History of the Communist Party of China

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This article details the history of the Communist Party of China.

Contents
1 History during the Revolution

1.1 Establishment of the Party

1.2 First Civil Revolution Periodthe First United Front (19221927)

1.3 Second Civil Revolution PeriodSoviet Republic of China (19271937)

1.4 Sino-Japanese War PeriodSecond United Front (19371945)

1.5 Third Civil Revolution Period (19461949)

2 As ruling party

3 See also

4 References

5 External links

History during the Revolution

Establishment of the Party

Marxist ideas started to spread widely in China after the 1919 May
Fourth Movement. In June 1920, Comintern agent Grigori Voitinsky
was sent to China, and met Li Dazhao and other reformers. He financed
the founding of the Socialist Youth Corps.[1] The Communist Party of
China was initially founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in the
French concession of Shanghai in 1921 as a study society and an
informal network. There were informal groups in China in 1920, and
also overseas, but the official beginning was the 1st Congress held in
Shanghai and attended by 12 men in July 1921 and later transferred
In 1920 Li Dazhao met comintern
from Shanghai to Jiaxing. The birth of the party (then having some 50 to
Russian agent G.N. Voitinsky
60 members) was declared here in a boat on South Lake. It is therefore
considered by the Chinese to be one of the most important historical
places of the revolution. The formal and unified name Zhnggu Gngchn Dng (Chinese Communist
Party) was adopted and all other names of communist groups were dropped and the final agenda was carried
out. The key players 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, and two representatives from the
Comintern, one of them being Henk Sneevliet (also known by the single name 'Maring'[2]). Notably absent
at this early point were future leaders Li Lisan and Qu Qiubai.

First Civil Revolution Periodthe First United Front

(19221927)
In August 1922, Sneevliet called a surprise special plenum of the
central committee and 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. According to Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao,
Cai Heshen and Gao Yuhan opposed the motion, whereupon Maring
invoked the authority of the Comintern and forced the CPC to accept
his decision.[3] Under the guidance of the Comintern, the party was
reorganized along Leninist lines in 1923, in preparation for the
Northern Expedition. However, 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 CPC did not enjoy a high
reputation in Moscow. Moreover, it was divided into two camps, led
Location of the first Congress of the
by Deng Zhongxia and Li Dazhao on the more moderate "bourgeois,
Chinese Communist Party in July
national revolution" model and Zhang Guotao, Lou Zhanglong, He
1921, on Xintiandi, former French
Mengxiong and Chen Duxiu on the strongly anti-imperialism side.[4] Concession, Shanghai.
Mikhail Markovich Borodin negotiated with Sun Yat-sen and Wang
Jingwei the 1923 KMT reorganization and the CPC'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. And, it was the CPC's reliance on the leadership
of the Comintern that was the first indication that the 1923-27 First United Front was fragile.[5] 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 (19261927) led by
Kuomintang and participated by CPC gained some quick successes in overthrowing the warlord
government.

Second Civil Revolution PeriodSoviet Republic of China (19271937)

In 1927, as the Northern Expedition approached Shanghai, the Kuomintang leadership split. The Left
Kuomintang at Wuhan kept the alliance with the Communists. Chiang Kai-shek at Nanking 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. Andr 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 military campaigns from KMT army failed, but meantime the party
leadership were driven out of Shanghai and moved to Mao's base, sidelining him.
Chiang Kai-shek launched a further campaign which succeeded. The CPC had to give up their bases and
started the Long March (19341935) to search for a new base. During the Long March, the party leadership
re-examined its policy and blamed their failure on the CPC 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 CPC. They settled in Shensi,[6] where there
was an existing Communist base.

The Western world first got a clear view of the main base of the Communist Party of China 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).[7]

Sino-Japanese War PeriodSecond United Front (19371945)

During the Second Sino-Japanese war (19371945), the CPC 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.[8] 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 CPC remained
independent from the KMT's government.

In eight years, the CPC 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.[9]

It is a well accepted idea that without the Japanese invasion, the CPC might not have developed so fast. This
accelerated development is attributed by some to the lack of attention the CPC 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, wasn't entirely true as the Chinese Communists did wage
costly Hundred Regiments Offensive and guerrilla wars against Japanese occupied areas.[10]

Third Civil Revolution Period (19461949)

After the conclusion of World War II, the civil war resumed between the Kuomintang and the Communists.
Despite initial gains by the KMT, they were eventually defeated and forced to flee to off-shore islands, most
notably Taiwan. In the war, the US supported the Kuomintang and the USSR supported the CPC, but both
with limited degrees. With the Kuomintang's defeat, Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China
in Beijing on October 1, 1949.

As ruling party
The CPC's ideologies have significantly evolved since its founding and establishing political power in 1949.
Mao's revolution that founded the PRC was nominally based on Marxism-Leninism with a rural focus based
on China's social situations at the time. During the 1960s and 1970s, the CPC experienced a significant
ideological breakdown with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev and their
allies. Since then Mao's peasant revolutionary vision and so-called "continued revolution under the
dictatorship of the proletariat" stipulated that class enemies continued to exist even though the socialist
revolution seemed to be complete, giving way to the Cultural Revolution. This fusion of ideas became
known officially as "Mao Zedong Thought", or Maoism outside of China. It represented a powerful branch
of communism that existed in opposition to the Soviet Union's "Marxist revisionism".
Following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, however, the CPC under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping
moved towards Socialism with Chinese characteristics and instituted Chinese economic reform. In reversing
some of Mao's "extreme-leftist" policies, Deng argued that a socialist country and the market economy
model were not mutually exclusive. While asserting the political power of the Party itself, the change in
policy generated significant economic growth. The ideology itself, however, came into conflict on both sides
of the spectrum with Maoists as well as progressive liberals, culminating with other social factors to cause
the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. Deng's vision for economic success and a new socialist market model
became entrenched in the Party constitution in 1997 as Deng Xiaoping Theory.

The "third generation" of leadership under Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, and associates largely continued
Deng's progressive economic vision while overseeing the re-emergence of Chinese nationalism in the 1990s.
Nationalist sentiment has seemingly also evolved to become informally the part of the Party's guiding
doctrine. As part of Jiang's nominal legacy, the CPC ratified the Three Represents into the 2003 revision of
the Party Constitution as a "guiding ideology", encouraging the Party to represent "advanced productive
forces, the progressive course of China's culture, and the fundamental interests of the people." There are
various interpretations of the Three Represents. Most notably, the theory has legitimized the entry of private
business owners and quasi-"bourgeoisie" elements into the party.

The insistent road of focusing almost exclusively on economic growth has led to a wide range of serious
social problems. The CPC's "fourth generation" of leadership under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, after taking
power in 2003, attempted reversing such a trend by bringing forth an integrated ideology that tackled both
social and economic concerns. This new ideology was known as the creation of a Socialist Harmonious
Society using the Scientific Development Concept.

The degree of power the Party had on the state has gradually decreased as economic liberalizations
progressed. The evolution of CPC ideology has gone through a number of defining changes that it no longer
bears much resemblance to its founding principles. Some believe that the large amount of economic
liberalization starting from the late 1970s to present, indicates that the CPC has transitioned to endorse
economic neoliberalism.[11][12][13][14] The CPC's current policies are fiercely rejected as capitalist by most
communists, especially anti-revisionists, and by adherents of the Chinese New Left from within the PRC.

The Communist Party of China comprises a one-party state form of government; however, there are parties
other than the CPC within China, which report to the United Front Department of the Communist Party of
China and do not act as opposition or independent parties. Since the 1980s, as its commitment to Marxist
ideology has appeared to wane, the party has begun to increasingly invoke Chinese nationalism as a
legitimizing principle as opposed to the socialist construction for which the party was originally created.

See also
History of the Communist Party of Vietnam
History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

References
1. Schwartz, Benjamin, Chinese Communism and the Rise of Mao, Harper & Row (New York: 1951), p. 32-35.
2. http://ksghome.harvard.edu/~asaich/chinese-communisty-party-during-comintern.pdf
3. Schwartz, p. 41.
4. Schwartz, p. 37-38.
5. Schwartz, p. 50-51.
6. Mao Tse Tung Ruler of Red China by Robert Payne, page 174
7. The Morning Deluge, by Han Suyin, footnote on page 367
 8. Mao Tse Tung Ruler of Red China by Robert Payne, p 175
9. Benjamin Yang,From Revolution to Politics: Chinese Communists on the Long MarchWestview 1990, p. 307'
10. The Battle of One Hundred Regiments, from Kataoka, Tetsuya; Resistance and Revolution in China: The
Communists and the Second United Front. Berkeley: University of California Press, [1974].
11. Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford, England, UK: Oxford University Press. Pp. 120
12. Greenhalgh, Susan; Winckler, Edwin A. 2005. Governing China's Population: From Leninist to Neoliberal
Biopolitics. Stanford, California, USA: Stanford University Press.
13. Zhang, Xudong. Whither China?: Intellectual Politics in Contemporary China. Duke University Press. Pp. 52
14. Wong, John; Lai, Hongyi; Hongyi, Lai. China Into the Hu-Wen Era: Policy Initiatives and Challenges. Pp. 99
"...influence of neoliberalism has spread rapidly in China", "...neoliberalism had influenced not only college students
but also economists and leading party cadres"...

External links
Partying With Communists in China (http://www.life.com/gall
Wikimedia Commons has
ery/62211/partying-with-communists-in-china#index/0) media related to Communist
slideshow by Life magazine Party of China.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php? Wikimedia Commons has

media related to Chinese
Soviet Republic.

title=History_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China&oldid=763538291"

Categories: Communist Party of China History by political party Political history of China

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