From January 11 to February 7, 1962, the Party Central Committee held an enlarged Central Work Conference in Beijing. Present at the meeting were the principal responsible persons at the central and provincial, prefectural, and county levels, as well as responsible cadres of important factories, mines, and the armed forces, a total of 7,118 people, commonly known as the 7,000-person conference.
The seven-thousand-person congress, which was unprecedented in scale, was held after a year of readjustment and a change in the situation, but there were still great difficulties and many ideological doubts inside and outside the party. The purpose of the meeting was to further sum up the lessons and lessons learned since the "Great Leap Forward," unify understanding, strengthen unity, mobilize the whole party to more resolutely implement the adjustment policy, and strive to overcome difficulties.
Mao Zedong (second from right), Liu Shaoqi (third from right), Zhou Enlai (second from left), Zhu De (first from left), Chen Yun (third from left), and Deng Xiaoping (first from right) at the "Seven Thousand People's Congress." Xinhua News Agency photo
The previous stage of the congress was to discuss and revise the draft written report submitted by Liu Shaoqi on behalf of the Central Committee. Mao Zedong proposed that this draft be printed and distributed directly to the congress without discussion by the Politburo of the CENTRAL Committee for revision. After discussion among the participants, the "Report at the Enlarged Central Work Conference" was finalized as an official document of the Conference. The report includes three issues: first, the current situation and tasks; second, strengthening democratic centralism and strengthening centralization and unification; and third, the party issue.
In the "Present Situation and Tasks", the report more systematically summarizes that "the appearance of our country has undergone tremendous changes in all aspects" since the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially on the basis of the achievements made in 12 aspects since 1958, and specifically pointed out "the main shortcomings and errors that have occurred in the work in recent years", including the excessively high indicators of industrial and agricultural production planning, the excessive demands on the development of construction undertakings, the serious imbalance in the proportion of the national economy, and the confusion between collective ownership and ownership by the whole people in the rural areas. Rush to transition, blowing the "communist wind" and serious growth of decentralism.
On the issue of "strengthening democratic centralism and strengthening centralism," the report points out: "It must be noted that in recent years, in the life of our Party and the country, democratic centralism has been greatly weakened, and in some places it has even been grossly undermined. The report mainly revolves around "strengthening centralization and unity and opposing decentralism." The report points out that with regard to the relationship between centralization and decentralization of power, it is necessary to clearly handle the relationship between strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the central authorities and giving play to the enthusiasm of various localities, the relationship with localities in accordance with the time and local conditions, and the relationship with hierarchical management.
On the "party question," the report mainly talks about the style of seeking truth from facts, the mass line, and several issues in life within the party. "Experience tells us that formulating policies and plans based on false reports and false figures is bound to make mistakes and will inevitably cause great damage to the party, the people, and the country."
Mao Zedong spoke at the "Seven Thousand People's Congress." Xinhua News Agency photo
After the end of the 7,000-person congress, under the direct leadership of Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yun, and Deng Xiaoping, the CPC Central Committee held the West Building Conference and the May Conference in February and May successively to further face and analyze the serious and difficult situation of the national economy. Liu Shaoqi pointed out: Now that we are in a period of recovery and have the character of an extraordinary period, we cannot use ordinary methods, but extraordinary methods to carry out the measures for economic readjustment. Chen Yun served as the head of the re-established Central Financial and Economic Group and put forward the idea of overcoming difficulties. Zhou Enlai summed up Chen Yun's opinion as a couplet: the upper link is "first grasping food and wearing", the lower link is "realizing the importance of agriculture", and the horizontal batch is "comprehensive balance".
After the Seven-Thousand-Member Congress, the main measures adopted for readjusting the national economy were: vigorously reducing the number of workers and staff and reducing the population in cities and towns; reducing the scale of capital construction and halting the construction of a large number of capital construction projects; shortening the industrial front, implementing the necessary closures, suspensions, mergers, and turns; strengthening and supporting the agricultural front in all aspects of human, material, and financial resources, and strengthening the leading forces of the rural grassroots. In the adjustment of agricultural policies, some localities have tried various forms of agricultural production responsibility systems, including contract production to households, and achieved good results.
After nearly two years of adjustment before and after the 7,000-person congress, since the summer of 1963, various construction undertakings have shown a clear momentum of healthy development. By the end of 1965, the task of readjusting the national economy had been fully completed.
Source: Xinhua Net
Editor: Huang Yixin
Editor-in-charge: Wang Hui
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