Abstract: In the beginning of China’s reforms, the central government seemed to have followed a policy that “if the local government wants more power, the central government will give it.” But such a cordial relationship ended after the Two Provincial Conferences in early 1982. The Commission for Disciplinary Inspection of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) headed by Chen Yun, using anti-smuggling as an excuse, attacked on Guangdong’s reform effort during the conferences. As a result, Beijing restrained the special economic policies given to Guangdong and Fujian Province since 1979, and, furthermore, waged a consolidating-the-party movement there aimed at restoring the orthodox ideology. However, what is less known is that, in the midst of the attack, some members of the Politburo Standing Committee quietly supported the Guangdong provincial party committee to propel the reforms forward. The disagreement in Politburo Standing Committee created a contradictory situation in which its public hardline stance was gradually replaced by its private approval of Guangdong’s liberal policies. What started as a “anti-bourgeois liberalization” movement eventually morphed into a practical policy centered on economic development for Guangdong.