On February 7, 1977, People’s Daily, Red Flag, PLA Daily published the editorial “Study the Document and Grasp the Theme” in which it was put forward that “whatever policies Chairman Mao made must be upheld; whatever instructions Chairman Mao made must be adhered to steadfastly” (“two whatevers for short”). The proposal of “two whatevers” not only limited the criticism on “The Gang of Four” but also hindered the rehabilitation of Tian An Men Event and Deng Xiaoping’s return to work.“Two whatevers” goes against the basic Marxist principle of seeking truth from facts and obstructs the practice of sticking to the truth and rectifying errors under the new circumstances. After the “two whatevers” was proposed, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yun and others expressed their firm opposition…
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