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Ruling party of the People's Republic of China From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP),[3] officially the Communist Party of China (CPC),[4] is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang. In 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Since then, the CCP has governed China and has had sole control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Successive leaders of the CCP have added their own theories to the party's constitution, which outlines the party's ideology, collectively referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics. As of 2024[update], the CCP has more than 99 million members, making it the second largest political party by membership in the world after India's Bharatiya Janata Party.
Communist Party of China 中国共产党 Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng | |
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| Abbreviation | CCP (common) CPC (official) |
| General Secretary | Xi Jinping |
| Standing Committee | |
| Founders |
... and others
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| Founded |
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| Headquarters | Zhongnanhai, Xicheng District, Beijing |
| Newspaper | People's Daily |
| Youth wing | Communist Youth League of China |
| Children's wing | Young Pioneers of China |
| Armed wing | |
| Research office | Central Policy Research Office |
| Membership (2023) |  99,185,000[2] |
| Ideology | |
| International affiliation | IMCWP |
| Colours | Red |
| Slogan | "Serve the People"[note 2] |
| National People's Congress (13th) | 2,090 / 2,980 |
| NPC Standing Committee (14th) | 117 / 175 |
| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| 12371 | |
| Communist Party of China | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.svg) "Communist Party of China" in simplified (top) and traditional (bottom) Chinese characters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中国共产党 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中國共產黨 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 中共 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zhōnggòng | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Tibetan name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tibetan | ཀྲུང་གོ་གུང་ཁྲན་ཏང | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Zhuang name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Zhuang | Cunghgoz Gungcanjdangj | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mongolian name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Дундад улсын (Хятадын) Эв хамт (Kоммунист) Нам | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mongolian script | ᠳᠤᠮᠳᠠᠳᠤ ᠤᠯᠤᠰ ᠤᠨ (ᠬᠢᠲᠠᠳ ᠤᠨ) ᠡᠪ ᠬᠠᠮᠲᠤ (ᠺᠣᠮᠮᠤᠶᠢᠨᠢᠰᠲ) ᠨᠠᠮ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Uyghur name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Uyghur | جۇڭگو كوممۇنىستىك پارتىيىسى | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Manchu name | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manchu script | ᡩᡠᠯᡳᠮᠪᠠᡳ ᡤᡠᡵᡠᠨ ᡳ (ᠵᡠᠨᡤᠣ ᡳ) ᡤᡠᠩᡮᠠᠨ ᡥᠣᡴᡳ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Romanization | Dulimbai gurun-i (Jungg'o-i) Gungcan Hoki | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In 1921, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao led the founding of the CCP with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and Far Eastern Bureau of the Communist International. For its first six-year, the CCP aligned itself with the Kuomintang (KMT) as the organized left wing of the larger nationalist movement. However, when the right wing of the KMT, led by Chiang Kai-shek, turned on the CCP and massacred tens of thousands of the party's members, the two parties split and began a prolonged civil war. 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. 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 Nationalist government. After the KMT's retreat to Taiwan, the CCP established the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949.
Mao Zedong 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 deteriorated. Under Mao, 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 seized control. During the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping directed the CCP away from Maoist orthodoxy and towards a policy of economic liberalization. The official explanation for these reforms was that China was still in the primary stage of socialism, a developmental stage similar to the capitalist mode of production. Since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the CCP has focused on maintaining its relations with the ruling parties of the remaining socialist states and continues to participate in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties each year. The CCP has also established relations with several non-communist parties, including dominant nationalist parties of many developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as social democratic parties in Europe.
The Chinese Communist Party is organized based on democratic centralism, a principle that entails open policy discussion on the condition of unity among party members in upholding the agreed-upon decision. The highest body of the CCP is the National Congress, convened every fifth year. When the National Congress is not in session, the Central Committee is the highest body, but since that body usually only meets once a year, most duties and responsibilities are vested in the Politburo and its Standing Committee. Members of the latter are seen as the top leadership of the party and the state.[5] Today the party's leader holds the offices of general secretary (responsible for civilian party duties), Chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) (responsible for military affairs), and State President (a largely ceremonial position). Because of these posts, the party leader is seen as the country's paramount leader. The current leader is Xi Jinping, who was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee held on 15 November 2012 and has been reelected twice, on 25 October 2017 by the 19th Central Committee and on 10 October 2022 by the 20th Central Committee.
The October Revolution and Marxist theory inspired the founding of the CCP.[6]: 114 Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao were among the first to publicly support Leninism and world revolution. Both regarded the October Revolution in Russia as groundbreaking, believing it to herald a new era for oppressed countries everywhere.[7]
Some historical analysis views the May Fourth Movement as the beginning of the revolutionary struggle that led to the founding of the People's Republic of China.[8]: 22 Following the movement, trends towards social transformation increased.[9]: 14 Writing in 1939, Mao Zedong stated that the Movement had shown that the bourgeois revolution against imperialism and China had developed to a new stage, but that the proletariat would lead the revolution's completion.[9]: 20 The May Fourth Movement led to the establishment of radical intellectuals who went on to mobilize peasants and workers into the CCP and gain the organizational strength that would solidify the success of the Chinese Communist Revolution.[10] Chen and Li were among the most influential promoters of Marxism in China during the May Fourth period.[9]: 7 The CCP itself embraces the May Fourth Movement and views itself as part of the movement's legacy.[11]: 24
Study circles were, according to Cai Hesen, "the rudiments [of our party]".[12] Several study circles were established during the New Culture Movement, but by 1920 many grew sceptical about their ability to bring about reforms.[13] China's intellectual movements were fragmented in the early 1920s.[14]: 17 The May Fourth Movement and the New Culture Movement had identified issues of broad concern to Chinese progressives, including anti-imperialism, support for nationalism, support for democracy, promotion of feminism, and rejection of traditional values.[14]: 17 Proposed solutions among Chinese progressives differed significantly, however.[14]: 17
The CCP was founded on 1 July 1921 with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and Far Eastern Secretariat of the Communist International, according to the party's official account of its history.[15][16] However, party documents suggest that the party's actual founding date was 23 July 1921, the first day of the 1st National Congress of the CCP.[17] The founding National Congress of the CCP was held 23–31 July 1921.[18][better source needed] With only 50 members in the beginning of 1921, among them Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong,[19] the CCP organization and authorities grew tremendously.[6]: 115 While it was originally held in a house in the Shanghai French Concession, French police interrupted the meeting on 30 July[20] and the congress was moved to a tourist boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province.[20] A dozen delegates attended the congress, with neither Li nor Chen being able to attend,[20] the latter sending a personal representative in his stead.[20] The resolutions of the congress called for the establishment of a communist party as a branch of the Communist International (Comintern) and elected Chen as its leader. Chen then served as the first general secretary of the CCP[20] and was referred to as "China's Lenin".[citation needed]
The Soviets hoped to foster pro-Soviet forces in East Asia to fight against anti-communist countries, particularly Japan. They attempted to contact the warlord Wu Peifu but failed.[21][22] The Soviets then contacted the Kuomintang (KMT), which was leading the Guangzhou government parallel to the Beiyang government. On 6 October 1923, the Comintern sent Mikhail Borodin to Guangzhou, and the Soviets established friendly relations with the KMT. The Central Committee of the CCP,[23] Soviet leader Joseph Stalin,[24] and the Comintern[25] all hoped that the CCP would eventually control the KMT and called their opponents "rightists".[26][note 3] KMT leader Sun Yat-sen eased the conflict between the communists and their opponents. CCP membership grew tremendously after the 4th congress in 1925, from 900 to 2,428.[28] The CCP still treats Sun Yat-sen as one of the founders of their movement and claim descent from him[29] as he is viewed as a proto-communist[30] and the economic element of Sun's ideology was socialism.[31] Sun stated, "Our Principle of Livelihood is a form of communism".[32]
The communists dominated the left wing of the KMT and struggled for power with the party's right-wing factions.[26] When Sun Yat-sen died in March 1925, he was succeeded by a rightist, Chiang Kai-shek, who initiated moves to marginalize the position of the communists.[26] Chiang, Sun's former assistant, was not actively anti-communist at that time,[33] even though he hated the theory of class struggle and the CCP's seizure of power.[27] The communists proposed removing Chiang's power.[34] When Chiang gradually gained the support of Western countries, the conflict between him and the communists became more and more intense. Chiang asked the Kuomintang to join the Comintern to rule out the secret expansion of communists within the KMT, while Chen Duxiu hoped that the communists would completely withdraw from the KMT.[35]
In April 1927, both Chiang and the CCP were preparing for conflict.[36] Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition to overthrow the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the communists, who by now numbered in the tens of thousands across China.[37] Ignoring the orders of the Wuhan-based KMT government, he marched on Shanghai, a city controlled by communist militias. Although the communists welcomed Chiang's arrival, he turned on them, massacring 5,000[note 4] with the aid of the Green Gang.[37][40][41] Chiang's army then marched on Wuhan but was prevented from taking the city by CCP General Ye Ting and his troops.[42] Chiang's allies also attacked communists; for example, in Beijing, Li Dazhao and 19 other leading communists were executed by Zhang Zuolin.[43][38] Angered by these events, the peasant movement supported by the CCP became more violent. Ye Dehui, a famous scholar, was killed by communists in Changsha, and in revenge, KMT general He Jian and his troops gunned down hundreds of peasant militiamen.[44] That May, tens of thousands of communists and their sympathizers were killed by KMT troops, with the CCP losing approximately 15,000 of its 25,000 members.[38]
The CCP continued supporting the Wuhan KMT government,[38] but on 15 July 1927 the Wuhan government expelled all communists from the KMT.[45] The CCP reacted by founding the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army of China, better known as the "Red Army", to battle the KMT. A battalion led by General Zhu De was ordered to take the city of Nanchang on 1 August 1927 in what became known as the Nanchang uprising.
Initially successful, Zhu and his troops were forced to retreat after five days, marching south to Shantou, and from there being driven into the wilderness of Fujian.[45] Mao Zedong was appointed commander-in-chief of the Red Army, and led four regiments against Changsha in the Autumn Harvest Uprising, hoping to spark peasant uprisings across Hunan.[46] His plan was to attack the KMT-held city from three directions on 9 September, but the Fourth Regiment deserted to the KMT cause, attacking the Third Regiment. Mao's army made it to Changsha but could not take it; by 15 September, he accepted defeat, with 1,000 survivors marching east to the Jinggang Mountains of Jiangxi.[46][47][48]
The near destruction of the CCP's urban organizational apparatus led to institutional changes within the party.[49] The party adopted democratic centralism, a way to organize revolutionary parties, and established a politburo to function as the standing committee of the central committee.[49] The result was increased centralization of power within the party.[49] At every level of the party this was duplicated, with standing committees now in effective control.[49] After being expelled from the party, Chen Duxiu went on to lead China's Trotskyist movement. Li Lisan was able to assume de facto control of the party organization by 1929–1930.[49]
The 1929 Gutian Congress was important in establishing the principle of party control over the military, which continues to be a core principle of the party's ideology.[50]: 280
Li's leadership was a failure, leaving the CCP on the brink of destruction.[49] The Comintern became involved, and by late 1930, his powers had been taken away.[49] By 1935, Mao had become a member of Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP and the party's informal military leader, with Zhou Enlai and Zhang Wentian, the formal head of the party, serving as his informal deputies.[49] The conflict with the KMT led to the reorganization of the Red Army, with power now centralized in the leadership through the creation of CCP political departments charged with supervising the army.[49]
The Xi'an Incident of December 1936 paused the conflict between the CCP and the KMT.[51] Under pressure from Marshal Zhang Xueliang and the CCP, Chiang Kai-shek finally agreed to a Second United Front focused on repelling the Japanese invaders.[52] While the front formally existed until 1945, all collaboration between the two parties had effectively ended by 1940.[52] Despite their formal alliance, the CCP used the opportunity to expand and carve out independent bases of operations to prepare for the coming war with the KMT.[53] In 1939, the KMT began to restrict CCP expansion within China.[53] This led to frequent clashes between CCP and KMT forces[53] which subsided rapidly on the realization on both sides that civil war amidst a foreign invasion was not an option.[53] By 1943, the CCP was again actively expanding its territory at the expense of the KMT.[53]
Mao Zedong became the Chairman of the CCP in 1945. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the war between the CCP and the KMT began again in earnest.[54] The 1945–1949 period had four stages; the first was from August 1945 (when the Japanese surrendered) to June 1946 (when the peace talks between the CCP and the KMT ended).[54] By 1945, the KMT had three times more soldiers under its command than the CCP and initially appeared to be prevailing.[54] With the cooperation of the US and Japan, the KMT was able to retake major parts of the country.[54] However, KMT rule over the reconquered territories proved unpopular because of its endemic political corruption.[54]
Notwithstanding its numerical superiority, the KMT failed to reconquer the rural territories which made up the CCP's stronghold.[54] Around the same time, the CCP launched an invasion of Manchuria, where they were assisted by the Soviet Union.[54] The second stage, lasting from July 1946 to June 1947, saw the KMT extend its control over major cities such as Yan'an, the CCP headquarters, for much of the war.[54] The KMT's successes were hollow; the CCP had tactically withdrawn from the cities, and instead undermined KMT rule there by instigating protests among students and intellectuals. The KMT responded to these demonstrations with heavy-handed repression.[55] In the meantime, the KMT was struggling with factional infighting and Chiang Kai-shek's autocratic control over the party, which weakened its ability to respond to attacks.[55]
The third stage, lasting from July 1947 to August 1948, saw a limited counteroffensive by the CCP.[55] The objective was clearing "Central China, strengthening North China, and recovering Northeast China."[56] This operation, coupled with military desertions from the KMT, resulted in the KMT losing 2 million of its 3 million troops by the spring of 1948, and saw a significant decline in support for KMT rule.[55] The CCP was consequently able to cut off KMT garrisons in Manchuria and retake several territories.[56]
The last stage, lasting from September 1948 to December 1949, saw the communists go on the offensive and the collapse of KMT rule in mainland China as a whole.[56] Mao's proclamation of the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949 marked the end of the second phase of the Chinese Civil War (or the Chinese Communist Revolution, as it is called by the CCP).[56]
Mao proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) before a massive crowd at Tiananmen Square on 1 October 1949. The CCP headed the Central People's Government.[6]: 118 From this time through the 1980s, top leaders of the CCP (such as Mao Zedong, Lin Biao, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping) were largely the same military leaders prior to the PRC's founding.[57] As a result, informal personal ties between political and military leaders dominated civil-military relations.[57]
Stalin proposed a one-party constitution when Liu Shaoqi visited the Soviet Union in 1952.[58] The constitution of the PRC in 1954 subsequently abolished the previous coalition government and established the CCP's one-party system.[59][60] In 1957, the CCP launched the Anti-Rightist Campaign against political dissidents and prominent figures from minor parties, which resulted in the political persecution of at least 550,000 people. The campaign significantly damaged the limited pluralistic nature in the socialist republic and solidified the country's status as a de facto one-party state.[61][62]
The Anti-Rightist Campaign led to the catastrophic results of the Second Five Year Plan from 1958 to 1962, known as the Great Leap Forward. In an effort to transform the country from an agrarian economy into an industrialized one, the CCP collectivized farmland, formed people's communes, and diverted labour to factories. General mismanagement and exaggerations of harvests by CCP officials led to the Great Chinese Famine, which resulted in an estimated 15 to 45 million deaths,[63][64] making it the largest famine in recorded history.[65][66][67]
During the 1960s and 1970s, the CCP experienced a significant ideological separation from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union which was going through a period of "de-Stalinization" under Nikita Khrushchev.[68] 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.[69] 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.
Following Mao's death in 1976, a power struggle between CCP chairman Hua Guofeng and vice-chairman Deng Xiaoping erupted.[70] Deng won the struggle, and became China's paramount leader in 1978.[70] Deng, alongside Hu Yaobang and Zhao Ziyang, spearheaded the "reform and opening-up" policies, and introduced the ideological concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics, opening China to the world's markets.[71] In reversing some of Mao's "leftist" policies, Deng argued that a socialist state could use the market economy without itself being capitalist.[72] While asserting the political power of the CCP, the change in policy generated significant economic growth.[citation needed] This was justified on the basis that "Practice is the Sole Criterion for the Truth", a principle reinforced through a 1978 article that aimed to combat dogmatism and criticized the "Two Whatevers" policy.[73][better source needed] The new ideology, however, was contested on both sides of the spectrum, by Maoists to the left of the CCP's leadership, as well as by those supporting political liberalization. In 1981, the Party adopted a historical resolution, which assessed the historical legacy of the Mao Zedong era and the future priorities of the CCP.[74]: 6 With other social factors, the conflicts culminated in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre.[75] The protests having been crushed and the reformist party general secretary Zhao Ziyang under house arrest, Deng's economic policies resumed and by the early 1990s the concept of a socialist market economy had been introduced.[76] In 1997, Deng's beliefs (officially called "Deng Xiaoping Theory") were embedded into the CCP's constitution.[77]
CCP general secretary Jiang Zemin succeeded Deng as paramount leader in the 1990s and continued most of his policies.[78] In the 1990s, the CCP transformed from a veteran revolutionary leadership that was both leading militarily and politically, to a political elite increasingly renewed according to institutionalized norms in the civil bureaucracy.[57] Leadership was largely selected based on rules and norms on promotion and retirement, educational background, and managerial and technical expertise.[57] There is a largely separate group of professionalized military officers, serving under top CCP leadership largely through formal relationships within institutional channels.[57]
The CCP ratified Jiang's Three Represents concept for the 2003 revision of the party's constitution, as a "guiding ideology" to encourage the party to represent "advanced productive forces, the progressive course of China's culture, and the fundamental interests of the people."[79] The theory legitimized the entry of private business owners and bourgeois elements into the party.[79] Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin's successor as general secretary, took office in 2002.[80] Unlike Mao, Deng and Jiang Zemin, Hu laid emphasis on collective leadership and opposed one-man dominance of the political system.[80] The insistence on focusing on economic growth led to a wide range of serious social problems. To address these, Hu introduced two main ideological concepts: the "Scientific Outlook on Development" and "Harmonious Society".[81] Hu resigned from his post as CCP general secretary and Chairman of the CMC at the 18th National Congress held in 2012, and was succeeded in both posts by Xi Jinping.[82][83]
Since taking power, Xi has initiated a wide-reaching anti-corruption campaign, while centralizing powers in the office of CCP general secretary at the expense of the collective leadership of prior decades.[84] Commentators have described the campaign as a defining part of Xi's leadership as well as "the principal reason why he has been able to consolidate his power so quickly and effectively."[85] Xi's leadership has also overseen an increase in the Party's role in China.[86] Xi has added his ideology, named after himself, into the CCP constitution in 2017.[87] Xi's term as general secretary was renewed in 2022.[57][88]
Since 2014, the CCP has led efforts in Xinjiang that involve the detention of more than 1 million Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in internment camps, as well as other repressive measures. This has been described as a genocide by some academics and some governments.[89][90] On the other hand, a greater number of countries signed a letter penned to the Human Rights Council supporting the policies as an effort to combat terrorism in the region.[91][92][93]
Celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the CCP's founding, one of the Two Centenaries, took place on 1 July 2021.[94] In the sixth plenary session of the 19th Central Committee in November 2021, CCP adopted a resolution on the Party's history, which for the first time credited Xi as being the "main innovator" of Xi Jinping Thought while also declaring Xi's leadership as being "the key to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation".[95][96] In comparison with the other historical resolutions, Xi's one did not herald a major change in how the CCP evaluated its history.[97]
On 6 July 2021, Xi chaired the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit, which involved representatives from 500 political parties across 160 countries.[98] Xi urged the participants to oppose "technology blockades," and "developmental decoupling" in order to work towards "building a community with a shared future for mankind."[98]
The core ideology of the party has evolved with each distinct generation of Chinese leadership. As both the CCP and the
