28-year-old Zhao Xiaolan returned to China for the first time with her parents to visit her alma mater, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. It was also an opportunity for Zhao Xiansheng to return to his alma mater.
In 1981, the Washington Senate unanimously confirmed Sandra Day O'Connor as the first female Supreme Court Justice of the United States.
Teresa Teng wore a military uniform to visit front-line troops in places like Kinmen and Dadan Island. She also used binoculars at the Hujingtou position to look across the strait, experiencing the front-line atmosphere and singing a cappella for the soldiers guarding the islands.
The Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th CCP Central Committee was held from June 27 to 29. Hua Guofeng resigned as Chairman of the CCP Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, Hu Yaobang succeeded him as Chairman, and Deng Xiaoping took over as Chairman of the Central Military Commission.
The Sixth Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party adopted the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China, repudiating the Cultural Revolution and distinguishing Mao Zedong's later errors from Mao Zedong Thought.
Yu Qiangsheng, an official of the Chinese Ministry of State Security, was recruited by the CIA in Beijing and began providing intelligence.
Ma Zhaoxu was admitted to Peking University in 1981 to study economics.
In 1981, a CCP Central Committee plenary session passed the Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party, completely negating the Cultural Revolution, but the two slogans at Xinhua Gate — "Long live the great Chinese Communist Party" and "Long live the invincible Mao Zedong Thought" — were not removed.
In 1981, China established the National Family Planning Commission. Over the following 20-plus years it grew into a massive bureaucratic system, with full-time family planning public employees reaching 800,000 by 2000.