邓小平文选/下决心这样做，表明我们真正解放了思想，摆脱了多年来“左”的错误指导方针的束缚。

Since in the past two years it has been difficult to reach a consensus on this issue even within the Party, it is obvious that a lot of work has to be done before the people in the whole country can achieve unity of understanding.

We must make clear to them why further readjustment is imperative, what problems may arise in the process and what we hope to achieve by it.

This way, the people will understand the necessity of further readjustment, believe that the Party and government really have their fundamental interests in mind and come to realize that the purpose of the readjustment is to ensure the success of the modernization drive.

It is therefore very important that we do a good job in this respect.

Our economic readjustment is of far-reaching importance.

We suggest, therefore, that the State Council consider making a report to the NPC Standing Committee at an early date.

Once this report is made public, it can serve as a basis for publicizing the economic readjustment and explaining it to the people.

The readjustment we are now undertaking is designed to lay a firm base for steady progress so that we can be surer of realizing the four modernizations and be in a more favourable position to attain their specific goals.

As for the road to be followed and the measures to be taken, we should continue trying to break away from stereotypes, whether old or new, and gain a clear and accurate understanding of China's actual conditions as well as the interrelation among various factors in our economic activity.

Provided the country is united from top to bottom and our advance is orderly and steady, we can be confident of building a moderately developed modern economy in two decades and then going on to a higher level of modernization.

It is true that in the 31 years since the founding of the People's Republic we have made quite a few mistakes, including some serious ones, and suffered repeated setbacks that adversely affected the life of the people and retarded the progress of socialist construction.

Nevertheless, through our endeavours over these years the number of industrial and transport enterprises has grown to nearly 400,000, and the value of the fixed assets of state enterprises has increased nearly 21 times compared with the early post-Liberation days.

The life of the whole people is far better than it was before Liberation.

Over the past few years and at this conference in particular, we have reviewed our previous shortcomings and mistakes and correctly summed up our experiences both positive and negative, so that we could work out an overall programme of construction on a sound and realistic basis.

We are sure to make steady progress towards our modernization goals provided we do the following: take advantage of the material conditions I have mentioned, heed the principles laid down for economic work, continue to strengthen and improve the Party's leadership, bring into play the superiority of the socialist system and the people's initiative and creativity, utilize our abundant natural resources more rationally, make our work conform increasingly to actual conditions, constantly sum up new experience, avoid new shortcomings and errors and, if any should occur, correct them in good time.

In this sense, the readjustment we are carrying out means a step forward, not backward.

The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee called on all Party members to emancipate their minds, use their heads, seek truth from facts, unite in looking ahead, study new situations and solve new problems.

With this as our guideline over the past two years, we have worked out a series of policies and carried out many reforms with marked success.

In April last year we laid down the policy of readjusting the economy, while at the same time calling for its restructuring, consolidation and improvement.

The masses and cadres sincerely support these correct Party policies, but they are also afraid that they will change some day.

Their fear of reversals and upheavals is fully understandable.

So, does this readjustment mean changes in the principles and policies formulated since the Third Plenary Session?

As I have said, the current readjustment means the continuation and development of these correct principles and policies, and the further implementation of the Third Plenary Session's guideline, that is, seeking truth from facts and correcting “Left” errors.

If there are to be any changes, they can only consist of overcoming remaining defects in our work that are incompatible with the spirit of the Third Plenary Session, and of resolutely casting away unrealistic ideas and subjectively fixed over-ambitious targets.