The Third Plenum of December 1978 is remembered as the start of reform. Before it, the Central Work Conference met in Beijing from November 10 to December 15, 1978. On December 13, Deng Xiaoping gave his speech “Emancipate the Mind, Seek Truth From Facts, Unite and Look Forward” at the closing session of the work conference.
The plenum itself met from December 18 to 22. A Party website calls Deng’s speech “in fact the keynote report of the Third Plenum.” It adds: “Without the Central Work Conference before it, there would have been no Third Plenum.”