四项基本原则
改革开放之初，社会上和党内出现了一些思想动向。一方面，在一部分人中，仍然存在思想僵化或半僵化状态；另一方面，极少数人宣扬无政府主义和资产阶级自由化的主张，反对社会主义制度，反对共产党的领导，反对毛泽东思想的指导地位，在社会上造成思想混乱，直接影响到中国社会稳定和改革开放的方向。在这种情况下，1979年3月30日，邓小平代表中共中央在理论工作务虚会上作了题为《坚持四项基本原则》的讲话。四项基本原则的核心内容是：坚持社会主义道路；坚持无产阶级专政（后改称为“人民民主专政”）；坚持共产党的领导；坚持马列主义、毛泽东思想。邓小平还指出，坚持四项基本原则是实现四个现代化（工业现代化、农业现代化、国防现代化、科学技术现代化）的根本前提，核心是坚持共产党的领导。1987年10月，党的十三大把四项基本原则作为重要内容写进了党在社会主义初级阶段的基本路线中。
The Four Cardinal Principles
At the beginning of reform and opening up, some trends emerged in China, both among CPC members and in wider society. There was still a tendency to rigid thinking, while a handful of people expressed opposition to socialism, the CPC's leadership, and the guidance of Mao Zedong Thought – preaching anarchy and bourgeois liberalization as an alternative. This caused ideological confusion and had a direct impact on social stability and the orientation of reform and opening up. Against this backdrop, a forum on the principles for the Party's theoretical work was held, and Deng Xiaoping was entrusted by the Central Committee to deliver a speech entitled "Upholding the Four Cardinal Principles" on March 30, 1979.
The Four Cardinal Principles are:
– keeping to the path of socialism
– upholding the people's democratic dictatorship,
– upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and
– upholding Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought.
Deng Xiaoping pointed out that the Four Cardinal Principles were the basic prerequisite for modernizing industry, agriculture, defense, and science and technology, and that the CPC's leadership was the core of the four principles. At the 13th CPC National Congress in October 1987 the Four Cardinal Principles were identified as an important element of the Party's basic line in the primary stage of socialism.