THE PARTY'S GENERAL LINE FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD

August 1953

[Important directive written by Comrade Mao Tsetung when he went over the summing-up to be made by Comrade Chou En-lai at the National Conference on Financial and Economic Work held in the summer of 1953.]

The time between the founding of the People's Republic of China and the basic completion of socialist transformation is a period of transition. The Party's general line or general task for the transition period is basically to accomplish the country's industrialization and the socialist transformation of agriculture, handicrafts and capitalist industry and commerce over a fairly long period of time. This general line should be the beacon illuminating all our work, and wherever we deviate from it, we shall make Right or "Left" mistakes.

Many policies under this general line were already set forth and decided upon in principle in the resolution adopted at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee held in March 1949. Nevertheless, many comrades were not inclined to work in accordance with the decisions of the Second Plenary Session and on some matters preferred to go their own way contrary to the session's decisions or even openly violated its principles.

Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung