Third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party

The third plenary session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was a meeting of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party held at the Jingxi Hotel in Beijing, China, from December 18 to December 22, 1978. The conference marked the beginning of the reform and opening up policy, and is widely seen as the moment when Deng Xiaoping became paramount leader of China replacing Chairman Hua Guofeng, who remained nominal Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party until 1981. The meeting was a decisive turning point in post-1949 Chinese history, marking the beginning of the wholesale repudiation of Chairman Mao's

Cultural Revolution policies, and set China on the course for nationwide economic reforms.

Background and preparation

During the 1970s, reformists had encouraged gradual changes in various forms, such as technological improvements in factories and adjustments to China's education model.

Before the plenum, demands for a repudiation of the Cultural Revolution increased, especially by those who were persecuted during Mao Zedong's last years. In October 1976, the radical Gang of Four led by Mao's widow Jiang Qing was arrested, and Deng Xiaoping himself—Mao's chief rival from 1975 to 1976—was officially rehabilitated in 1977.

Although Hua Guofeng, who succeeded as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and "the great helmsman," in 1976, tried to carry on the Maoist rhetoric and to gain an authority like that of Mao's, he also allowed the rehabilitation of many of Deng's allies, who, calling for economic reform, then revolted against him. During the 1978 working conference held in November, preparing for the plenum, Chen Yun raised the "six issues" Bo Yibo, Tao Zhu, Wang Heshou and Peng Dehuai; the 1976 Tiananmen Incident; and Kang Sheng's errors, to undermine the Maoists. At the same conference, Deng said it was necessary to go over ideological barriers.

Relevant decisions

The plenum issued a communique stating, "[L]arge scale turbulent class struggles of a mass character have in the main come to an end." It described the Communist Party's focus going forward as socialist modernization, particularly through the Four Modernizations.