Speech at a Reception for Representatives of the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Youth League

May 22, 1957

Your meeting has been very successful. I hope you will unite and serve as the leading core of the youth of the entire nation. The Chinese Communist Party is the leading core of the entire Chinese people. Without such a core, the socialist cause cannot be victorious.

Your meeting is a meeting of unity, and it will have a great impact on the youth of all China. I express my congratulations to you.

Comrades, unite! Resolutely and bravely struggle for the great cause of socialism. All words and actions that deviate from socialism are completely wrong.

You must be a person who stands tall between heaven and earth. To "stand tall between heaven and earth" means to be able to grasp Marxism-Leninism, to stand high and see far; to "stand firmly on the ground" means to have a solid mass base and to integrate with the masses.