The ``7,000-person conference'' was the popular term for the enlarged working conference convened by the Central Committee in Beijing from January 11 to February 7, 1962. It was attended by more than 7,000 persons -- leading members of the Central Committee and its sub-bureaus; of Party committees of the various provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, prefectures and counties; of major factories, mines and other large enterprises; and of the army units. Liu Shaoqi, on behalf of the Central Committee, delivered a report in which he made an initial summing-up of the work experience, both positive and negative, 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 to conduct an effective readjustment. Mao Zedong delivered an important speech, emphasizing the necessity of improving the system of democratic centralism, of giving full play to democracy both inside and outside the Party, and of deepening people's understanding of the laws of socialist construction on the basis of summing up both positive and negative experience. He also made a self-criticism, assuming responsibility for the shortcomings and mistakes in the work of the previous years.