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Chinese Communist Party 中国共产党 Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng | |
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| Abbreviation | CPC (official) CCP (informal) The Party (informal) |
| Secretary-General | Chen Duxiu (First) Zhao Ziyang (Last) |
| Founder | Chen Duxiu Li Dazhao |
| Founded | 23 July 1921 |
| Banned | 13 October 1991 |
| Succeeded by | Socialist Party of China (legal sucessor) Chinese Communist Party (1993) (de facto sucessor) |
| Headquarters | Zhongnanhai, Xicheng District, Beijing |
| Newspaper | People's Daily |
| Youth wing | Communist Youth League of China Young Pioneers of China |
| Armed wing | People's Liberation Army People's Armed Police Militia of China |
| Labour wing | All-China Federation of Trade Unions |
| Ideology | (1948 - 1987) Socialism with Chinese characteristics Maoism (until 1976) Deng Xiaoping Theory (until 1986) (1987 - 1991) Marxism-Leninism Communism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| National affiliation | United Front |
| Slogan | Serve the People (until 1987) Workers of the world, unite! (1987 - 1991) |
| Anthem | The Internationale |
| National People's Congress (7th & 8th) (1987 - 1991) |
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| Party flag | |
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The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC, or was also simply known as The Party in PRC), was the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC) founded in 1921 by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The CCP was the main governing party with the United Front of the Communist China until 1989 when the People's Democratic Council modified the 1982 Constitution of the People's Republic of China, which had previously granted the CCP a monopoly over the political system and power.
The CCP was founded in 1921 by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, when China was under the Warlord Period. During the next ten years of guerrilla warfare, Mao Zedong rose to become the most influential figure in the CCP and the party established a strong base among the rural peasantry with its land reform policies, known as the Land Reform Movement. Support for the CCP continued to grow throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War, and after the Japanese surrender in 1945, the CCP emerged triumphant in the communist revolution against the KMT government. After the retreat of KMT to Taiwan, the CCP established the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.
After the foundation of People's Republic of China in 1949, Mao had introduced many reforms within the mainland China, known as the Land Reform Movement (LRM). Mao had continued to be the most influential member of the CCP until his death in 1976, although he periodically withdrew from public leadership as his health declined. Under Mao's leadership, the party completed its land reform program, launched a series of five-year plans, and eventually split with the Soviet Union. Although Mao attempted to purge the party of capitalist and reactionary elements during the Cultural Revolution, after his death these policies were only briefly continued by the Gang of Four before a less radical faction and later reformist faction seized control of the CCP.
After Zhao Ziyang assumed it's leadership in 1980 following short-term leader, Deng Xiaoping, who resigned in order to make China become more economic and continuation of Xiaoping's reforms, rapid steps were taken to transform the crippling Chinese economic system from Xiaoping in the direction of a market economy. Ziyang and his allies envisioned the introduction of an economy similar to Gorbachev's perestroika through a program of "the Chinese Perestroika", or restructuring and democratizing, but their reforms, along with the institution of free multi-candidate elections (or Chinese Transtition to Democracy) led to a decline in the party's power with the 1989 student protests taking place in Beijing. After a unsucessful coup attempt in September 1991, Zhao Ziyang and the party's influence almost completely diminished, the real power is transfered to Wei Jingsheng, who became the first non-communist premier of the PRC, and he successfully pressured Zhao Ziyang to resign as party leader and accept his ban on Communist Party. Eventually, Chinese Communist Party was officially banned on 13 October 1991, with all its properties seized and nationalised. After the CCP's demise, the communist parties became independent and underwent various separate paths of reform prior to 1996 with the enactment of the Transitional Justice program. In post-communist China, the Socialist Party of China emerged and has been regarded as the legal successor of the CCP's legacy until 1993 and remains legal and rejects CCP's legacy to the present day, while the usage of symbols associated with the party remains outlawed in East Asian countries, including China, Hong Kong, Uyghurstan and Tibet.
History[]
Establishment of the CCP (1921 - 1922)[]
Marxist ideas started to spread widely in China after the 1919 May Fourth Movement. In June 1920, Comintern agent Grigori Voitinsky was one of several sent to China, where he met Li Dazhao and other reformers. While in China, Voitinsky financed the founding of the Socialist Youth Corps. One of the agents worked with Chen Duxiu to draft a manifesto. In June 1921, Hans Sneevliet, an overbearing Dutch agent from the Communist International arrived in Shanghai, and arranged a meeting in a deserted girls' school in the French Concession to which thirteen of the fifty-seven declared Communists were invited There, they proclaimed the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party."
In the summer of 1919, the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) decided to assist people of the Far East. In April 1920, the Foreign Affairs Division of its Vladivostok Branch sent Grigori Voitinsky to develop Marxism in China, Korea and Japan. Voitinsky met Li, and then successfully turned Chen into a communist. Voitinsky found the Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International (Comintern) at Shanghai. On 5 July, he attended a meeting of Russian communists in China to promote the establishment of the CCP. He helped Chen found the Shanghai Revolutionary Bureau, also known as the Shanghai Communist Group. Stojanovic went to Guangzhou, Mamaev went to Wuhan, and Broway went to Beijing to help Chinese establish communist groups. Voitinsky provided these groups with promotional, conference and study abroad expenses.
The preliminary organization and recruitment for a Chinese Communist Party were done by Grigori Voitinsky, who led the foundation, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in 1920 and 1921 as a study society and an informal network. Informal meetings were held in China in 1920 as well as overseas.
The official beginning of the CCP was the 1st Congress held in Shanghai and Jiaxing in July 1921. Some say the congress was composed of 13 men, but the official CCP version is 12, and other sources also disagree.
The birth of the CCP (totaling 50 to 60 members) was declared while a meeting was held on a boat on South Lake. The formal and unified name Zhōngguó Gòngchǎn Dǎng (Chinese Communist Party) was adopted and the final agenda was carried out. The key delegates in the congress were Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Chen Gongbo, Tan Pingshan, Zhang Guotao, He Mengxiong, Lou Zhanglong and Deng Zhongxia.
Mao Zedong was present at the first congress as one of two delegates from a Hunan communist group. Other attendees included Dong Biwu, Li Hanjun, Li Da, Chen Tanqiu, Liu Renjing, Zhou Fohai, He Shuheng, Deng Enming. Two representatives from the Comintern were also present, one of them being Henk Sneevliet (also known by the single name 'Maring'). Notably absent at this early point were future leaders Li Lisan and Qu Qiubai.
First Civil Revolution Period—the First United Front (1922–1927)[]
In August 1922, Sneevliet called a surprise special plenum of the central committee. During the meeting Sneevliet proposed that party members join the Kuomintang (KMT, or Chinese Nationalist Party) on the grounds that it was easier to transform the Nationalist Party from the inside than to duplicate its success. Li Dazhao, Cai Heshen and Gao Yuhan opposed the motion, whereupon Sneevliet invoked the authority of the Comintern and forced the CCP to accept his decision. Under the guidance of the Comintern, the CCP was reorganized along Leninist lines in 1923, in preparation for the Northern Expedition. The nascent party was not held in high regard. Karl Radek, one of the five founding leaders of the Comintern, said in November 1922 that the CCP was not highly regarded in Moscow. Moreover, the CCP was divided into two camps, one led by Deng Zhongxia and Li Dazhao on the more moderate "bourgeois, national revolution" model and the other by Zhang Guotao, Lou Zhanglong, He Mengxiong and Chen Duxiu on the strongly anti-imperialism side. Mikhail Markovich Borodin negotiated with Sun Yat-sen and Wang Jingwei the 1923 KMT reorganization and the CCP's incorporation into the newly expanded party. Borodin and General Vasilii Blyukher (known as Galen) worked with Chiang Kai-shek to found the Whampoa Military Academy. The CCP's reliance on the leadership of the Comintern provided a strong indication of the First United Front's fragility. The death of Sun Yat-sen in 1925 created great uncertainty regarding who would lead the party, and whether they would still work with the Communists. Despite the tensions, the Northern Expedition (1926–1927) led by the Kuomintang, with participation of the CCP made quick gains in overthrowing the warlord government. The CCP still treats Sun Yat-sen as one of the founders of their movement and claim descent from him as he is viewed as a proto communist and the economic element of Sun's ideology was socialism. Sun stated, “Our Principle of Livelihood is a form of communism”. His widow, Soong Qingling, actually became Honorary President of the PRC.
Second Civil Revolution Period and the Soviet Republic of China (1927–1937)[]
In 1927, as the Northern Expedition approached Shanghai, the Kuomintang leadership split. The left-wing of the Kuomintang, based in Wuhan, kept the alliance with the Communists, while Chiang Kai-shek in Nanjing grew increasingly hostile to them and launched a campaign against them. This happened after the capture of Shanghai, which occurred with the Communists and Kuomintang still in alliance. André Malraux's novel, Man's Fate (French: La Condition Humaine), is based on these events.
The anti-communist drive became general. As Chiang Kai-shek consolidated his power, various revolts continued, and Communist armed forces created a number of 'Soviet Areas'. The largest of these was led by Zhu De and Mao Zedong, who established Soviet Republic of China in some remote areas within China through peasant riots. A number of KMT military campaigns failed, but in the meantime CCP leadership were driven out of Shanghai and moved to Mao's base, sidelining him.
Chiang Kai-shek launched a further campaign which succeeded. The CCP had to give up their bases and started the Long March (1934–1935) to search for a new base. During the Long March, the party leadership re-examined its policy and blamed their failure on the CCP military leader Otto Braun, a German sent by Comintern. During the Long March, the native Communists, such as Mao Zedong and Zhu De gained power. The Comintern and Soviet Union lost control over the CCP. They settled in Shaanxi, where there was an existing Communist base.
The Western world first got a clear view of the main base of the Chinese Communist Party through Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China. Snow was also the first person to present Mao as the main leader – he was previously seen as just a guerilla leader and mostly as second to Zhu De (Chu Teh).
Sino-Japanese War Period—Second United Front (1937–1945)[]
During the Second Sino-Japanese war (1937–1945), the CCP and KMT were temporarily in alliance to fight their common enemy. The Communist government moved from Bao'an (Pao An) to Yan'an (Yenan) in December 1936. The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army became army groups belonging to the national army (8th route army and New 4th Army), and the Soviet Republic of China changed its name as a special Shaan-Gan-Ning administration region (named after the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia provinces at the borders of each it was located). However, essentially the army and the region controlled by CCP remained independent from the KMT's government.
In eight years, the CCP membership increased from 40,000 to 1,200,000 and its military forces – from 30,000 to approximately one million in addition to more than one million militia support groups.
It is a well accepted idea that without the Japanese invasion, the CCP might not have developed so fast. This accelerated development is attributed by some to the lack of attention the CCP paid to the war against Japan, they argue that the Chinese Communists took advantage of the KMT's preoccupation with the Japanese to gain an edge on the nationalists. This, however, was not entirely true as the Chinese Communists did wage costly Hundred Regiments Offensive and guerrilla wars against Japanese occupied areas. However, some scholars, such as Japanese professor Homare Endo, claim that Mao Zedong colluded with the invading Japanese forces to assist them in effectively attacking KMT forces.
As the ruling party (1949 - 1991)[]
Mao Zedong's leadership (1949 - 1976)[]
On 1 October 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong formally proclaimed the establishment of the PRC before a massive crowd at Tiananmen Square. The CCP headed the Central People's Government. From this time through the 1980s, top leaders of the CCP (like Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping) were largely the same military leaders prior to the PRC's founding. As a result, informal personal ties between political and military leaders dominated civil-military relations.
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin proposed a one-party constitution when Liu Shaoqi visited the Soviet Union in 1952. Then the Constitution of the PRC in 1954 changed the previous coalition government and established the CCP's sole ruling system. Mao said that China should implement a multi-party system under the leadership of the working class revolutionary party (CCP) on the CCP's 8th Congress in 1956. He had not proposed that other parties should be led before, although the CCP had actually controlled the most political power from 1949 until 1990 - 1991.
During the 1960s and 1970s, the CCP experienced a significant ideological separation from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. By that time, Mao had begun saying that the "continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" stipulated that class enemies continued to exist even though the socialist revolution seemed to be complete, leading to the Cultural Revolution in which millions were persecuted and killed. During the Cultural Revolution, party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi, Deng Xiaoping, Peng Dehuai, and He Long were purged or exiled, and the Gang of Four, led by Mao's wife Jiang Qing, emerged to fill in the power vacuum left behind.
Reforms under of Deng Xiaoping (1976 - 1980)[]
Following Mao's death in 1976, a power struggle between CCP chairman Hua Guofeng and Vice-chairman Deng Xiaoping erupted. Deng won the struggle, and became the "paramount leader" in 1978 until his resignation in 1980. Deng, alongside Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, spearheaded the Reform and opening policy, and introduced the ideological concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics (until 1987 when Ziyang replaced with the Marxist-Leninist and Soviet-styled society due to Chinese Perestroika), opening China to the world's markets. In reversing some of Mao's "leftist" policies, Deng argued that a socialist state could use the market economy without itself being capitalist.
Further reforms under of Zhao Ziyang and the party's demise (1980 - 1991)[]
Main articles: Chinese Perestroika, Tiananmen Revolution, September Coup, Dissolution of the People's Republic of China
After Xiaoping's resignation in 1980, the Politburo Standing Committee elected Ziyang as next premier. While asserting the political power of the CCP, the change in policy generated significant economic growth. The new ideology, however, by Ziyang's plans of Chinese Perestroika, was contested on both sides of the spectrum, by Maoists and the Soviet-styled communists as well as by those supporting political liberalization.
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With other social factors, the conflicts culminated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests (or the Tiananmen Revolution).
The protests was successful, resulted in begin of democratization of China and establishement of the People's Democratic Council in 10 June of 1989, and allowed for contested elections between the CCP, United Front and independent candidates. Other organized parties were not allowed. The PDC was elected in 1989; one-third of the seats were appointed by the CCP and other public organizations to sustain the Soviet-styled one-party state. The elections were democratic, but most elected PDC members opposed any more radical reform. The elections featured the highest electoral turnout in Chinese history; no election before or since had a higher participation rate. An organized opposition was established within the legislature under the name Federative Union of Autonomous Students and Workers by dissidents Wang Dan and Han Dongfang. An unintended consequence of these reforms was the increased anti-CCP pressure; in April 1990, at a session of the National People's Congress, the party was forced to relinquish its political monopoly of power and forced to dissolve the United Front as some members of the Front left the alliance, in effect turning the China to a democracy. (However still little bit illiberal as hardliners still dominates in high level posts, therefore considerable amount of censorship and political prisoner still exist until the failure of September coup).
The CCP's demise began in April 1990, when state bodies eclipsed party elements in power. From then until the People Republic of China's disestablishment, Ziyang ruled the country through the newly created post of President of the People's Republic of China. Following this, the central party apparatus did not play a practical role in Chinese affairs. Ziyang had become independent from the Politburo and faced few constraints from party leaders. In the summer of 1990 the party convened at the 7th Congress. A new Politburo was elected, previous incumbents (except Ziyang and Hu Qili, the Secretariat of the CCP) were removed. Later that year, the party began work on a new program with a working title, "Towards Yaobang's Legacy, Serving the Reformism and Democratic Socialism". According to China Daily, the program reflected Ziyang's journey from an Marxist-Leninist to a social democrat. The freedoms of thought and organization which Ziyang allowed led to a rise in nationalism in the Autonomous regions and rise of the opposition in the mainland China, indirectly weakening the central authorities. In response to this, a referendum took place in 1991, in which most of the autonomous regions voted to preserve the PRC in a different form. In reaction to this, conservative and hardline elements within the CCP launched the September 1991 coup, which overthrew Ziyang but failed to preserve the PRC. When Ziyang resumed control (22 September 1991) after the coup's collapse, he resigned from the CCP on 24 September 1991 and operations were handed over to Qili. On 30 September 1991 Qili resigned and the activity of the CCP was suspended throughout the country, on 13 October Jingsheng banned the activities of the party in China and Ziyang resigned from the presidency on 19 December; the following day the Autonomous Regions dissolved the People's Republic of China.
Ideology[]
Main article: Ideology of the Chinese Communist Party
Formal ideology[]
The core ideology of the party has evolved with each distinct generation of Chinese leadership. As both the CCP and the People's Liberation Army promoted their members according to seniority, it was possible to discern distinct generations of Chinese leadership. In official discourse, each group of leadership was identified with a distinct extension of the ideology of the party. Historians have studied various periods in the development of the former government of the former People's Republic of China by reference to these "generations".
Marxism–Leninism was the first official ideology of the CCP. According to the CCP, "Marxism–Leninism reveals the universal laws governing the development of history of human society." To the CCP, Marxism–Leninism provides a "vision of the contradictions in capitalist society and of the inevitability of a future socialist and communist societies". According to the People's Daily (now owned by the Socialist Party of China), Mao Zedong Thought "is Marxism–Leninism applied and developed in China". Mao Zedong Thought was conceived not only by Mao Zedong, but by leading party officials.
Deng Xiaoping Theory was planned to be added to the party constitution. The concepts of "socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "the primary stage of socialism" were credited to the theory. Deng Xiaoping Theory can be defined as a belief that state socialism and state planning is not by definition communist, and that market mechanisms are class neutral. In addition, the party needs to react to the changing situation dynamically; to know if a certain policy is obsolete or not, the party had to "seek truth from facts" and follow the slogan "practice is the sole criterion for the truth". This plan was backfired in the aftermath of CCP's transition from socialism with Chinese characteristics to Soviet-styled Marxist-Leninist society.
The party combined elements of both socialist patriotism and Chinese nationalism (until 1990).
Economics[]
Deng did not believe that the fundamental difference between the capitalist mode of production and the socialist mode of production was central planning versus free markets. He said, "A planned economy is not the definition of socialism, because there is planning under capitalism; the market economy happens under socialism, too. Planning and market forces are both ways of controlling economic activity". Former member of CCP and the founder of Socialist Party, Jiang Zemin supported Deng's thinking prior to 1993, and stated in a party gathering that it did not matter if a certain mechanism was capitalist or socialist, because the only thing that mattered was whether it worked.
The CCP viewed the world as organized into two opposing camps; socialist and capitalist prior to 1990. They insisted that socialism, on the basis of historical materialism, will eventually triumph over capitalism. In recent years, when the party has been asked to explain the capitalist globalization occurring until transition to Marxist-Leninist society, the party has returned to the writings of Karl Marx. Despite admitting that globalization developed through the capitalist system, the party's leaders and theorists argue that globalization is not intrinsically capitalist. The reason being that if globalization was purely capitalist, it would exclude an alternative socialist form of modernity. Globalization, as with the market economy, therefore does not have one specific class character (neither socialist nor capitalist) according to the party. The insistence that globalization is not fixed in nature comes from Deng's insistence that China can pursue socialist modernization by incorporating elements of capitalism (until 1987). Because of this there was considerable optimism within the CCP that despite the current capitalist dominance of globalization, globalization can be turned into a vehicle supporting socialism.
Analysis and criticism[]
While foreign analysts generally agree that the CCP has rejected orthodox Marxism–Leninism (until 1987 by the transition to the Soviet-styled society) and Mao Zedong Thought (or at least basic thoughts within orthodox thinking), the CCP itself disagreed. Critics of the CCP argue that Zhao Ziyang ended the party's formal commitment to Marxism–Leninism with the introduction of the economic and democratic reforms similar to Gorbachev's one, the Chinese Perestroika. However, party theorist Leng Rong disagreed, claiming that "President Zhao rid the Party of the ideological obstacles to different kinds of ownership ... He did not give up Marxism or socialism. He strengthened the Party by providing a modern understanding of Marxism and socialism—which is why we talk about a 'socialist market economy' with Chinese characteristics, even prior to the 1987." The attainment of true "communism" was described as the CCP's and China's "ultimate goal".
Governance[]
Collective leadership[]
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Symbols[]
Main article: Emblems of the Chinese Communist Party
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Flag of the Chinese Communist Party from 1942 to 1991
At the beginning of its history, the CCP did not have a single official standard for the flag, but instead allowed individual party committees to copy the flag of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Central Politburo decreed the establishment of a sole official flag on 28 April 1942: "The flag of the CPC has the length-to-width proportion of 3:2 with a hammer and sickle in the upper-left corner, and with no five-pointed star. The Political Bureau authorizes the General Office to custom-make a number of standard flags and distribute them to all major organs".
According to People's Daily (now owned by Socialist Party of China), "The standard party flag is 120 centimeters (cm) in length and 80 cm in width. In the center of the upper-left corner (a quarter of the length and width to the border) is a yellow hammer-and-sickle 30 cm in diameter. The flag sleeve (pole hem) is in white and 6.5 cm in width. The dimension of the pole hem is not included in the measure of the flag. The red color symbolizes revolution; the hammer-and-sickle are tools of workers and peasants, meaning that the Communist Party of China represents the interests of the masses and the people; the yellow color signifies brightness." In total the flag has five dimensions, the sizes are "no. 1: 388 cm in length and 192 cm in width; no. 2: 240 cm in length and 160 cm in width; no. 3: 192 cm in length and 128 cm in width; no. 4: 144 cm in length and 96 cm in width; no. 5: 96 cm in length and 64 cm in width."
On 21 September 1966, the CCP General Office issued the "Regulations on the Production and Use of the CPC Flag and Emblem", which stated that the emblem and flag were the official symbols and signs of the party. Article 53 of the CCP constitution states that "the Party emblem and flag are the symbol and sign of the Communist Party of China."