The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, held in Beijing from December 18 to 22, 1978, is a turning point in the history of both the Communist Party of China and the country. The meeting marked China's entry into a new era of socialist modernization and construction. In the following six years, China embarked on major economic structural reforms. The first one on the left is Deng Yingchao, wife of late Primier Zhou Enlai. [File photo]