Two Whatevers

The Two Whatevers (simplified Chinese: 两个凡是; traditional Chinese: 兩個凡是; pinyin: Liǎng gè fán shì) refers to the statement that "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman 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 February 7, 1977 in People's Daily, the journal Hongqi (Red Flag) and Jiefangjun Bao (Liberation Army Daily).^[1]

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The policy was advocated by the Communist Party of China chairman Hua Guofeng, Mao's successor, who had earlier ended the Cultural Revolution and arrested the Gang of Four. However, this policy proved unpopular with Deng Xiaoping and other party leaders advocating market reform.

It proved a trigger for Deng's manoeuvre in 1978 to gain control of economic policy in China, and led eventually to Hua being demoted from the party leadership in 1980.^[2]

The coalition of Hua's political supporters, bearing the name of the "whatever faction", also lost its power after Deng's political manoeuvre: Wang Dongxing, Ji Dengkui, Wu De, and Chen Xilian, the so-called "Little Gang of Four", were relieved of all the Party and state posts during the 5th Plenum of the Central Committee of the CCP, 23–29 February 1980.

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