Theory of Three Represents
Since the Fourth Plenary Session of the 13th Central Committee of the CPC, which was held in Beijing, June 23-24, 1989, Chinese Communists, with Jiang Zemin as their chief representative, had accumulated new, valuable experience in running the Party and the state in the course of building socialism with Chinese characteristics. They acquired a deeper understanding of what socialism is and how to build it, as well as what kind of Party to build and how to build it.
Jiang Zemin spoke of the requirements of “three represents” of Party members when inspecting Guangdong Province in February 2000, which aroused strong response from Party members and the general public at home and abroad. He elaborated on the basic contents of the Theory of Three Represents at the meeting celebrating the 80th anniversary of the founding of the CPC in July 2001. The 16th CPC National Congress held in November 2002 established the Theory of Three Represents, together with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory, as the guiding thought that the CPC must follow for a long time to come.
The essence of the Theory of Three Represents is that the CPC must always represent the development trend of China’s advanced productive forces, the orientation of China’s advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.
“三個代表”重要思想
中共十三屆四中全會（1989年6月23日至24日在北京召開）以來，以江澤民同志為主要代表的中國共產黨人，在建設中國特色社會主義的實踐中，加深了對什么是社會主義、怎樣建設社會主義和建設什么樣的黨、怎樣建設黨的認識，積累了治黨治國新的寶貴經驗。2000年2月，江澤民在廣東考察期間提出“三個代表”要求，在黨內外、國內外引起強烈反響。2001年7月，江澤民代表黨中央在慶祝建黨80周年大會上發表重要講話，系統闡述“三個代表”重要思想的科學內涵和基本內容。2002年11月黨的十六大把“三個代表”重要思想同馬克思列寧主義、毛澤東思想、鄧小平理論一道確立為黨必須長期堅持的指導思想。“三個代表”重要思想的核心內容是：中國共產黨必須始終代表中國先進生產力的發展要求，代表中國先進文化的前進方向，代表中國最廣大人民的根本利益。
