The "Two Whatevers" (Chinese:两个凡是;pinyin:Liǎng gè fán shì) refers to the statement that "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisionsChairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave" (凡是毛主席作出的决策，我们都坚决维护；凡是毛主席的指示，我们都始终不渝地遵循).
This statement was contained in a joint editorial, entitled "Study the Documents Well and Grasp the Key Link", printed on 7 February 1977 inPeople's Daily, the journalRed Flag and thePLA Daily.
The policy was advocated by theChinese Communist Party chairmanHua Guofeng, Mao's successor, who had earlier ended theCultural Revolution and arrested theGang of Four. However, this policy proved unpopular withDeng Xiaoping and other party leaders advocatingmarket reform.
On a 7 February 1977 editorial titled "Study the Documents Well and Grasp the Key Link"[1] which appeared inPeople's Daily,Red Flag, andPeople's Liberation Army Daily, Hua articulated the "Two Whatevers" slogan: "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisionsChairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave".[2]: 111
It proved a trigger for Deng's manoeuvre in 1978 to implement economic reform policy in China, and eventually led to Hua being demoted from the party leadership in 1980.[3] Even before he was fully rehabilitated, Deng described the "Two Whatevers" as being contrary to the essence ofMarxism.[2]: 111 On 11 May 1978,Guangming Daily published a front-page editorial criticizing the "Two Whatevers".[2]: 111 In June 1978, Deng endorsed the perspective of the editorial at an All-Army Political Work Conference.[2]: 111 Deng stated thatMarxist theory should not be "lifeless dogma" and cited Mao's method ofseeking truth from facts, contrasting the "Two Whatevers" with the view that "only through practice can the correctness of one's ideas be proved, and there is no other way of testing truth."[2]: 111
The coalition of Hua's political supporters, referred to as the "whateverist faction",[4] also lost its power after Deng's political manoeuvre:Wang Dongxing,Ji Dengkui,Wu De, andChen Xilian, the so-called "Little Gang of Four", were relieved of all their Party and state posts during the 5th Plenum of the11th Central Committee of the CCP, 23–29 February 1980.
