Why 1978 is vital to rest of the world in 2018

Deng Xiaoping's advice to 'liberate thought' applies not just to China but to other countries as well

The Third Plenum of the 11th Communist Party of China Central Committee, held in Beijing in December 1978, was not a dramatic event for the world. There were no major disagreements - no clashes between different leaders. In many ways, the event had an almost disarming procedural smoothness. The newly appointed vice-premier, Deng Xiaoping, delivered a speech in which he broadly urged cadres to "seek truth from facts" and "liberate their thinking".

For someone as senior in the leadership to say this was enough, however. And while most foreign observers, initially at least, did not fully understand the significance of what had been signalled, plenty in the new leadership did.