Boluan Fanzheng

[1][2] The start of the Boluan Fanzheng period is regarded as an inflection point in Chinese history, with its cultural adjustments later proven to be the bedrock upon which the parallel economic reform and opening up could take place.

[3][4] As such, aspects of market capitalism were successfully introduced to the Chinese economy, giving rise to a period of growth often characterized as one of the most impressive economic achievements in human history.

[5][6][7] Deng, who had been in and out of favor during the Cultural Revolution, first spoke publicly of the ideas of Boluan Fanzheng in September 1977, roughly a year after Mao's death and the subsequent arrest of the Gang of Four.

[8][9] With the help of allies such as Hu Yaobang, who later became the party's General Secretary, Deng was able to launch his reforms after the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee in December 1978, where he had ascended to the paramount leadership role.

[13][10] Boluan Fanzheng lasted until early the 1980s, after which the primary focus of CCP and the Chinese government shifted from "class struggle" to further modernization and "economic construction".

[19][20] The CCP has not declassified many documents related to the Cultural Revolution, and has contributed to the chilling effect dissuading its academic study and public discussion within Chinese society.

[23][24][25][26] The term Boluan Fanzheng (拨乱反正) is a chéngyǔ (Chinese literary idiom) that references a line in the Gongyang commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals of ancient China.

[31][32] In May 1978, Deng, together with Hu Yaobang and other allies, initiated a large-scale debate within the Chinese society, discussing the criteria for testing truth and criticizing the ideology of "Two Whatevers".

[33] Deng and his allies endorsed the philosophy of "practice is the sole criterion for testing truth", which was first proposed in an article published by Guangming Daily on May 11, 1978, and gained widespread support from the Chinese public.

[17][18] On December 13, 1978, Deng delivered a speech at the closing ceremony of the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CCP, during which he replaced Hua Guofeng as the new paramount leader of China.

[39][40][41][42] On September 9, 1976, Mao Zedong died in Beijing, and on October 6, Hua Guofeng together with Ye Jianying, Wang Dongxing and others arrested the Gang of Four in a political coup at Huairen Hall, putting an end to the Cultural Revolution.

[44][45] However, after Hua Guofeng became the new paramount leader of China after Mao, he continued to follow Maoist policies and adhere to the guideline of "Two Whatevers", without invalidating the Cultural Revolution.

[29][30] After Deng Xiaoping won power struggle over Hua and became the new paramount leader of China in December 1978, he and his allies began to systematically implement the Boluan Fanzheng program in order to correct the mistakes of Cultural Revolution.

[37][38] Since the late 1970s, Deng and his allies gradually dismantled the Maoist line of "continuous class struggles", shifting the focus of the CCP and the Chinese government to "economic construction" as well as "modernization".

[52][53] The resolution was drafted under the supervision of Deng Xiaoping and officially invalidated the Cultural Revolution by calling it "a domestic havoc launched mistakenly by the leader (Mao Zedong) and taken advantage of by the counter-revolutionary gangs (Lin Biao and the Gang of Four)" and that it "was responsible for the most severe setback and the heaviest losses suffered by the Party, the country, and the people since the founding of the People's Republic".

[28][52][53][54] During the Boluan Fanzheng period, Hu Yaobang, then General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was supported by Deng Xiaoping and others to take charge of the rehabilitation of millions of victims who were persecuted in the so-called "unjust, false, erroneous cases (冤假错案)" since the Anti-rightist Campaign in 1957.

[72][73] Deng pointed out that the new Constitution must be able to protect the civil rights of Chinese nationals and must demonstrate the principle of separation of powers; he also described the idea of "collective leadership", advocating "one man, one vote" among senior leaders to avoid the dictatorship of the General Secretary of CCP.

[74][75] Compared to previous versions, some of the notable changes in the 1982 Constitution include: During the Cultural Revolution, academics and intellectuals were regarded as the "Stinking Old Ninth" and were widely persecuted.

In 1977, upon the suggestion of Zha Quanxing and Wen Yuankai, Deng Xiaoping restored the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) after its ten-year halt during the Cultural Revolution, thus re-establishing the higher education system in China and changing the life of tens of millions.