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(xiàng)基本原則

改革開放之初，社會(huì)上和黨內(nèi)出現(xiàn)了一些思想動(dòng)向。一方面，在一部分人中，仍然存在思想僵化或半僵化狀態(tài)；另一方面，極少數(shù)人宣揚(yáng)無政府主義和資產(chǎn)階級(jí)自由化的主張，反對(duì)社會(huì)主義制度，反對(duì)共產(chǎn)黨的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)，反對(duì)毛澤東思想的指導(dǎo)地位，在社會(huì)上造成思想混亂，直接影響到中國社會(huì)穩(wěn)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(wù)虛會(huì)上作了題為《堅(jiān)持四項(xiàng)基本原則》的講話。四項(xiàng)基本原則的核心內(nèi)容是：堅(jiān)持社會(huì)主義道路；堅(jiān)持無產(chǎn)階級(jí)專政（后改稱為“人民民主專政”）；堅(jiān)持共產(chǎn)黨的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)；堅(jiān)持馬列主義、毛澤東思想。鄧小平還指出，堅(jiān)持四項(xiàng)基本原則是實(shí)現(xiàn)四個(gè)現(xiàn)代化（工業(yè)現(xiàn)代化、農(nóng)業(yè)現(xiàn)代化、國防現(xiàn)代化、科學(xué)技術(shù)現(xiàn)代化）的根本前提，核心是堅(jiān)持共產(chǎn)黨的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)。1987年10月，黨的十三大把四項(xiàng)基本原則作為重要內(nèi)容寫進(jìn)了黨在社會(huì)主義初級(jí)階段的基本路線中。