Delivered: September 30, 1966
Source: Forward Along the High Road of Mao Tse-tung’s Thought (pamphlet)
Published: Foreign Languages Press, 1967
Online Version: Zhou Enlai Internet Archive, February 2004
Transcribed/HTML Markup: Kenneth Higham and Roland Ferguson
Dear Guests, Comrades and Friends:
We are most happy and overjoyed to be with you at this jubilant gathering to celebrate the 17th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China amidst an upsurge of our great proletarian cultural revolution. On behalf of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese Government, I would like here to extend our warm greetings to the broad masses of our workers, peasants, soldiers, revolutionary teachers and students, revolutionary Red Guards and youth and revolutionary cadres, to the representatives of all the revolutionary people of all our nationalities, and to the representatives of the overseas Chinese and of our compatriots from Hong Kong and Macao, and express our warm welcome and thanks to our friends from the five continents!
Our great proletarian revolution was initiated and has been led by the great leader of our people Chairman Mao himself. Chairman Mao raised the question after summing up the historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat and the class struggle both at home and abroad. The historical experience of the dictatorship of the proletariat teaches us that without a proletarian cultural revolution the dictatorship of the proletariat cannot be consolidated and that to consolidate this dictatorship it is imperative energetically to foster proletarian ideology and eradicate bourgeois ideology, thoroughly dig out the ideological roots of revisionism and firmly implant Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung’s thought.
Our great proletarian cultural revolution has manifested infinitely great power. It has defeated the arrogance of the reactionary bourgeoisie and is cleaning up all the rubbish left over by the old society; it has broken old ideas, customs and habits of the exploiting classes, fostered new ideas, culture, customs and habits of the proletariat, and vigorously promoted the revolutionization of people’s minds. A high tide of enthusiastic study of Comrade Mao-Tsetung’s works is now rising throughout the Party and the country. Over 700 million people have taken on an entirely new mental complexion.
Our great proletarian cultural revolution and the socialist education movement in the cities and in rural areas have given a powerful impetus to our socialist construction. Our industries have witnessed tremendous developments both in output and in quality. In agriculture, bumper harvests have been reaped in succession. The level of science and technology have been vastly raised. The strength of our national defence is steadily growing. We are now in the first year of our Third Five-Year Plan. Industrial and agricultural production targets are expected to be overfulfilled. A situation of a new all-round leap forward is emerging.
Every success achieved by our people in the mental or material realm is a great victory of Mao-Tsetung’s thought. Comrade Mao-Tse-tung is the greatest Marxist-Leninist of our era. The Chinese people are exceedingly happy and honoured to have such a great leader. We are deeply convinced that so long as we hold high the great red banner of Mao-Tse-tung’s thought and hand it on from generation to generation, we shall certainly succeed in building up our great motherland and in making it an impregnable proletarian state that will never change colour.
Our great proletarian cultural revolution is acclaimed and warmly praised by all Marxists-Leninists and revolutionary people of the world and immensely fortifies their revolutionary fighting will and confidence in victory. The handful of imperialists, modern revisionists and reactionaries in various countries are hurling vicious abuse at us precisely because our great cultural revolution has dug out the roots of their subversive activities and their attempts at “peaceful evolution” in China and has thus hit them where it hurts most. Their abuse only proves that we have done the right thing and serves further to expose their reactionary features, their hostility towards the Chinese people and the cause of human progress.
Our great proletarian cultural revolution is a new thing without precedent in history. We hope that our foreign friends will make use of their stay in China to take a good look, and we welcome their valuable comments which will be helpful to our great cultural revolution.
Comrades and friends! The present international situation is excellent and favourable to the revolutionary people. The days of U.S. imperialism and all reactionaries are numbered. The modern revisionists, too, are finding life increasingly difficult. The ranks of Marxist-Leninists are expanding steadily. The revolutionary movements of the people of the world, particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America, are surging vigorously forward. Under the leadership of President Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese people are marching from victory to victory in their war of resistance against U.S. aggression and for national salvation. In collusion with modern revisionism, U.S. imperialism, which is at the end of its tether, is using the United Nations to hatch new peace talk plots. The United Nations has no right whatsoever to meddle with the Vietnam question. The heroic Vietnamese people will never yield. All the intrigues of U.S. imperialism and modern revisionism are doomed to failure.
Armed with the great thought of Mao-Tse-tung, the Chinese people are determined, no matter what the price and sacrifice, to firmly support the Vietnamese people in fighting through to the end till the U.S. aggressors are driven out of Vietnam, firmly support the peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America in their revolutionary struggles against imperialism and firmly support the struggles of the people of the whole world.
Our great proletarian cultural revolution is of the most profound and far-reaching significance for ensuring China’s adherence to proletarian internationalism.
We must unite with all the people of the world opposing imperialism and colonialism and carry the struggle against U.S. imperialism and its lackeys through to the end!
Together with all revolutionary Marxist-Leninists in the world, we must carry the struggle against modern revisionism through to the end and advance the revolutionary cause of the international proletariat and the people of the world!
Now may I propose a toast
to the great unity of the people of all the nationalities in our country,
to the unity of the people of the whole world,
to the great progress of the cause of liberation of the people of all countries,
to the health of Chairman Mao, our great leader, great teacher, great supreme commander and great helmsman,
to the health of our friends from different countries, and
to the health of all our compatriots and comrades present here!