The Four Cardinal Principles

In the early days of reform and opening up, some ideological trends were apparent in China, both among CPC members and in wider society. There was still a tendency toward rigid thinking, and some people could not understand the guidelines, principles and policies adopted at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, and even harbored resentment toward them, while a handful of people expressed opposition to socialism, the CPC's leadership, and the guidance of Mao Zedong Thought – preaching anarchy and bourgeois liberalization as an alternative. This caused ideological confusion and had a direct impact on social stability and the orientation of reform and opening up. 

Against this backdrop, a forum on the principles for the Party's theoretical work was held, and Deng Xiaoping was entrusted by the Central Committee to deliver a speech entitled "Upholding the Four Cardinal Principles" in March 1979.

The Four Cardinal Principles are:

?keeping to the path of socialism; 

?upholding the dictatorship of the proletariat (people's democratic dictatorship); 

?upholding the leadership of the CPC; and

?upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.

These four constitute an integrated whole, with the CPC's leadership being the core of the four principles.

The Four Cardinal Principles are the very foundation for building China, and a major component of the Party's guidelines for building socialism with Chinese characteristics in the primary stage of socialism. This makes them the political anchor that unites the Chinese people in their concerted endeavors.

四項基本原則

改革開放之初，中國社會上和中國共產黨黨內出現了一些思想動向。一方面，在一部分人中，仍然存在思想僵化或半僵化狀態，對中共十一屆三中全會制定的路線、方針、政策表現出不理解甚至抵觸情緒；另一方面，社會上極少數人宣揚無政府主義和資產階級自由化的主張，反對社會主義制度，反對中國共產黨的領導，反對毛澤東思想的指導地位，在社會上造成思想混亂，直接影響到中國社會穩定和改革開放的方向。

在這種情況下，1979年3月，鄧小平在中共中央召開的理論工作務虛會上，作了題為《堅持四項基本原則》的講話。四項基本原則的核心內容是：堅持社會主義道路，堅持無產階級專政即人民民主專政，堅持中國共產黨的領導，堅持馬列主義和毛澤東思想。四項基本原則是一個相互聯系的整體，其核心是堅持中國共產黨的領導。

四項基本原則是立國之本，是中國共產黨在社會主義初級階段基本路線的重要內容之一，是全國各族人民團結奮進的政治基礎。