Boluan Fanzheng () was a period of significant sociopolitical reforms starting with the accession of Deng Xiaoping to the paramount leadership in China in 1978. During this period, a far-reaching program of reforms was undertaken by Deng and his allies to "correct the mistakes of the Cultural Revolution", and restore order in the country. 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. As such, aspects of a free market economy 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.
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 the death of Mao Zedong and the subsequent arrest of the Gang of Four. 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. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese government gradually dismantled the many distinctly Maoist policies associated with the Cultural Revolution, and rehabilitated millions of people who had been targeted during its decade of turmoil. Boluan Fanzheng lasted until the early 1980s, after which the primary focus of CCP and the Chinese government shifted from "class struggle" to further modernization and "economic construction". The subsequent speed of China's transformation in this period from one of the poorest countries to one of the world's largest economies is unmatched in history.In addition, the "1978 Truth Criterion Discussion" during the Boluan Fanzheng period was the starting point of the decade-long New Enlightenment movement in mainland China.
The reforms did not change China's status as a communist state. The period saw the enshrinement of the "Four Cardinal Principles" in the country's constitution, which upheld one-party rule in China. The Boluan Fanzheng period also saw several debates, particularly regarding on how to handle the legacies of Mao and the Cultural Revolution—namely the light treatment of figures who had been involved in the period's atrocities.
Terminology The term Boluan Fanzheng () is a chéngyǔ (Chinese literary idiom) that references a line in the Gongyang commentary to the Spring and Autumn Annals of ancient China. The idiom means "correcting chaos and returning to normal".
On September 19, 1977, Deng Xiaoping first proposed the idea of "Boluan Fanzheng" during a meeting with senior officials of the Ministry of Education of China, asking the officials to correct the mistakes of Cultural Revolution in the field of education.
Ideology Debate over the criteria for testing truth
After Mao Zedong died in September 1976, Hua Guofeng succeeded Mao as the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. Hua carried on most of the Maoist policies and followed the guideline of "Two Whatevers" ("Whatever Chairman Mao said, we will say and whatever Chairman Mao did, we will do").
In July 1977, with support from a number of influential senior officials such as Ye Jianying and Chen Yun, Deng Xiaoping was officially rehabilitated and was reinstated as the Vice Chairman of CCP and Vice Premier of China, after being purged (twice) by Mao during the Cultural Revolution. 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". 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. The debate also gave rise to the massive "New Enlightenment movement" in mainland China which lasted over a decade, promoting democracy, humanism and universal values such as human rights and freedom.
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. In his speech titled Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth from Facts, and Unite as One in Looking to the Future (解放思想，实事求是，团结一致向前看), Deng urged the Chinese society to seek truth from facts and pointed out that if the CCP, the whole country and the people continued to follow Maoism with stubborn mindset and blind superstition, then they would never be able to move forward and they would perish.
Invalidating the Cultural Revolution
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. 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.
After Deng Xiaoping won the power struggle with 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. 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". In 1980–1981, Hua Guofeng eventually resigned from his positions as the Chairman of the CCP, the Chairman of the Central Military Commission and the Premier of China. Deng succeeded as the new chairman of the military, while two of his closest allies assumed the other two positions: Hu Yaobang as the new Chairman of CCP and Zhao Ziyang as the new Premier.
From November 20, 1980, to January 25, 1981, a special court under the Supreme People's Court carried out a trial of the Gang of Four and six other people, eventually announcing death penalties with a two-year reprieve for Jiang Qing and Zhang Chunqiao, and imprisonment of various terms up to life imprisonment for other members.
In June 1981, at the 6th Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CCP, senior CCP officials unanimously passed the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China. 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".
Views on Mao Zedong
The Boluan Fanzheng program launched by Deng Xiaoping did not change China's status as a communist state, and included the incorporation the "Four Cardinal Principles" into the 1982 Constitution which forbid Chinese citizens from challenging China's socialist path, Maoism, Marxism–Leninism as well as the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party.
Mao was not repudiated completely; a Mausoleum dedicated to him was built on Tiananmen Square, and the picture of Mao on Tiananmen was not removed. Deng insisted that of all the things Mao had done to the Chinese people, "70% were good and 30% were bad", while attributing many disasters in the Cultural Revolution to Lin Biao and the Gang of Four. Since his death, Mao has been viewed as a controversial figure worldwide. In the late 1970s, political dissidents in China such as Wei Jingsheng started the "Democracy Wall Movement" in Beijing, criticizing Mao as well as Maoism and the one-party rule in China while demanding democracy and freedom. However, Wei's initiatives were eventually suppressed by Deng.
Politics and law
Rehabilitation of victims
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. Within a few years after 1978, victims in over 3 million such cases were rehabilitated. However, eventually, there were still around 100 "rightists" who did not receive official rehabilitation, notably Zhang Bojun, Luo Longji, Chu Anping and so on.
In addition to the "rightists" of the "Five Black Categories", the Central Committee of the CCP decided in January 1979 to abolish the other four discriminated social categories. According to official statistics, by 1984, around 4.4 million "landlords" and "rich farmers" had been rehabilitated, and a total of more than 20 million people who were labelled as members of the "four black categories" or their families had received rectification in their social status.Some of the notable victims who received official rehabilitation during the Boluan Fanzheng period are listed below. The rehabilitation of these important figures were endorsed and directed by Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun, Hu Yaobang and other senior CCP officials.
Liu Shaoqi, 2nd Chairman of China, who was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution. Liu was officially rehabilitated in February 1980, during the 5th Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of CCP. Peng Dehuai, one of the ten marshals of China and the 1st Minister of National Defense, who was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution. Peng was officially rehabilitated in December 1978. He Long, one of the ten marshals of China and Vice Premier of China, who was persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution. He was officially rehabilitated in October 1982. Xi Zhongxun, senior member of CCP and father of Xi Jinping. Xi was officially rehabilitated in February 1980. Bo Yibo, senior member of CCP and father of Bo Xilai. Bo was officially rehabilitated in December 1978. Tao Zhu, senior member of CCP and member of the Politburo Standing Committee. Tao was officially rehabilitated in December 1978.
The Constitution
The first Constitution of the People's Republic of China, commonly known as the "1954 Constitution", came into effect in 1954. However, in 1958, Mao Zedong publicly advocated the "rule of man" over the "rule of law", saying:We can't rule the majority of people by relying on law. The majority of people [can be ruled only] by relying on the cultivation of [good] habits. The army's reliance on rule by law didn't work; what's actually worked has been the 1,400-man conference. Who could remember so many clauses of a civil code or criminal law? I participated in the formulation of the Constitution, even I can't remember [it]. During the Cultural Revolution, China's Constitution was revised in 1975 and the second Constitution, commonly known as the "1975 Constitution", absorbed Maoism and vocabulary such as the "absolute leadership of CCP (in China)" into its main content. The Constitution also incorporated manifest descriptions of the CCP organization, abolishing top government positions including the President and the Vice President of China.