As the second edition of this study goes to press, a very significant development has occurred. From July 16 to 21, 1977, the Third Plenary Session of the Tenth Central Committee of the CCP was held in Peking. The most outstanding announcement of the Plenum was the restoration of Teng Hsiao-ping to all of his posts, principally: Member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CC of the CCP, Vice Chairman of the Party, Vice Premier of the State Council and Chief of Staff of the People’s Liberation Army.
This was an announcement of shattering impact within and without China. Teng Hsiao-ping was removed during the Cultural Revolution and severely criticized as Liu Shao-chi’s right hand man and the #2 leader of the bourgeois headquarters. In 1973 he was rehabilitated after making a thorough self-criticism and supposedly breaking with his past ideas. However, after his return he immediately set to work to reverse the correct verdicts of the Cultural Revolution and put together another bourgeois headquarters within the Party. In late 1975, Chairman Mao criticized Teng Hsiao-ping severely for attempting to liquidate class struggle by “taking the three directives as the key link” and personally initiated a massive struggle to criticize and beat back the Right deviasionist wind to reverse correct verdicts that Teng Hsiao-ping had stirred up. In April, 1976, the Political Bureau unanimously voted to remove Teng Hsiao-ping from all of his posts declaring that the contradiction with Feng had become one of antagonistic contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie.
The present leaders would have us believe that this decision was purely the responsibility of the so-called “gang of four”. However, more than these four members of the Political Bureau voted to remove him. Every member did, including Chairman Mao as well as the present leaders. The unanimous decision was clearly a result of Chairman Mao’s initiative and leadership, not what the present leaders now call “the factionalist activities” of four members.
After Chairman Mao’s death and the subsequent purge of the Party, the remaining leaders now totally reverse that decision, placing Teng Hsiao-ping in a position of tremendous authority and showing their total opposition to the proletarian revolutionary line of Chairman Mao.
More important than Teng Hsiao-ping’s restoration to power is the manner in which he was restored. When he was rehabilitated in 1973 along with other leaders purged during the Cultural Revolution it was only after he had made a thorough self-criticism. This time, Teng Hsiao-ping makes no self-criticism. There is no analysis or even admission of his errors. He and his politics are endorsed and he is put forward as a “victim” of the “gang of four”.
Peking Review #31, 1977, in which the decision is announced, reads:
At a central working conference held in March this year, Chairman Hua pointed out that the Wang-Chang-Chiang-Yao anti-Party clique ’attacked and fabricated charges against Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping. This was an important component part of their scheme to usurp Party and state power.’ He added that ’all the slanders and unfounded charges made by the ’gang of four’ against Comrade Teng Hsiao-ping should be repudiated. (pp. 10-11)
The restoration of Teng represents the most clear event in the complete reversal of last years’ struggle to criticize his thoroughly revisionist line. The fact that there is absolutely no analysis or admission of his erroneous line shows the thoroughly revisionist character of the present leaders. In the following months there will surely be more and more clear evidence of this as the present leaders go all out to defend Teng Hsiao-ping. Already the PR has reached new lengths in its boldness in putting forth the present leaders’ revisionist policies. Two articles in PR #30, 1977, repeat Teng Hsiao-ping and Liu Shao-chi’s revisionist line of putting emphasis on training an elite of professionals and academic specialists, which was clearly and unquestionably repudiated during the Cultural Revolution:
At present particular attention must be paid to earnestly implementing the Party’s policy towards intellectuals, giving full play to the role of professionals and mobilizing all positive factors, (p. 12) Under the centralized leadership of the Party there should be strong administrative leading organs over professional work so as to bring into full play the role of specialists in academic work. (p. 15)
Already the so-called “Communist Party (M-L)” of the USA (the October League) has rushed to be the first to acclaim Teng Hsiao-ping’s restoration in the Call. Last year the Call also acclaimed Teng Hsiao-ping’s removal as a great victory. This years’ reversal in position is accompanied with no explanation of the contradiction or self-criticism of their position last year. It is only an exposure of OL’s anti-Marxist approach, its total opportunism, and its 100% flunkyism to the new revisionists in China. Its prize is obvious on the front page of the same issue: recognition of the CCP to be the “Communist Party” in this country!
In 1976, Marxist-Leninist parties, organizations, and individuals around the world repudiated the thoroughly revisionist line of Teng Hsiao-ping. Since the purge of October, 1976, many of the Marxist-Leninists who continue to support the present leaders of the CC of the CCP refuse to see that the present leadership represents the very same ideological and political line as Teng Hsiao-ping. His restoration and the open defense of his line and policies that is sure to follow should force these organizations and individuals to analyze the new situation more correctly and stop blindly following and supporting the revisionist takeover of the CCP.