Comrade officers and men,

You have successfully performed your task in these military exercises. On behalf of the Central Committee of the Party, the State Council, and the Military Commission of the Central Committee, I want to express our warm greetings and congratulations.

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A short time ago I told Comrade Hu Yaobang that I wanted to talk with the propaganda departments about problems on the ideological front, especially those in literature and art. The Party's leadership on this front -- including literature and art -- has achieved noteworthy success. This should be affirmed. But certain tendencies towards a crude approach and over-simplification cannot be ignored or denied. However, a more important problem at present, I think, is laxity and weakness and a fear of criticizing wrong trends. As soon as you criticize something, you are accused of brandishing a big stick. It is very hard nowadays for us to carry out criticism, let alone self-criticism. Self-criticism is one of the three major features of our Party's style of work, one of the chief characteristics distinguishing our Party from other political parties. For quite a number of our people, however, it now seems difficult to practise.

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My original intention in coming today was only to listen to what our comrades had to say. But the question of selecting and training young and middle-aged cadres is extremely important, so I have decided to say a few words about it myself. We constantly stress that it is a question of strategic importance on which the very destiny of our Party depends. It has now become extremely urgent to resolve this issue. If we don't resolve it within three to five years, we shall be faced with catastrophe. Foreigners have described our recent Sixth Plenary Session of the Central Committee as having arranged for the transfer of leadership and settled the question of top personnel without friction, and they have praised us for having dealt with these matters in an orderly way. Nevertheless, if we don't solve the problem of succession on a nationwide scale within three to five years, chaos may ensue. Some veteran cadres are no longer with us and others are no longer able to work, while new cadres cannot be promoted, or if they are, there is always some kind of objection. Many veteran cadres think the only good cadres are those who support them, and this seems to be a widespread phenomenon in the Party. To put it bluntly, the question of whether people are appointed on their merits or by favouritism has not been settled satisfactorily. I don't mean that this applies to all veteran comrades, but it does apply to a considerable number. I suggest we learn from Comrade Liu Lanbo, who was mentioned at this meeting today. He personally recommended a younger comrade to succeed him as Minister of Electric Power. Why have you all been asked to stay on at the end of the Sixth Plenary Session for this two-day meeting to discuss Comrade Chen Yun's proposals for promoting and training young and middle-aged cadres and for retiring old ones? It's because this question is very urgent, very important. Comrades from the army may recall that I brought up the question of lowering the average age of army cadres at a conference on political work convened in 1964. That was 17 or 18 years ago. Although the question was not yet very urgent then, it had already surfaced. I also said at that conference that wisdom increases with age. But that was in the early sixties, and the situation today is completely different. In short, we have become more and more aware of the urgency of the matter. Therefore, the Central Committee has recently been considering the establishment of two central commissions under the new [Twelfth] Central Committee, an advisory commission and a commission for discipline inspection, to absorb a number of veteran comrades. The members of the Central Committee would be somewhat younger, which would be good for the future. We veteran comrades should have an enlightened attitude and take the lead in solving this major problem of reducing the cadres' average age. Otherwise, it will be impossible to solve. If the veteran comrades don't take the lead, the others will hesitate to select younger cadres. And even if you issue orders that younger cadres are to be selected, there is no certainty that the right persons will be chosen, for some comrades will still be considering which persons support them personally. We must be cautious, because the hard-core elements of the Gang of Four and those who engaged in beating, smashing and looting during the ``cultural revolution'' are clever and opportunistic, and they know how to brag about themselves and flatter other people. Our veteran comrades are liable to be taken in by them. Therefore, the crux of the matter is that veterans should take the lead, really be selfless and keep the overall situation in mind.

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I believe that this plenary session has settled two questions very well indeed. First, it has adopted the ``Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China'', which really lives up to our original requirements. It will be immensely important in unifying thinking inside the Party. Of course, as Comrade Hu Yaobang said, it will still take another year's work to really achieve that unity. But in any event we have a unified standard that from now on can serve as a guide to every Party member when making statements. Even if one has not yet straightened out his own thinking in this respect, in deference to organizational discipline he should take the resolution as a guide. We believe that it will stand the test of history.

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