1978 Truth Criterion Controversy

History of the People's Republic of China
1949–1976
Mao era Revolution Proclamation Korean War Land Reform Movement Zhen Fan Three-anti and Five-anti Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence Bandung Conference Sufan Hundred Flowers Anti-Rightist Canton Fair Two Bombs, One Satellite Great Leap Forward (Great Chinese Famine) Seven Thousand Cadres Conference Socialist Education Movement Third Front Cultural Revolution Restoring legitimate seat in the UN 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China
1976–1989
Transition and Deng era Arrest of the Gang of Four Boluan Fanzheng 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy Message to Compatriots in Taiwan [zh] Reforms and Opening-up Four Special Economic Zones Establishment of China-US Relations (Three Communiques) Four Modernizations Sino-Vietnamese War Beijing Spring Strike Hard Anti-crime Campaign Sino-British Joint Declaration Campaign against spiritual pollution Bourgeois liberalization Anti-bourgeois liberalization 863 Program 1986 Chinese student demonstrations Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration Revolutions of 1989 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre
1989–2002
Jiang and the third generation Shanghai Stock Exchange Pudong New District Deng Xiaoping's southern tour 1992 consensus One country, two systems Hong Kong Macau 1998 China floods Embassy in Belgrade Bombed Persecution of Falun Gong China Western Development Hainan Island incident Bidding Beijing 2008 APEC China 2001 Joining WTO Forum on China–Africa Cooperation Shanghai Cooperation Organization
2002–2012
Hu and the fourth generation 2002–2004 SARS outbreak Shenzhou 5 South–North Water Transfer Project Qinghai-Tibet Railway Sichuan earthquake Beijing Olympics Shanghai 2010 Expo BRICS Three Gorges Dam West–East Gas Pipeline Chinese High-speed Railway Liaoning Aircraft Carrier
2012–present
Xi and the fifth generation Anti-corruption campaign Belt and Road Initiative Chang'e 3 China Supercomputing APEC China 2014 Celebration of 70th anniversary of victory of Anti-Japanese War [zh] 2016 G20 Hangzhou summit Xiong'an New Area BRICS summit Xiamen 2017 Xinjiang internment camps Persecution of Uyghurs in China China–United States trade war SCO Summit 2018 Qingdao [zh] China-Africa Cooperation Forum Summit Beijing 2018 [zh] China International Import Expo Chinese Space Station 2019–20 Hong Kong protests COVID-19 pandemic Hong Kong national security law 2020–2021 reform spree Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games
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The 1978 Truth Criterion Controversy (Chinese: 真理标准大讨论; lit. 'Debate on Standards for Judging the Truth''), also known as the 1978 Truth Criterion Discussion, sometimes referred to as the First Great Debate (Chinese: 第一次大争论) in contemporary China, was a sociopolitical debate around 1978, mainly revolving around Hua Guofeng's "Two Whatevers" and Deng Xiaoping's "Reform and opening up".