The conference referred to here was convened in Beijing from January 11 to February 7, 1962. It was attended by more than seven thousand persons -- leading members of the Central Committee and its bureaus; leading members of Party committees of the various provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, prefectures and counties; leading members of Party committees of major factories, mines and other enterprises; and leading cadres from army units. It was also known as the Conference of Seven Thousand Participants. At the conference Liu Shaoqi, on behalf of the Central Committee, delivered a report in which he made a preliminary review of the experience and the lessons learned since the ``Great Leap Forward'' of 1958, analysed the major shortcomings and mistakes in the work of the previous years, and pointed out that the major task facing the entire Party was readjustment. Mao Zedong delivered an important speech at the conference, in which he particularly expounded on the system of democratic centralism, calling for full exercise of democracy both inside and outside the Party and for analysis of the experience, both positive and negative, in order to deepen people's understanding of the laws governing socialist development. He also made a self-criticism, bearing responsibility for the shortcomings and mistakes in the work of the previous years.