As classes the landlords and rich peasants have ceased to exist [...] The capitalists no longer acts as a class [...] we recognize that class struggle has not yet come to an end and that at the same time there is no longer any need for large scale and turbulent class struggle [...] But class struggle is no longer the principal contradiction in our society; in waging it we must center around and serve the central task of socialist modernization.

In his address to the National People's Congress on 18 June 1979.
As quoted in: Jones, W.C., 1980. The Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China. Review of Socialist Law, 6 (4), 405–424.