. We must be aware that people will lack common objective of struggle and reject the accepted code of conduct if we only stress material gains and money to the neglect of ideals and morality. We should combine the rule of law with the rule of virtue in order to build a lofty ideological and ethical foundation for maintaining a good public order and practice. We should advocate the ideology of patriotism, collectivism and socialism among all people, combat and resist money worship, hedonism, ultra-egoism and other decadent ideas, enhance the Chinese people's national self-esteem, self-confidence, and the sense of pride, and stimulate them to make unremitting efforts for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The socialist culture has become dominant in China. Because of the past and present reasons, however, there still exist some backward cultures in society that have features of superstition, ignorance, decadence and vulgarity, and even exist some decadent cultures that corrode people's mental world and jeopardize the socialist cause. We should remold the backward cultures, prevent and resolutely resist the corrosion to people by decadent cultures and various erroneous ideological concepts, and gradually reduce and root out the soil on which they rely to breed, through improving our policy and system, strengthening education and management, and transforming social traditions.
In developing the socialist culture, we must carry on and develop all the fine cultures, fully reflect the spirit of the times and creativity, and have the world perspective in a bid to enhance our inspiring capacity. We should make positive efforts to inherit and develop the fine cultural traditions of the Chinese nation, the revolutionary cultural traditions formed among the Party and people since the May 4th Movement (1919), as well as all the advanced civilization achievements mankind has ever created. With regard to the rich cultural legacies left over from China's history of several thousand years, we should select the essence and discard the dross therefrom, and carry forward and develop them in line with the spirit of the times in order to make the past serve the present. At the same time, we must, in line with new practices and requirements of the times and by taking account of the needs for cultural life of the people, promote cultural innovations, flourish the advanced culture and attract hundreds of millions of people to rally closely around the great banner of the socialist culture with Chinese characteristics.
To always represent the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people, our Party must, in all kinds of work including Party's theory, line, program, principle and policy, persevere in taking the fundamental interests of the people as the starting point and purpose, bring into full play people's enthusiasm, initiative and creativity, and enable the people to constantly obtain tangible economic, political and cultural benefits through continuous social development and progress.
The fundamental difference between our Party and all other political parties of exploiting classes lies in the fact that the former serves the people heart and soul, works for the public and assumes power for the people. At any time, we must continue to uphold the congruity between respecting the law of social development and respecting the people's status as the principal part in history, the agreement between striving for the lofty ideals and for the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, and the agreement between fulfilling the Party's various tasks and realizing the people's interests.
All the endeavors our Party has done over the past 80 years are, in the final analysis, aimed at the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. During the revolutionary wartime, our Party called on all its members to fight bravely and fear no sacrifice, and advance wave upon wave for the victory of revolution. After new China was founded, the Party exhorted all its members to remain modest and prudent, guard against conceit and impetuosity, and retain the revolutionary spirit of arduous struggle for good. In the new era, the Party demands that all its comrades be able to withstand the test of reform, opening-up and being in power, lead the people to work assiduously for the realization of socialist modernization. All this is aimed at continuously accomplishing, safeguarding and developing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people through always maintaining the Party's blood-and-flesh contacts with the people.
The general interests of the people are always composed of specific interests of different circles. All of our policies, measures and work should correctly reflect the relationships of various interests and help properly handle them, and we should take into consideration and look after the interests of the people
from different social strata and circles. However, what is the most important is to give top priority to and satisfy the interests and demands of the overwhelming majority of the people. This has always been vital to the overall interests of keeping the
Party in power, the country's economic, political and cultural development, and the unity among the people of different ethnic groups and social stability. The interests of the overwhelming majority of the people are the vital and most decisive factor. This is a fundamental viewpoint of Marxism and leading organs and cadres at different levels must fully realize and earnestly practice it.
Our party has always adhered to the principle of putting the interests of the people above everything else. Apart from the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people, the Party does not have any special interests of its own. All the Party's work must take the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people as the supreme criteria. All comrades in the Party should always uphold the basic viewpoint that they should do everything for the people and by relying on the people. We should adhere to the mass line of the Party by going down to the people at the grass-roots level to hear their voices, reflect their will and pool their wisdom, so that make all policy decisions thus made and our work conform to the reality and the demands of the masses. All cadres who are Party members must properly assume and exercise the power truly on behalf of the people, and in no way should they be allowed to abuse power for personal gains or form any vested interest groups. In gradually realizing the common prosperity of the people across the country, cadres who are Party members must correctly handle the relationships between becoming well-off early and late, and between individual and common prosperity. All leading Party cadres should be the first to concern about the country and the people and the last to enjoy life; be the first to bear hardships and the last to enjoy themselves; support and help others first instead of only thinking about how to get rich themselves, let alone seeking unlawful interests by abusing power. Leading cadres at all levels should always keep in mind the safety and well-being of the masses, show concern for the sufferings of the masses, and try hard to do useful and good things for the masses. Leading organs and leading cadres at all levels should pay particular attention to those who have encountered temporary difficulties in their work and life, and make proper arrangements for their employment and life by listing their problems on the top of the agenda for special consideration and solution. Only by making substantial efforts to take care of and serve the masses well, can we maintain the blood-and-flesh links with the people and remain invincible.
Representing the requirements of the development trend of China 's advanced productive forces, representing the orientation of China's advanced culture and representing the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people are interrelated and interact and constitute an integral whole. To develop advanced productive forces is a basic condition for developing advanced culture and realizing the fundamental interests of the people. The people are the main body to create advanced productive forces and culture as well as the fundamental force to realize their own interests. To ceaselessly develop advanced productive forces and culture is, in the final analysis, aimed at meeting the growing material and cultural needs of the people and continuously realizing the fundamental interests of the people.
The requirements of the "Three Represent's" are the basic requirements for our Party to maintain its advanced nature and always remain the strong leading core in building socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is in conformity with the Party's upholding of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory, adherence to its nature of being the vanguard of the working class, and its purpose of serving the people wholeheartedly. All comrades in the Party must unswervingly implement the requirements of the "Three Represent's" in all aspects of the Party building and in the entire process of the Party leading the people in the reform, opening-up and modernization drive. (to be continued)
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