The meeting was a decisive turning point in post-1949 Chinese history, marking the beginning of the wholesale repudiation of Chairman Mao's "Cultural Revolution" policies, and set China on the course for nationwide economic reforms.
During the 1978 working conference held in November, preparing for the plenum, Chen Yun raised the "six issues"—Bo Yibo, Tao Zhu, Wang Heshou and Peng Dehuai; the 1976 Tiananmen Incident; and Kang Sheng’s errors—to undermine the leftists.
[citation needed] Trying to distance from the Cultural Revolution practice which put politics before the economy, the third plenary session argued that extensive criticism campaigns against Lin Biao and the Gang of Four were to be abandoned in favour of a greater attention to economics.
Particularly, it criticized the use of issuing Mao's "instructions", as it was said that "No personal view by a Party member in a position of responsibility, including leading comrades of the Central Committee, is to be called an 'instruction.'"
Putting forward the "Seeking truth from facts" principle, the plenum started the repudiation of the Cultural Revolution: the "Counterattack the Right-Deviationist Reversal-of-Verdicts Trend" campaign aimed against Deng was openly rejected, and Peng Dehuai, Tao Zhu, Bo Yibo and Yang Shangkun were rehabilitated.