THE CCP's decision at the Third Plenum in December 1978 to abandon class struggle and to pursue economic modernization announced the beginning of the post-Mao reform era and the onset of the CCP's adaptation. These reforms led to profound changes in China's economy and society and consequently its politics. But it also set up a debate within the CCP between those who sought to protect party traditions and preserve their own positions on the one hand, and those who sought the party's adaptation to facilitate economic change, on the other. Although the end of class struggle and the onset of economic reform required the CCP to adopt new ways of organizing itself and interacting with society, many party stalwarts argued that these changes were undermining the party's ability to maintain order in China's political system. This desire to maintain party control while opening up the economy and society has bedeviled the CCP throughout the post-Mao era.