D. China's Second Revolution (continued) - 1976-1989

In the past the CPC had always slavishly followed Marxist, Leninist, and Maoist thought for guidance in control and of its policies. In the Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, Deng, in speaking to two members of the Central Committee of the CPC in 1977, said,

"I told them that the 'two whatevers' were unacceptable."

The 2 Whatevers

(1) We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made.
(2) We will unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave.

In the China People's Daily, December 7, 1984, this appeared:

Marx died 101 years ago. His works were written more than 100 years ago. There have been tremendous changes since his ideas were formed. Some [of Marx's] ideas are no longer suited to today's situation, because Marx never experienced these times, nor did Engels or Lenin. And they never came across the problems we faced today. So we cannot use Marxist and Leninist works to solve our present day problems.

The reformers stressed economic and not political reform. Zhang Changhai, Editor of the Guangming Daily says, "In a nutshell, the leadership of the Communist Party can't be questioned. The socialist road can't be questioned."