The 4th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was held in the
Shanghai International Settlement
The Shanghai International Settlement () originated from the merger in the year 1863 of the British and American enclaves in Shanghai, in which British subjects and American citizens would enjoy extraterritoriality and consular jurisdictio ...
at a
shikumen
Shikumen (, Shanghainese: ''zaq⁸ khu¹ men⁶,'' IPA: ᴀʔ¹¹ kʰu¹¹ mən²⁴ is a traditional Shanghainese architectural style combining Western and Chinese elements that first appeared in the 1860s. At the height of their populari ...
residence in No. 8, Lane 256, Dongbaoxing Road, between 11 and 22 January 1925. The congress was attended by 20 participants representing 994 party members of the
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
(CCP). The congress succeeded the
3rd National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and preceded the
5th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. A congress report was drafted by
Chen Duxiu
Chen Duxiu ( zh, t=陳獨秀, w=Ch'en Tu-hsiu; 8 October 187927 May 1942) was a Chinese revolutionary socialist, educator, philosopher and author, who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with Li Dazhao in 1921. From 1921 to 1927, h ...
who represented the
3rd Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
Background
Upon the formation of the
First United Front
The First United Front (; alternatively ), also known as the KMT–CCP Alliance, of the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was formed in 1924 as an alliance to end warlordism in China. Together they formed the National Revo ...
between the
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
(CCP) in 1924,
labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
and
peasant movements intensified throughout
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
, generating fears of revolution. Amidst rising tensions, the congress aimed to:
* reflect the experiences gathered under the CCPKMT cooperation throughout 1924;
* strengthen the leadership of revolutionary movements, and to;
* respond several new issues faced by the party.
Agenda
Congress was attended by several important figures within the
Comintern and the CCP. This included
Chen Duxiu
Chen Duxiu ( zh, t=陳獨秀, w=Ch'en Tu-hsiu; 8 October 187927 May 1942) was a Chinese revolutionary socialist, educator, philosopher and author, who co-founded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with Li Dazhao in 1921. From 1921 to 1927, h ...
,
Cai Hesen
Cai Hesen (March 30, 1895 – August 4, 1931) was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and a friend and comrade of Mao Zedong. Cai was born in Shanghai but grew up in Shuangfeng County in Hunan Province of China. He hel ...
,
Qu Qiubai
Qu Qiubai (; 29 January 1899 – 18 June 1935) was a leader of the Chinese Communist Party in the late 1920s. He was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China.
Early life
Qu was born in Changzhou, Jiangsu. His family lived in Tianxiang Lou () loca ...
,
Tan Pingshan,
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai (; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman and military officer who served as the first premier of the People's Republic of China from 1 October 1949 until his death on 8 January 1976. Zhou served under Chairman Ma ...
,
Peng Shuzhi
Peng Shuzhi (also spelled Peng Shu-tse; ;alias Ivan Petrov, Xi Zhao, Nan Guan, Tao Bo, Ou Bo. 1896–1983) was an early leader of the Chinese Communist Party who was expelled from the party for being a Trotskyist. After the Communist victory in Chi ...
,
Zhang Tailei
Zhang Tailei () (June 1898 – 12 December 1927) was the leader of the Guangzhou Uprising, during which he was killed.
Zhang was sent to the Russian Far East in 1921 to make a report to the Comintern for the Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese ...
,
Chen Tanqiu
Chen Tanqiu (; 4 January 1896 – 27 September 1943) was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Chen Tanqiu graduated from Wuhan Higher Normal School (present day Wuhan University) after which he played a leadership role in th ...
,
Li Weihan
Li Weihan (; 2 June 1896 – 11 August 1984) was a Chinese Communist Party politician. After pursuing his studies in France in 1919–20, he returned to China for the Party's founding Congress in Shanghai in 1921. He became a member of the P ...
,
Li Lisan
Li Lisan (; November 18, 1899 – June 22, 1967) was a Chinese politician, member of the Politburo, and later a member of the Central Committee.
Early years
Li was born in Liling, Hunan province in China in 1899, under the name of Li R ...
,
Wang Hebo
Wang Hebo () (1882–November 11, 1927), whose forebears had come from Taiyuan, Shanxi, born in Minhou, Fujian, joined the CPC in June 1922. He led the strike of the Tianjin–Pukou Railway workers in 1923, which effectively supported the Gene ...
,
Xiang Ying, and
Grigori Voitinsky
Grigori Naumovich Voitinsky, born Zarkhin (; 17 April 1893 – 11 June 1953) was a Soviet Comintern official. He was sent to China in 1920 as a senior advisor to contact the top prominent Chinese communists such as Chen Duxiu, just before the for ...
.
Congress noted: "A
classless society, in the event of a people's revolution, must oppose both
left and
right-leaning thoughts." Congress also pointed that right-wing politics is the main ideological threat of the CCP. It was determined that the CCP must achieve a "completely democratic political platform within and out of the Kuomintang while maintaining the independence of the CCP.", and using propaganda to expand left-leaning factions of the party, attaining support from the moderates while opposing right-wing politics. The party was also directed by the congress to assist in Kuomintang's political movements.
12 resolutions were passed in congress. 14 members were elected during the process for the newly formed
4th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. After congress, the first meeting of the 4th Central Committee was held, electing 5 party members, namely Chen Duxiu (as the
general secretary
Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
), Peng Shuzhi,
Zhang Guotao
Zhang Guotao (November 26, 1897 – December 3, 1979), or Chang Kuo-tao, was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Comi ...
, Cai Hesen and Qu Qiubai to form the party's Central Bureau (a precursor to the
Politburo).
Congress simultaneously made revisions to the party constitution. During the
2nd National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, it was decided that party organizations of the lowest-tier were to be referred as "committees" composed of 3 to 5 party members. By the 3rd Congress, it was changed to "small groups" of 5 to 10 party members. However, revisions of the 4th Congress renamed them " to "branches", while dictating that a "branch" could be formed with the participation of 3 or more party members.
Aftermath and legacy
The original
shikumen
Shikumen (, Shanghainese: ''zaq⁸ khu¹ men⁶,'' IPA: ᴀʔ¹¹ kʰu¹¹ mən²⁴ is a traditional Shanghainese architectural style combining Western and Chinese elements that first appeared in the 1860s. At the height of their populari ...
residence in
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
that hosted the congress was destroyed during the
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) or War of Resistance (Chinese term) was a military conflict that was primarily waged between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. The war made up the Chinese theater of the wider Pacific Th ...
. The site has since been converted into several apartments constructed during the 1980s. In 1995, the Shanghai Municipality created a memorial at the site to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the 4th congress.
The congress was the first time the CCP had directly addressed two political issues. The first issue relates to leadership concerns in the event of a revolution. The ''Resolution About Revolutionary Movements'', drafted during congress, stated, "A political party pursuing a classless society should lead the movement to achieve one, not by any means of affiliation with capitalists; Instead it should be participated by their own will, free from social classes with a clear objective." It also mentioned that "a classless society is the most revolutionary society; In a democratic revolution, it must have participation from the most revolutionary classless society with the ability to oversight and lead it, in order to secure a total victory."
The question of an alliance between the peasants and the workers in the event of a revolution was also addressed. In the ''Resolution Of Peasant Movements'', it was clarified that the peasantry "is the basis of the force to launch a classless revolution". The resolution also emphasized the importance of the peasantry's role in a revolution, stating, "If a classless society and its constituent political parties fail to incite revolution among the peasantry, then the position of the classless society and the success of a Chinese revolution would be impossible to attain."
Congress also firmly established the CCP's stance against warlordism and conservative economics systems.
References
{{National meetings of the Communist Party of China
1925 conferences
1925 in China
National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party