Excerpts of Talks between Leading Comrades and Foreign Guests (Supplement No. 1)

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Serial No. 000026

Excerpts of Talks between Leading Comrades and Foreign Guests (Supplement No. 1)

October 30, 1982

Contents
Comrade Hu Yaobang Briefs the French Communist Party Central Committee Delegation on the Basic Situation is the Party and in China and on Lessons Learned

Comrade Hu Yaobang Briefs the French Communist Party Central Committee Delegation on the Basic Situation is the Party and in China and on Lessons Learned

Comrade Hu Yaobang during his October 14 - 15 talks with the French Communist Party Central Committee delegation, briefed them on the basic situation in the Party and in China.  Here is an excerpt:

In the sixty-year history of the Party, three major mistakes were made but there were also great achievements

Comrade Hu Yaobang said, over the 61-year history of our Party, we have made three big mistakes or three big setbacks. In the first twenty-eight years, we made two major mistakes but we still won.  Our fundamental experience was combining the universal truth of Marxism with the reality of the Chinese revolution. There Comrade Mao Zedong made a unique contribution.

During the thirty-three years of socialist construction, he made one big mistake, but nevertheless achieved great results.  Comrade Mao Zedong also made a unique contribution; and the mistake was first and foremost his.  All of us in the Party and the whole country agree that Comrade Mao Zedong's merits were more significant even though his mistakes were not small ones.  Many people abroad agree with this analysis. As for some people abroad who want to deny Comrade Mao Zedong's achievements, this is a failure to fully reckon with the feelings of the Chinese people.

Comrade Yao Bang talked about how over the past thirty-three years, China has made the initial steps in establishing a modern industrial system.  The day before yesterday (note: October 12), we successfully launched a missile from a submarine and took steps to realize the economic growth target proposed at the 12th Chinese Communist Party Congress.

Over the past twenty-some years, the reputation of the socialist countries has declined because of wrong turns on two aspects and four issues

Comrade Hu Yaobang, when discussing our country's economic construction, said it would have grown faster if we had not made mistakes.  He stressed that over the past twenty-some years the reputation of the socialist countries among the people of the world has declined.   Comrade Hu Yaobang said that up to the 1950s, the reputation of socialist countries, including China, was very good. After that decade, their reputation declined because of the detour in two areas and four issues.

First, on the issue of dictatorship, we misinterpreted Karl Marx's concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat, arrested many people, and even killed many of them.  This also happened in China. We did not conscientiously implement socialist democracy. Second, All the socialist countries have been economically stagnant for a long time.

The second aspect of the problem is in our foreign relations; the first is that party-to-party relations party and the party has been very abnormal; the other is that the state-to-state relationship has been even more abnormal.

Comrade Hu Yaobang said that the decline in the prestige of the socialist countries is worthy of serious study so we can draw some conclusions; if we don't the first thing that will be harmed will be the rule of the Communist Party.

Our Party’s two major lessons learned:  We must do a good job on democratic centralism, socialist democracy and the legal system

Comrade Hu Yaobang said that the two experiences of our Party in politics are: First, to make the life of the Party normal. We must implement democratic centralism and not have a situation in which one person decides things by himself. Comrade Mao Zedong too once stressed this point.  Later, however, perhaps because of his age, he decided to decide things by himself. The political life of our Party is normal now, and we are now in the best period since the founding of the country.

First, the standing committee of the Politburo has acted on many of Comrade Deng Xiaoping's ideas. This is just the opposite from what people say abroad, that Deng decides everything himself.  His strength is his rich experience and his ability to absorb the correct opinions of others. There are still rumors abroad that there is friction between the army and the Party leadership. That is not true.  The Chinese People's Liberation Army was founded by the Party, and there has never been any history of the army rebelling against the Party in its 55 years of existence. The exceptions were those two bad people Zhang Guotao and Lin Biao and they were not able to get a rebellion going.

Second, according to the lessons we learned from our past mistakes, democracy and the rule of law must be well implemented. While advocating socialist democracy, we should also pay attention to the socialist legal system. Whether it is the dictatorship of the proletariat or the people's democratic dictatorship, the dictatorship is implemented through rule by law.  The combination of socialist democracy and socialist rule by law is the broadest sort of democracy for the majority and the dictatorship for the minority. The French Communist Party, the Italian Communist Party and the Western Communist Party do not promote the dictatorship of the proletariat. We too do not promote the dictatorship of the proletariat now.

At present, there are several problems that need to be solved in China

(1) Cadres

Comrade Hu Yaobang said, at present, the backbone of our Party and our leadership, that is, the cadres before the founding of New China, totaled 2.1 to 2 million people.  Out of these, more than 600 still remain from the first period of the Revolution but only 300 are able to work. From the period of the agrarian revolution, there remain over 11,000 cadres.  From the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, we still have hundreds of thousands of people.  Over one million took part in the War of Liberation. 

These two million comrades have the advantage of having been tested by rigorous struggle. They have a strong revolutionary character, are more experienced in their work.  Their disadvantages are age and insufficient knowledge of modern science. For the sake of our cause, it was necessary to systematically arrange for the old comrades to retire and for the young ones to take up their posts.  These are two sides of the same coin.  This were the historical circumstances in which the Central Advisory Committee was proposed. At the last Central Committee, 39 people were over the age 75. Twenty-three of them withdrew, leaving behind 16 comrades with high prestige in China and influence in the international arena.  The current Central Committee with alternates totals 348 people. Only 49 percent are under the age of 60, i.e., more than 170; 117 are under the age of 50, and only three are age 40 or younger.

Comrade Hu Yaobang believes that, at present, the problem of the aging cadres has not yet been solved satisfactorily.  We need to continue to work on it.

(2) Institutional overlap 

Comrade Hu Yaobang said, at present, our country has over 21 million cadres.  The problem of organizations with overlapping responsibilities, low efficiency, and bureaucracy are serious. The solution is being determined to streamline organization and set aside a number of places so that cadres can go away for study and rotational training. Starting from next year, we will start various schools and training courses for cadres and workers.  About 20 to 30 million people will participate in these courses. This is a difficult task.

(3) Accumulated problems within the Party

Comrade Hu Yaobang said that the Party has 40 million members and 30 million members of the Communist Youth League.  Many problems have accumulated in the Party ranks.  This is due mainly to the fact that after our Party came to power, in a peaceful environment, some people used their positions for private gain, seriously violating the law and violating Party discipline.  This has been a painful lesson for our Party.  Just for that reason, we have studied Lenin's experience of purging the party. We have come to believe that a simple method of purging the party is not a good one. We need to solve the problem of corruption within the ruling party, but we also need to take the right approach. This requires distinguishing two different types of contradictions.  There are contradictions between us and the enemy or the contradiction that has the character of contradictions between us and the enemy such as Jiang Qing's group, which should be handled according to the law of the state. In handling the cases of comrades who have made mistakes, we should conduct criticism and self-criticism, education, salvage, and not just take party disciplinary action alone. Only those who cannot be saved will be expelled. Simply expelling people from the Party would just increase contradictions within the Party. Beginning next year, our Party will carry out rectifying our Party and its working style.

(4) Economic Issues

Comrade Hu Yaobang said that the Chinese revolution did not copy any "model" during the period in which it was moving towards socialism.  However, during the period of building socialism, it began to copy the Soviet "model" but did not learn it well.  At present, many domestic economic problems have accumulated.  If we are to take a specifically Chinese road to socialism, we decided that over the next three years we must resolve to carry out comprehensive economic reforms, that is, reforms in planning, institutions, management, administration, prices, education, labor and wages, and so on.  We cannot thoughtlessly reform for the sake of reform; we must reform only after careful consideration.