Four Modernizations
The new, pragmatic leadership emphasized economic development and renounced mass political movements. At the pivotal Third Plenum of the 11th CCP Congress, opened on 22 December 1978, the leadership adopted economic reform policies known as the Four Modernizations. These tenets aimed at expanding rural income and incentives, encouraging experiments in enterprise autonomy, reducing central planning, and establishing direct foreign investment in Mainland China. The Plenum also decided to accelerate the pace of legal reform, culminating in the passage of several new legal codes by the National People's Congress in June 1979.