ABSTRACT
In 1978, the third plenum of the CPC’s Eleventh Central Committee took the strategic policy decision to shift the central task of the Party from “taking class struggle as the key link” to socialist modernization and economic construction. The plenum held that the timely and summary shift of the emphasis of work to socialist modernization and economic construction to keep up with the development of both the internal and external situations reflected the requirements of history and aspirations of the people and represented the fundamental interests of the people. The plenum discarded the “leftist” erroneous principle of “taking class struggle as the key link,” which was not suited to a socialist society, and settled the strategic shift problem that had not been resolved after the establishment of the basic system of socialism.2
