The Four Cardinal Principles

At the beginning of reform and opening up, some trends emerged in China, both among CPC members and in wider society. There was still a tendency to rigid thinking, while a handful of people expressed opposition to socialism, the CPC’s leadership, and the guidance of Mao Zedong Thought – preaching anarchy and bourgeois liberalization as an alternative. This caused ideological confusion and had a direct impact on social stability and the orientation of reform and opening up. Against this backdrop, a forum on the principles for the Party’s theoretical work was held, and Deng Xiaoping was entrusted by the Central Committee to deliver a speech entitled “Upholding the Four Cardinal Principles” on March 30, 1979.

The Four Cardinal Principles are:

–keeping to the path of socialism

–upholding the people’s democratic dictatorship,

–upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and

–upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.

Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the Four Cardinal Principles were the basic prerequisite for modernizing industry, agriculture, defense, and science and technology, and that the CPC’s leadership was the core of the four principles. At the 13th CPC National Congress in October 1987 the Four Cardinal Principles were identified as an important element of the Party’s basic line in the primary stage of socialism.

四項基本原則

改革開放之初，社會上和黨內出現了一些思想動向。一方面，在一部分人中，仍然存在思想僵化或半僵化狀態；另一方面，極少數人宣揚無政府主義和資產階級自由化的主張，反對社會主義制度，反對共產黨的領導，反對毛澤東思想的指導地位，在社會上造成思想混亂，直接影響到中國社會穩定和改革開放的方向。在這種情況下，1979年3月30日，鄧小平代表中共中央在理論工作務虛會上作了題為《堅持四項基本原則》的講話。四項基本原則的核心內容是：堅持社會主義道路；堅持無產階級專政（后改稱為“人民民主專政”）；堅持共產黨的領導；堅持馬列主義、毛澤東思想。鄧小平還指出，堅持四項基本原則是實現四個現代化（工業現代化、農業現代化、國防現代化、科學技術現代化）的根本前提，核心是堅持共產黨的領導。1987年10月，黨的十三大把四項基本原則作為重要內容寫進了黨在社會主義初級階段的基本路線中。