Great Historic Victory

Peking Review, 29 October 1976

[Publisher: Apparently a translated quotation from a Renmin Ribao editorial. See my note at the end.]

Red flags are flying over the mountains and rivers, everywhere in the motherland, and the faces of our 800 million people glow with joy. Hundreds of millions of people in all parts of our country have held mammoth demonstrations in the last few days. One million armymen and civilians yesterday met in a grand rally in Peking, the capital. They warmly celebrated Comrade Hua Kuo feng's assuming the posts of Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Military Commission of the C.P.C. Central Committee, hailed the great victory in smashing the plot of the anti-Party clique of Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan to usurp Party and state power, and denounced with great indigna tion the towering crimes of the gang of four.

The whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationali ties throughout the country are determined to rally most closely round the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua Kuo feng, carry out Chairman Mao's behests, and carry the proleta rian revolutionary cause through to the end.

Comrade Hua Kuo-feng was selected by the great leader Chairman Mao himself to be his successor. Chairman Mao proposed Comrade Hua Kuo-feng for the posts of First Vice-Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Premier of the State Council in April 1976. Then, on April 30, Chairman Mao wrote to Comrade Hua Kuo-feng in his own handwriting With you in charge, I'm at ease.

In accordance with the arrangements Chairman Mao had made before he passed away, the October 7, 1976 resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China appointed Comrade Hua Kuo-feng Chairman of the Central Committe of the Communist Party of China and Chairman of the Military Commission of the C.P.C. Central Committee. This represents the common aspiration of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country and was a great victory in smashing the plot of the gang of four to usurp Party and state power.

It was a joyous event of immense historic significance. Comrade Hua Kuo-feng, in whom Chairman Mao had boundless faith and whom the people throughout the country deeply love, is now the leader of our Party, and our Party and state have a reliable helmsman to continue their victorious advance along Chairman Mao's pro letarian revolutionary line.

The Party Central Committee headed by Comrade Hua Kou-feng crushed the plot of the gang of four for a counter-revolutio nary restoration and got rid of a big evil in our Party. Wang Chang-Chiang-Yao had long formed a cabal, the gang of four, engaged in factional activities to split the Party. The great leader Chairman Mao was aware of this long ago and severely criticized and tried to educate them again and again. And he made some arrangements to solve this problem.

Chairman Mao criticized them on July 17, 1974, saying: You'd better be careful; don't let yourselves become a small faction of four. Again, on December 24, Chairman Mao criticized them: Don't form factions. Those who do so will fall. In November and December of the same year, as the central leading organs were preparing to convene the Fourth National People's Congress, Chairman Mao said: Chiang Ching has wild ambitions. She wants Wang Hung-wen to be Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's National Congress and herself to be Chairman of the Party Central Committee.

On May 3, 1975, at a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Par ty Central Committee, Chairman Mao reiterated the basic princip les of three do's and three don'ts, and warned them: Prac tice Marxism-Leninism, and not revisionism; unite, and don't split; be open and aboveboard, and don't intrigue and conspire. Don't function as a gang of four, don't do it any more, why do you keep doing it?

That very day Chairman Mao, on this question, gave the instruc tion that if this is not settled in the first half of this year, it should be settled in the second half; if not this year, then next year, if not next year, then the year after.

Towards Chairman Mao's criticism and education, the gang of four took the attitude of counter-revolutionary double-dealers who comply in public but oppose in private. Not only did they not show the slightest sign of repentance, but on the contrary they went from bad to worse, further and further down the wrong path. During the period when Chairman Mao was seriously ill and after he passed away, they became more frantic in attacking the party and speeded up their attempts to usurp the supreme leader ship of the Party and state. We faced the grave danger of the Party turning revisionist and the state changing its political colour.

At this critical moment in the Chinese revolution, the Party Central Committee headed by Hua Kuo-feng, representing the fun damental interests and common aspiration of the whole Party, the whole army and the people of the whole country and with the boldness and vision of the proletariat, adopted resolute measures against the gang of four anti-Party clique, smashed their plot to usurp Party and state power, and saved the revolu tion and the Party. Thus the proletariat won a decisive victory in counter-attacking the onslaught of the bourgeoisie.

The gang of four, a bane to the country and the people, com mitted heinous crimes. They completely betrayed the basic prin ciples of three do's and three don'ts that Chairman Mao had earnestly taught, wantonly tampered with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, tampered with Chairman Mao's directives, op posed Chairman Mao's proletarian revolutionary line on a whole series of domestic and international questions, and practiced revisionism under the signboard of Marxism.

They carried out criminal activities to split the Party, forming a factional group, going their own way, establishing their own system inside the Party, doing as they wished, lording it over others, and placing themselves over Chairman Mao and the Party Central Committee. They were busy intriguing and conspiring and stuck their noses into everything to stir up trouble everywhere, interfere with Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and strategic plans and undermine the socialist revolution and socialist con struction.

They confounded right and wrong, made rumours, worked in a big way to create counter-revolutionary opinion, fabricated accusa tions against others and labelled people at will, and attempted to overthrow a lagre number of leading Party, government and army comrades in the central organs and various localities and seize Party and state leadership. They worshipped things foreign and fawned on foreigners, maintained illicit foreign relations, betrayed important Party and state secrets, and unscrupulously practised capitulationism and national betrayal. Resorting to various manoeuvres, they pursued a counter-revolutionary revi sionist line, an ultra-Right line.

Chairman Mao pointed out: You are making the socialist revolu tion, and yet don't know where the bourgeoisie is. It is right in the Communist Party - those in power taking the capitalist road. The capitalist-roaders are still on the capitalist road. Wang Hung-wen, Chang Chun-chiao, Chiang Ching and Yao Wen-yuan are typical representatives of the bourgeoisie inside the Party, unrepentant capitalist-roaders still travelling on the capita list road and a gang of bourgeois conspirators and careerists.

Our struggle against the gang of four is a life-and-death struggle between the two classes, the two roads and the two lines. By forming a narrow self-seeking clique to usurp Party and state power, the gang of four sought to change fundamen tally the proletarian nature of our Party, change its basic line for the entire historical period of socialism and restore capi talism in China. If thie scheme had succeeded, it would have meant serious disaster for the Chinese people.

The crushing of this anti-Party clique has removed from the Par ty a bunch of hidden traitors, rid the country of a big scourge and redressed the grievances of the people. The Party, the army and the people are all jubilant. This is a great example of putting into practice Chairman Mao's great theory of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat. It is of tremendous immediate importance and far-reaching historic significance to our adhering to the Party's basic line, comba ting and preventing revisionism, consolidating the dictatorship of the proletariat, preventing the restoration of capitalism, building socialism, upholding the principles of proletarian in ternationalism and carrying out Chairman Mao's revolutionary line and policies in foreign affairs. It is a great victory for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and for Mao Tsetung Thought.

Chairman Mao pointed out in 1971: Our Party already has a his tory of 50 years and has gone through ten major struggles on the question of Party line. There were people in these ten struggles who wanted to split our Party, but none were able to do so. This is a question worth studying: such a big country, such a large population, yet no split. The only explanation is that the peop le, the Party and the entire Party membership are of one mind in opposing a split. In view of its history, this Party of ours has a great future.

Summing up our Party's experience in the ten struggles on the question of Party line, Chairman Mao pointed out: The correct ness or incorrectness of the ideological and political line de cides everything and put forward the three basic principles Practise Marxism, and not revisionism; unite, and don't split; be open and aboveboard, and don't intrigue and conspire.

These principles are our criteria for distinguishing correct from erroneous lines and our sharp weapon for identifying the bourgeoisie inside the Party. The whole history of our Party shows that only by adhering to the three basic principles can the Party march in step, win wholehearted support from the mas ses of the people and organize a mighty revolutionary contin gent, and only by doing so can our revolutionary cause thrive.

Whoever goes against the three basic principles betrays the cause of the proletarian revolution and the vital interests of the people and brings ruin and shame upon himself. On ten oc casions in the past, the chieftains of opportunist lines tried to split the Party, but they all failed. The present Wang-Chang Chiang-Yao gang of four anti-Party clique, too, has come to an ignominious end because it practised revisionism and splittism, engaged in conspiracies to usurp Party and state power, and thus completely forfeited the confidence of the people and became ex tremely isolated.

Historical experience has time and again shown that our Party cannot be easily destroyed. Our Party is worthy of its reputa tion as a Party founded, tempered and nurtured by Chairman Mao himself, as a politically mature Marxist-Leninist Party and as a great, glorious and correct Party.

While acclaiming our Party's great historic victory, the whole Party, the whole army and the people of all nationalities throughout the country, under the leadership of the Party Cen tral Committee headed by Chairman Hua Kuo-feng, are determined to hold high the banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, persist in taking class struggle as the key link, adhere to the Party's basic line and and persevere in continuing the revolu tion under the dictatorship of the proletariat.

We must thoroughly expose the vile crimes of the Wang-Chang Chiang-Yao anti-Party clique, penetratingly criticize their counter-revolutionary revisionist line and eradicate its per nicious influence. It is imperative to draw a strict distinction between the two different types of contradictions and handle them correctly, earnestly implement Chairman Mao's principles Learn from past mistakes fo avoid future ones and cure the sickness to save the patient and Help more people by educating them and narrow the target of attack, so as to unite with all those that can be united with. We should continue to criticize Teng Hsiao-ping and repulse the Right deviationist attempt to reverse correct verdicts.

We should enthusiastically support socialist new things, consciously restrict bourgeois right and consolidate and develop the achievements of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. We should grasp revolution, promote production and other work and preparedness against war, go all out, aim high and achieve faster, better and more economic results in building socialism, and continue to develop the excellent situation.

Having eliminated the four pests, our Party has become even more united, even stronger and even more vigorous, and the dictatorship of the proletariat in this country is more consolida ted. The masses of the people are in high spirits and militant; everywhere in our motherland, orioles sing and swallows dart. Before us arises a political situation in which there are both centralism and democracy, both unity of will and personal ease of mind and liveliness. Since we have such a great Party, army and people, no difficulty whatever can stop our triumphant advance.

Under the leadership of the Party Central Committee headed by Chairman Hua Kuo-feng, we are able to continue our advance in the socialist revolution in accordance with Chairman Mao's line and policies and, in accordance with the grand plan Chairman Mao mapped out, accomplish the comprehensive modernization of agri culture, industry, national defence and science and technology and build China into a powerful socialist country before the end of the century, so as to make a greater contribution to mankind and work for the final realization of communism.