(April 24, 1945)

Since its birth in 1921, the Communist Party of China has experienced three great struggles in its twenty-four-year history, namely the Northern Expedition, the Agrarian Revolutionary War, and the ongoing Anti-Japanese War. From its very beginning, our party has been a party based on the theory of Marxism-Leninism. This is because this doctrine is the crystallization of the most correct and revolutionary scientific thinking of the proletariat of the world. Once the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism was combined with the concrete practice of the Chinese revolution, it changed the face of the Chinese revolution and gave rise to the entire historical stage of new democracy. The Communist Party of China, armed with the theoretical ideas of Marxism-Leninism, has given birth to a new work style among the Chinese people. This is mainly a style of combining theory and practice, a style of close contact with the people and a style of self-criticism.

The universal truth of Marxism-Leninism, which reflects the practical struggle of the proletariat all over the world, becomes an invincible weapon for the Chinese people when it is combined with the concrete practice of the revolutionary struggle of the Chinese proletariat and the broad masses of the people. The Chinese Communist Party did exactly this. Our party has developed and progressed from the process of resolute struggle against all dogmatism and empiricism that violate this truth. Dogmatism is divorced from concrete practice, and empiricism mistakes local experience for universal truth. These two opportunistic ideas are contrary to Marxism. In its twenty-four years of struggle, our party has overcome and is overcoming these erroneous ideas, which has greatly consolidated our party's ideology. Our party now has 1.21 million members. The vast majority of them joined the party during the Anti-Japanese War, and there are various impure thoughts among them. This is also the case among party members who joined the party before the Anti-Japanese War. The rectification work over the past few years has achieved great results, and many of these impure thoughts have been corrected. This kind of work should be continued in the future, and ideological education within the party should be carried out to a greater extent in the spirit of "learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones, and treating illnesses to save the patient." We must make the leading backbones of the party at all levels understand that such a close integration of theory and practice is one of the distinctive signs that distinguish us Communists from any other political party. Therefore, mastering ideological education is the central link in uniting the whole party in the great political struggle. If this task is not solved, all the political tasks of the party will not be accomplished.

Another distinctive sign that distinguishes our Communists from any other political party is that we have the closest contact with the broadest masses of the people. Serve the people wholeheartedly and never be separated from the masses for a moment; proceed from the interests of the people rather than the interests of individuals or small groups; be responsible to the people and to the leadership of the party; these are our starting points. Communists must always be ready to uphold the truth, because any truth is in the interests of the people; Communists must be ready to correct mistakes at any time, because any error is not in the interests of the people. Twenty-four years of experience tells us that all correct tasks, policies and work styles are in line with the needs of the local people at that time and are in contact with the people; all wrong tasks, policies and work styles are incompatible with the needs of the local people at that time and are divorced from the people. The reason why such shortcomings as dogmatism, empiricism, commandism, tailism, sectarianism, bureaucracy, and arrogant work attitudes are definitely bad and must be avoided. If anyone has such shortcomings, they must be corrected, is because they are separated from the masses. Our congress should call on the entire party to be alert and pay attention to every comrade in every link of work, and not to let him become isolated from the masses. Educate every comrade to love the masses and listen carefully to the voices of the masses; to integrate with the masses wherever they go, not to stand above the masses, but to go deep among the masses; to inspire and improve the consciousness of the masses according to their level of consciousness, and based on the principle of the masses' inner volition, to help the masses gradually organize and gradually launch all necessary struggles permitted by the local internal and external environment at that time. In all work, commandism is wrong because it exceeds the level of consciousness of the masses, violates the principle of voluntariness of the masses, and causes acute illness. Our comrades should not think that what they understand is understood by the masses as well as themselves. Whether the masses have understood it and whether they are willing to take action can only be known by observing among the masses. If we do this, we can avoid commandism. In all work, tailism is also wrong, because it lags behind the level of consciousness of the masses, violates the principle of leading the masses to move forward, and causes chronic diseases. Our comrades should not think that the masses do not understand anything they do not understand yet. Many times, the broad masses of the people are running ahead of us and are in urgent need of taking a step forward. Our comrades cannot be the leaders of the broad masses, but they reflect the opinions of some backward elements. They mistake the opinions of these backward elements for the opinions of the broad masses, and become the tail of the backward elements. In short, every comrade should be made clear that all speeches and actions of communists must be in line with the best interests of the overwhelming majority of the people and be supported by the overwhelming majority of the people as the highest standard. Every comrade should be made to understand that as long as we rely on the people, firmly believe in the endless creativity of the people, trust the people, and become one with the people, then any difficulty can be overcome, and no enemy can overwhelm us, but will only be overpowered by us.

Whether we have serious self-criticism is also one of the obvious signs that distinguish us from other political parties. We once said that the house should be cleaned frequently, otherwise it will be full of dust; the face should be washed frequently, but if not washed, it will be full of dust. The thoughts of our comrades and the work of our Party will also be stained with dust, and they should be swept and washed. "Flowing water does not rot, door hinges do not become beetles", which means that they resist the erosion of microorganisms or other organisms in their constant movement. For us, we should review our work frequently, promote democratic style in the review, be unafraid of criticism and self-criticism, practice "tell everything we know, and speak everything", "those who speak are not guilty, and those who hear are warned", "if there is something, change it, and if there is nothing, encourage it". These are the only effective ways to resist all kinds of political dust and political microorganisms from corroding the thoughts of our comrades and the body of our party. The reason why the rectification movement with the purpose of "learning from past mistakes and avoiding future ones, treating illnesses and saving people" has been very effective is because we carried out correct rather than distorted, serious rather than perfunctory criticism and self-criticism in this movement. The Chinese Communists, who take the best interests of the vast majority of the Chinese people as their starting point, believe that their cause is completely just, and they are willing to sacrifice everything personally and are always ready to sacrifice their lives for our cause. Are there any thoughts, views, opinions, and methods that are not suitable for the needs of the people that they are reluctant to throw away? Do we still welcome any political dust and political microorganisms to stain our clean appearance and erode our sound body? Countless revolutionary martyrs sacrificed their lives for the benefit of the people, which makes every living person feel sad when thinking of them. Are there any personal interests that we cannot sacrifice, and are there any mistakes that we cannot abandon?