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The Sixth Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the CCP: Look Back in Anger?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

David S. G. Goodman
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Extract

The Sixth Plenum of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) met in Beijing from 27 to 29 June 1981. On its agenda were two items: changes in the highest-level leadership of the CCP, and the “ Resolution on certain questions in the history of our party since the founding of the People's Republic of China.” ‘ Though the Plenum's decisions to a large extent confirmed and made official trends and policies that had become apparent during most of the previous year, they were nonetheless remarkable. The western press has, not unsurprisingly, focused on the replacement of Hua Guofeng by Hu Yaobang as Chairman of the CCP's Central Committee. However, the Plenum's reassessment of the Party's history since 1949; of the roles of Mao Zedong, Hua Guofeng and other CCP leaders; and of the nature of Mao Zedong Thought, are undoubtedly of greater significance in terms of the development of the People's Republic of China (PRC): as indeed is the fact of Hua Guofeng's demotion rather than his outright dismissal or “ purge.”

Type
Recent Developments
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 87 , September 1981 , pp. 518 - 527
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 1981

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References

1. For both the Communique of the Sixth Plenum, and the Resolution on Party history; see Beijing Review, No. 27, 6 July 1981.

2. “ Communique of the Fifth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China “ in Beijing Review, No. 10, 10 March 1980, p. 7.Google Scholar

3. “ Communique of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 1 lth Central Committee of CPC “ in Beijing Review, No. 27,6 July 1981, p. 8.Google Scholar

4. “ Communique of the Fifth Plenary Session, “ p. 9.

5. Renmin ribao, 8 March 1979, p. 2.

6. Muqiao, Xue, “ Economic Work Must Grasp the Laws of Economic Development,” 14 March 1979. Translated in Documents in Communist Affairs, 1980 (London: Macmillan, 1981), p. 140.Google Scholar

7. “ Comrade Ye Jianying's speech at the meeting in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China “ in Beijing Review, No. 40, 5 October 1979, p. 12.Google Scholar

8. BBC, Summary of World Broadcasts, Part III, The Far East (SWB/FE) 6363,6 March 1980, BII/7.

9. “ How to assess Chairman Mao and Mao Zedong Thought “ in Renmin ribao, 11 April 1981.

10. In Inside China Mainland, April 1981, pp. 2–11.

11. Schurmann, H. F., Ideology and Organization in Communist China (2nd ed.) (Berkeley: California, 1968), p. 21et seq.Google Scholar

12. Issues and Studies, Vol. 16, No. 9, September 1980, p. 85.Google Scholar

13. See e.g. MacFarquhar, R., The Origins of the Cultural Revolution, Vol. 1 - Contradictions among the people 1956–1957 (London: Oxford University Press, 1974), especially Parts One and Two.Google Scholar

14. SWB/FE6363/BII/17.