The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC),
is the founding and
sole ruling party
The ruling party or governing party in a democratic parliamentary or presidential system is the political party or coalition holding a majority of elected positions in a parliament, in the case of parliamentary systems, or holding the executive ...
of the
People's Republic of 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 ...
(PRC). Under the leadership of
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
, the CCP emerged victorious in the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...
against the
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...
, and, in 1949, Mao
proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Since then, the CCP has governed China with
eight smaller parties within its
United Front
A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...
and has sole control over the
People's Liberation Army (PLA). Each successive leader of the CCP has added their own theories to the
party's constitution, which outlines the ideological beliefs of the party, collectively referred to as
socialism with Chinese characteristics. As of 2022, the CCP has more than 96 million members, making it the
second largest political party by party membership in the world after
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
's
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
.
The Chinese public generally refers to the CCP as simply "the Party".
In 1921,
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 ...
and
Li Dazhao
Li Dazhao or Li Ta-chao (October 29, 1889 – April 28, 1927) was a Chinese intellectual and revolutionary who participated in the New Cultural Movement in the early years of the Republic of China, established in 1912. He co-founded the Chinese C ...
led the founding of the CCP with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and
Far Eastern Secretariat of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
. For the first six years of its history, 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
peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasant ...
ry with its
land reform policies. Support for the CCP continued to grow throughout 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 ...
, and after the Japanese surrender in 1945, the CCP emerged triumphant in the
communist revolution
A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, socialism can be used as an intermediate stag ...
against the
KMT government. After the
retreat of KMT 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 declined. 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
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
, 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
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP ...
directed the CCP away from Maoist orthodoxy and towards a policy of
economic liberalization
Economic liberalization (or economic liberalisation) is the lessening of government regulations and restrictions in an economy in exchange for greater participation by private entities. In politics, the doctrine is associated with classical liber ...
. The official explanation for these reforms was that China is still in the
primary stage of socialism
The primary stage of socialism (sometimes referred to as the preliminary stage of socialism),''Properly Understand Theories Concerning Preliminary Stage of Socialism'', by Wei Xinghua and Sang Baichuan. 1998. Journal of Renmin University of Chin ...
, 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 emphasized its relations with the ruling parties of the remaining
socialist states
Several past and present states have declared themselves socialist states or in the process of building socialism. The majority of self-declared socialist countries have been Marxist–Leninist or inspired by it, following the model of the Sovi ...
and continues to participate in the
International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
The International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) is an annual conference attended by communist and workers' parties from several countries. It originated in 1998 when the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) invited communist a ...
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, and
social democratic parties of Europe.
The Chinese Communist Party is organized on the basis of
democratic centralism, a principle that entails open discussion of policy 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
A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...
. Members of the latter are seen as the top leadership of the party and the state.
Today the
party's leader holds the offices of
general secretary (responsible for civilian party duties),
Chairman of the Central Military Commission Chairman of the Central Military Commission may refer to:
*Chairman of the Central Military Commission (China)
*Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea
See also
*Secretary of the Central Military Commission of the ...
(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
Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, ...
, who was elected at the
18th National Congress held on 8–15 November 2012 and retained his position at the
19th National Congress held on 18–24 October 2017 and the
20th National Congress held on 16–22 October 2022.
History
Founding and early history
The CCP traces its origins to the
May Fourth Movement
The May Fourth Movement was a Chinese anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement which grew out of student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919. Students gathered in front of Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace) to protest the Chines ...
of 1919, during which radical Western ideologies like
Marxism
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialectical ...
and
anarchism gained traction among
Chinese intellectuals.
Other influences stemming from the
Bolshevik revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...
and
Marxist theory inspired the CCP.
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 ...
and
Li Dazhao
Li Dazhao or Li Ta-chao (October 29, 1889 – April 28, 1927) was a Chinese intellectual and revolutionary who participated in the New Cultural Movement in the early years of the Republic of China, established in 1912. He co-founded the Chinese C ...
were among the first to publicly support
Leninism and
world revolution
World revolution is the Marxist concept of overthrowing capitalism in all countries through the conscious revolutionary action of the organized working class. For theorists, these revolutions will not necessarily occur simultaneously, but whe ...
. Both regarded the October Revolution in Russia as groundbreaking, believing it to herald a new era for oppressed countries everywhere. Study circles were, according to
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 ...
, "the rudiments
f our party. Several study circles were established during the
New Culture Movement, but by 1920 many grew sceptical about their ability to bring about reforms.
![The First National Congress of CPC](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/The_First_National_Congress_of_CPC.jpg)
The CCP was founded on 1 July 1921 with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union and
Far Eastern Secretariat of the
Communist International
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
, according to the party's official account of its history.
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. The founding National Congress of the CCP was held 23–31 July 1921. With only 50 members in the beginning of 1921, among them Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong, the CCP organization and authorities grew tremendously. While it was originally held in
a house
A House were an Irish rock band that was active in Dublin from the 1985 to 1997, and recognized for the clever, "often bitter or irony laden lyrics of frontman Dave Couse ... bolstered by the and'sseemingly effortless musicality". The single " ...
in the
Shanghai French Concession
The Shanghai French Concession; ; Shanghainese pronunciation: ''Zånhae Fah Tsuka'', group=lower-alpha was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1943, which progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. T ...
, French police interrupted the meeting on 30 July and the congress was moved to a tourist boat on
South Lake in
Jiaxing
Jiaxing (), alternately romanized as Kashing, is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province, China. Lying on the Grand Canal of China, Jiaxing borders Hangzhou to the southwest, Huzhou to the west, Shanghai to the northeast, and the p ...
, Zhejiang province. A dozen delegates attended the congress, with neither Li nor Chen being able to attend, the latter sending a personal representative in his stead. The resolutions of the congress called for the establishment of a
communist party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...
as a branch of the Communist International (Comintern) and elected Chen as its leader. Chen then served as the first general secretary of the Communist Party and was referred to as "China's Lenin".
The Soviets hoped to foster pro-Soviet forces in the Far East to fight against
anti-communist countries, particularly
Japan. They attempted to contact the warlord
Wu Peifu
Wu Peifu or Wu P'ei-fu (; April 22, 1874 – December 4, 1939) was a major figure in the struggles between the warlords who dominated Republican China from 1916 to 1927.
Early career
Born in Shandong Province in eastern China, Wu initi ...
, but failed. The Soviets then contacted the Kuomintang (KMT), which was leading the
Guangzhou government parallel to the
Beiyang government
The Beiyang government (), officially the Republic of China (), sometimes spelled Peiyang Government, refers to the government of the Republic of China which sat in its capital Peking ( Beijing) between 1912 and 1928. It was internationally ...
. On 6 October 1923, the Comintern sent
Mikhail Borodin
Mikhail Markovich Gruzenberg, known by the alias Borodin, zh, 鮑羅廷 (9 July 1884 – 29 May 1951), was a Bolshevik revolutionary and Communist International (Comintern) agent. He was an advisor to Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang (KMT) i ...
to Guangzhou, and the Soviets established friendly relations with the KMT. The
Central Committee of the CCP
The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is currently composed of 205 fu ...
, Soviet leader
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
, and the Comintern all hoped that the CCP would eventually control the KMT and called their opponents "rightists". Sun eased the conflict between the communists and their opponents. CCP membership grew tremendously after the 4th congress in 1925, from 900 to 2,428.
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".
The communists dominated the left wing of the KMT and struggled for power with the party's right-wing factions. When KMT leader 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. Chiang, Sun's former assistant, was not actively anti-communist at that time, even though he hated the theory of
class struggle and the CCP's seizure of power.
The communists proposed removing Chiang's power. 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.
In April 1927, both Chiang and the CCP were preparing for conflict. Fresh from the success of the
Northern Expedition
The Northern Expedition was a military campaign launched by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) of the Kuomintang (KMT), also known as the "Chinese Nationalist Party", against the Beiyang government and other regional warlords in 1926. The ...
to overthrow the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the communists, who by now numbered in the tens of thousands across China. 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 with the aid of the
Green Gang
The Green Gang () was a Chinese secret society and criminal organization, which was prominent in criminal, social and political activity in Shanghai during the early to mid 20th century.
History
Origins
As a secret society, the origins and hist ...
. Chiang's army then marched on Wuhan, but was prevented from taking the city by CCP General
Ye Ting
Ye Ting () (September 10, 1896 – April 8, 1946), born in Huiyang, Guangdong, was a Chinese military leader who played a key role in the Northern Expedition to reunify China after the 1911 Revolution. After serving with the Kuomintang, Ye ...
and his troops. Chiang's allies also attacked communists; for example, in Beijing, Li Dazhao and 19 other leading communists were executed by
Zhang Zuolin
Zhang Zuolin (; March 19, 1875 June 4, 1928), courtesy name Yuting (雨亭), nicknamed Zhang Laogang (張老疙瘩), was an influential Chinese bandit, soldier, and warlord during the Warlord Era in China. The warlord of Manchuria from 1916 to ...
. 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
Changsha (; ; ; Changshanese pronunciation: (), Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of Hunan Province of China. Changsha is the 17th most populous city in China with a popul ...
, and in revenge, KMT general
He Jian
He Jian (; 10 April 1887 – 25 April 1956) was a Chinese Nationalist (KMT) general and politician in the Republic of China. He was governor of Hunan province between 1929 and 1937, and Interior Minister from 1937 to 1939. He was best known for ...
and his troops gunned down hundreds of peasant militiamen. That May, tens of thousands of communists and their sympathizers were killed by KMT troops, with the CCP losing approximately of its members.
Chinese Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War
The CCP continued supporting the Wuhan KMT government, but on 15 July 1927 the Wuhan government expelled all communists from the KMT. 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
Zhu De (; ; also Chu Teh; 1 December 1886 – 6 July 1976) was a Chinese general, military strategist, politician and revolutionary in the Chinese Communist Party. Born into poverty in 1886 in Sichuan, he was adopted by a wealthy uncle at ...
was ordered to take the city of
Nanchang
Nanchang (, ; ) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east ...
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
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its cap ...
.
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
was appointed commander-in-chief of the Red Army, and led four regiments against Changsha in the
Autumn Harvest Uprising
The Autumn Harvest Uprising was an insurrection that took place in Hunan and Kiangsi (Jiangxi) provinces of China, on September 7, 1927, led by Mao Tse-tung, who established a short-lived Hunan Soviet.
After initial success, the uprising was ...
, hoping to spark peasant uprisings across Hunan. 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
The Jinggang Mountains (), historically rendered as Chingkang Mountains are a mountain range of the Luoxiao Mountains System (罗霄山), in the border region of Jiangxi and Hunan Provinces.
The range lies at the junction of four counties - N ...
of
Jiangxi
Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...
.
The near-destruction of the CCP's urban organizational apparatus led to institutional changes within the party. 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. The result was increased centralization of power within the party. At every level of the party this was duplicated, with standing committees now in effective control. After being expelled from the party, Chen Duxiu went on to lead China's
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
movement.
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 ...
was able to assume ''de facto'' control of the party organization by 1929–1930. Li's leadership was a failure, leaving the CCP on the brink of destruction. The Comintern became involved, and by late 1930, his powers had been taken away. By 1935 Mao had become a member of
Politburo Standing Committee of the CCP and the party's informal military leader, with
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 ...
and
Zhang Wentian
Zhang Wentian (; 30 August 1900 – 1 July 1976), also known as Luo Fu (), was a high-ranking leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Born in Nanhui, he attended the Hohai Civil Engineering School in Nanjing and spent a year at the Univer ...
, the formal head of the party, serving as his informal deputies. 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.
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 ...
paused the conflict between the CCP and the KMT. The
Second United Front was established between the CCP and the KMT to repel the Japanese invaders. While the front formally existed until 1945, all collaboration between the two parties had ended by 1940. 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. In 1939 the KMT began to restrict CCP expansion within China. This led to frequent clashes between CCP and KMT forces but which subsided rapidly on the realisation on both sides that civil war amidst a foreign invasion was not an option. Yet, by 1943, the CCP was again actively expanding its territory at the expense of the KMT.
Mao Zedong became the
Chairman of the CCP in 1945. From 1945 until 1949, the war had been reduced to two parties: the CCP and the KMT. This period lasted through 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). By 1945, the KMT had three-times more soldiers under its command than the CCP and initially appeared to be prevailing. With the cooperation of the U.S. and Japan, the KMT was able to retake major parts of the country. However, KMT rule over the reconquered territories would prove unpopular because of endemic party corruption. Notwithstanding its huge numerical superiority, the KMT failed to reconquer the rural territories which made up the CCP's stronghold. Around the same time, the CCP launched an invasion of
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...
, where they were assisted by the Soviet Union. The second stage, lasting from July 1946 to June 1947, saw the KMT extend its control over major cities such as
Yan'an
Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an) ...
, the CCP headquarters for much of the war. The KMT's successes were hollow; the CCP had tactically withdrawn from the cities, and instead attacked KMT authorities by instigating protests amongst students and intellectuals in the cities. The KMT responded to these demonstrations with heavy-handed repression. In the meantime, the KMT was struggling with factional infighting and Chiang Kai-shek's autocratic control over the party, which weakened the KMT's ability to respond to attacks. The third stage, lasting from July 1947 to August 1948, saw a limited counteroffensive by the CCP. The objective was clearing "Central China, strengthening North China, and recovering Northeast China." This disastrous counteroffensive, 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 a significant decline in support for KMT rule. The CCP was consequently able to cut off KMT garrisons in Manchuria and retake several lost territories. 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. 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
The Chinese Communist Revolution, officially known as the Chinese People's War of Liberation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and also known as the National Protection War against the Communist Rebellion in the Republic of China (ROC ...
, as it is called by the CCP).
Becoming the sole ruling party of China
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
The State Council, constitutionally synonymous with the Central People's Government since 1954 (particularly in relation to local governments), is the chief administrative authority of the People's Republic of China. It is chaired by the p ...
. 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.
As a result, informal personal ties between political and military leaders dominated civil-military relations.
![Stalin birthday2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Stalin_birthday2.jpg)
Stalin proposed a one-party constitution when
Liu Shaoqi visited the Soviet Union in 1952. The Constitution of the PRC in 1954 subsequently abolished the previous coalition government and established the CCP's one-party system. Mao said that China should implement a
multi-party system
In political science, a multi-party system is a political system in which multiple political parties across the political spectrum run for national elections, and all have the capacity to gain control of government offices, separately or in ...
under the CCP's leadership at the CCP's 8th Congress in 1956. He had not previously made such a proposal, but the CCP nonetheless retained most of its political power even after the announcement. In 1957, the CCP launched the
Anti-Rightist Campaign
The Anti-Rightist Campaign () in the People's Republic of China, which lasted from 1957 to roughly 1959, was a political campaign to purge alleged " Rightists" within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the country as a whole. The campaign was ...
against political dissents and prominent figures from other 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
A one-party state, single-party state, one-party system, or single-party system is a type of sovereign state in which only one political party has the right to form the government, usually based on the existing constitution. All other parties ...
.
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, making it the largest famine in recorded history.
Sino-Soviet split and Cultural Revolution
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
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
. By that time, Mao had begun saying that the "continued revolution under the
dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the ...
" stipulated that class enemies continued to exist even though the socialist revolution seemed to be complete, leading to the
Cultural Revolution
The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
in which millions were persecuted and killed. During the Cultural Revolution, party leaders such as Liu Shaoqi,
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CCP ...
,
Peng Dehuai, and
He Long
He Long (; March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and one of the ten marshals of the People's Liberation Army. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal ...
were purged or exiled, and the
Gang of Four, led by Mao's wife
Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing (19 March 191414 May 1991), also known as Madame Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary, actress, and major political figure during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). She was the fourth wife of Mao Zedong, the Chairman of ...
, emerged to fill in the power vacuum left behind.
Reforms under Deng Xiaoping
Following Mao's death in 1976, a power struggle between CCP chairman
Hua Guofeng
Hua Guofeng (; born Su Zhu; 16 February 1921 – 20 August 2008), alternatively spelled as Hua Kuo-feng, was a Chinese politician who served as Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and Premier of the People's Republic of China. The desig ...
and vice-chairman Deng Xiaoping erupted. Deng won the struggle, and became China's paramount leader in 1978. Deng, alongside
Hu Yaobang
Hu Yaobang (; 20 November 1915 – 15 April 1989) was a high-ranking official of the People's Republic of China. He held the top office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1981 to 1987, first as Chairman from 1981 to 1982, then as Gene ...
and
Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang ( zh, 赵紫阳; pronounced , 17 October 1919 – 17 January 2005) was a Chinese politician. He was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 19 ...
, spearheaded the "
reform and opening-up
The Chinese economic reform or reform and opening-up (), known in the West as the opening of China, is the program of economic reforms termed "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "socialist market economy" in the People's Republic of Ch ...
" policies, and introduced the ideological concept of socialism with Chinese characteristics, 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.
While asserting the political power of the CCP, the change in policy generated significant economic growth.
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
The "Two Whatevers" () refers to the statement that "We will resolutely uphold whatever policy decisions Chairman Mao made, and unswervingly follow whatever instructions Chairman Mao gave" ().
This statement was contained in a joint editorial, en ...
" policy. 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. With other social factors, the conflicts culminated in the
1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. 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
The socialist market economy (SME) is the economic system and model of economic development employed in the People's Republic of China. The system is a market economy with the predominance of public ownership and state-owned enterprises. The ...
had been introduced. In 1997, Deng's beliefs (officially called "
Deng Xiaoping Theory") were embedded into the
CCP's constitution.
Further reforms under Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao
CCP general secretary
Jiang Zemin
Jiang Zemin (17 August 1926 – 30 November 2022) was a Chinese politician who served as general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1989 to 2002, as chairman of the Central Military Commission from 1989 to 2004, and as pr ...
succeeded Deng as paramount leader in the 1990s and continued most of his policies. 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.
Leadership was largely selected based on rules and norms on promotion and retirement, educational background, and managerial and technical expertise.
There is a largely separate group of professionalized military officers, serving under top CCP leadership largely through formal relationships within institutional channels.
As part of Jiang Zemin's nominal legacy, the CCP ratified the "
Three Represents
The Three Represents or the important thought of Three Represents is a guiding socio-political theory within China credited to then-general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin, which was ratified at the Sixteenth Party ...
" 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." The theory legitimized the entry of private business owners and
bourgeois elements into the party.
Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin's successor as general secretary, took office in 2002. Unlike Mao, Deng and Jiang Zemin, Hu laid emphasis on
collective leadership
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...
and opposed one-man dominance of the political system. 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 Socialist Society". 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.
Leadership of Xi Jinping
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. 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." Foreign commentators have likened him to Mao. Xi's leadership has also overseen an increase in the Party's role in China. Xi has added
his ideology, named after himself, into the CCP constitution in 2017.
As has been speculated, Xi Jinping may not retire from his top posts after serving for 10 years in 2022.
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
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
, as well as other repressive measures. This has been described as a
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Lat ...
by academics and some governments. 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.
![Slogan for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China 20210611](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Slogan_for_the_100th_anniversary_of_the_founding_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China_20210611.jpg)
Celebrations of the
100th anniversary of the CCP's founding, one of the
Two Centenaries
The Two Centenaries () is a political slogan that refers to two 100-year anniversaries and a stated set of economic and political goals advanced by General Secretary Xi Jinping following the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party ...
, took place on 1 July 2021.
On July 6, 2021, Xi chaired the
Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Summit, which involved representatives from 500 political parties across 160 countries.
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."
Ideology
Formal ideology
![Marx et Engels à Shanghai](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Marx_et_Engels_%C3%A0_Shanghai.jpg)
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 promote their members according to seniority, it is possible to discern distinct generations of Chinese leadership.
[The landmark study of military generations and factions is William Whitson's ''The Chinese High Command,'' Praeger, 1973] In official discourse, each group of leadership is identified with a distinct extension of the ideology of the party. Historians have studied various periods in the development of the government of the People's Republic of China by reference to these "generations".
Marxism–Leninism
Marxism–Leninism is a communist ideology which was the main communist movement throughout the 20th century. Developed by the Bolsheviks, it was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, its satellite states in the Eastern Bloc, and various c ...
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'',
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 added to the party constitution at the 14th National Congress in 1992. 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
State socialism is a political and economic ideology within the socialist movement that advocates state ownership of the means of production. This is intended either as a temporary measure, or as a characteristic of socialism in the transition ...
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
"Seek truth from facts" is a historically established idiomatic expression (''chengyu'') in the Chinese language that first appeared in the ''Book of Han''. Originally, it described an attitude toward study and research.
In modern Chinese cult ...
" and follow the slogan "practice is the sole criterion for the truth". At the 14th National Congress, Jiang reiterated Deng's mantra that it was unnecessary to ask if something was socialist or capitalist, since the important factor was whether it worked.
The "Three Represents", Jiang Zemin's contribution to the party's ideology, was adopted by the party at the
16th National Congress. The Three Represents defines the role of the CCP, and stresses that the Party must always represent the requirements for developing China's advanced productive forces, the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people." Certain segments within the CCP criticized the Three Represents as being un-Marxist and a betrayal of basic Marxist values. Supporters viewed it as a further development of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Jiang disagreed, and had concluded that attaining the communist mode of production, as formulated by earlier communists, was more complex than had been realized, and that it was useless to try to force a change in the mode of production, as it had to develop naturally, by following the
economic laws of history. The theory is most notable for allowing capitalists, officially referred to as the "new social strata", to join the party on the grounds that they engaged in "honest labor and work" and through their labour contributed "to build
ngsocialism with Chinese characteristics."
In 2003 the 3rd Plenary Session of the
16th Central Committee conceived and formulated the ideology of the
Scientific Outlook on Development
The Scientific Outlook on Development (), sometimes translated to either the scientific development concept, or as the scientific development perspective, is one of the guiding socio-economic principles of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
T ...
(SOD). It is considered to be Hu Jintao's contribution to the official ideological discourse. The SOD incorporates
scientific socialism
Scientific socialism is a term coined in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book '' What is Property?'' to mean a society ruled by a scientific government, i.e., one whose sovereignty rests upon reason, rather than sheer will: Thus, in a given ...
,
sustainable development,
social welfare
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
, a
humanistic society, increased democracy, and, ultimately, the creation of a
Socialist Harmonious Society
The Harmonious Society (; also known as Socialist Harmonious Society) is a socioeconomic concept in China that is recognized as a response to the increasing alleged social injustice and inequality emerging in mainland Chinese society as a result ...
. According to official statements by the CCP, the concept integrates "Marxism with the reality of contemporary China and with the underlying features of our times, and it fully embodies the Marxist worldview on and methodology for development."
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, commonly known as Xi Jinping Thought, was added to the party constitution in the
19th National Congress in 2017.
Xi himself has described the thought as part of the broad framework created around socialism with Chinese characteristics. In official party documentation and pronouncements by Xi's colleagues, the Thought is said to be a continuation of previous party ideologies as part of a series of guiding ideologies that embody "
Marxism adapted to Chinese conditions" and contemporary considerations.
The party combines elements of both
socialist patriotism
Socialist patriotism is a form of patriotism promoted by Marxist–Leninist movements.Robert A. Jones. ''The Soviet concept of "limited sovereignty" from Lenin to Gorbachev: the Brezhnev Doctrine''. MacMillan, 1990. Pp. 133. Socialist patriotis ...
and
Chinese nationalism.
Economics
Deng did not believe that the fundamental difference between the capitalist mode of production and the socialist mode of production was
central planning
A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, pa ...
versus
free market
In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...
s. 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".
Jiang Zemin supported Deng's thinking, 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. It was at this gathering that Jiang Zemin introduced the term
socialist market economy
The socialist market economy (SME) is the economic system and model of economic development employed in the People's Republic of China. The system is a market economy with the predominance of public ownership and state-owned enterprises. The ...
, which replaced
Chen Yun
Chen Yun (, pronounced ; 13 June 1905 – 10 April 1995) was one of the most influential leaders of the People's Republic of China during the 1980s and 1990s and one of the major architects and important policy makers for the Reform and op ...
's "planned socialist market economy". In his report to the 14th National Congress Jiang Zemin told the delegates that the socialist state would "let market forces play a basic role in resource allocation."
At the 15th National Congress, the party line was changed to "make market forces further play their role in resource allocation"; this line continued until the of the
18th Central Committee,
when it was amended to "let market forces play a ''decisive'' role in
resource allocation
In economics, resource allocation is the assignment of available resources to various uses. In the context of an entire economy, resources can be allocated by various means, such as markets, or planning.
In project management, resource allocati ...
."
Despite this, the 3rd Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee upheld the creed "Maintain the dominance of the
public sector
The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, inf ...
and strengthen the economic vitality of the
state-owned economy."
The CCP views the world as organized into two opposing camps; socialist and capitalist. They insist that socialism, on the basis of
historical materialism
Historical materialism is the term used to describe Karl Marx's theory of history. Marx locates historical change in the rise of class societies and the way humans labor together to make their livelihoods. For Marx and his lifetime collaborat ...
, will eventually triumph over capitalism. In recent years, when the party has been asked to explain the capitalist
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
occurring, the party has returned to the writings of
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
. 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. Because of this there is 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 and Mao Zedong Thought (or at least basic thoughts within orthodox thinking), the CCP itself disagrees. Critics of the CCP argue that Jiang Zemin ended the party's formal commitment to Marxism–Leninism with the introduction of the ideological theory, the Three Represents. However, party theorist
Leng Rong disagrees, claiming that "President Jiang 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." The attainment of true "communism" is still described as the CCP's and China's "ultimate goal". While the CCP claims that China is in the
primary stage of socialism
The primary stage of socialism (sometimes referred to as the preliminary stage of socialism),''Properly Understand Theories Concerning Preliminary Stage of Socialism'', by Wei Xinghua and Sang Baichuan. 1998. Journal of Renmin University of Chin ...
, party theorists argue that the current development stage "looks a lot like capitalism". Alternatively, certain party theorists argue that "capitalism is the early or first stage of communism." Some have dismissed the concept of a primary stage of socialism as intellectual cynicism. For example,
Robert Lawrence Kuhn
Robert Lawrence Kuhn (born November 6, 1944) is a public intellectual, international corporate strategist and investment banker. He has been called “one of the Western world’s most prolific interpreters of Beijing’s policies.” Outside C ...
, a former foreign adviser to the Chinese government, stated: "When I first heard this rationale, I thought it more comic than clever—a wry caricature of hack propagandists leaked by intellectual cynics. But the 100-year horizon comes from serious political theorists."
American political scientist and
sinologist David Shambaugh
David Shambaugh (; born January 18, 1953) is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs, and director of the China Policy Program at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington Unive ...
argues that before the "Practice Is the Sole Criterion for the Truth" campaign, the relationship between ideology and decision making was a deductive one, meaning that policy-making was derived from ideological knowledge. However, under Deng's leadership this relationship was turned upside down, with decision making justifying ideology. Chinese policy-makers have described the
Soviet Union's state ideology as "rigid, unimaginative, ossified, and disconnected from reality", believing that this was one of the reasons for the
dissolution of the Soviet Union. Therefore, Shambaugh argues, Chinese policy-makers believe that their party ideology must be dynamic to safeguard the party's rule.
British sinologist
Kerry Brown argues that the CCP does not have an ideology, and that the party organization is
pragmatic
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement.
Pragmatism or pragmatic may also refer to:
*Pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy
*Pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics and semiotics
*''Pragmatics'', an academic journal in ...
and interested only in what works. The party itself argues against this assertion. Hu Jintao stated in 2012 that the Western world is "threatening to divide us" and that "the international culture of the West is strong while we are weak ... Ideological and cultural fields are our main targets". As such, the CCP puts a great deal of effort into the party schools and into crafting its ideological message.
Governance
Collective leadership
Collective leadership, the idea that decisions will be taken through consensus, is the ideal in the CCP. The concept has its origins back to Lenin and the Russian Bolshevik Party. At the level of the central party leadership this means that, for instance, all members of the Politburo Standing Committee are of equal standing (each member having only one vote). A member of the Politburo Standing Committee often represents a sector; during Mao's reign, he controlled the People's Liberation Army,
Kang Sheng
Kang Sheng (; 4 November 1898 – 16 December 1975) was a Chinese Communist politician best known for having overseen the CCP's internal security and intelligence apparatus during the early 1940s and again at the height of the Cultural Revolu ...
, the security apparatus, and Zhou Enlai, the
State Council State Council may refer to:
Government
* State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President
* State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...
and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This counts as informal power. Despite this, in a paradoxical relation, members of a body are ranked
hierarchically (despite the fact that members are in theory equal to one another). Informally, the collective leadership is headed by a "
leadership core
In modern Chinese politics, a leadership core or core leader () refers to a person who is recognized as central to the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Four individuals so far have been given this designation: Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, ...
"; that is, the
paramount leader, the person who holds the offices of CCP general secretary,
CMC chairman and
PRC president. Before Jiang Zemin's tenure as paramount leader, the party core and collective leadership were indistinguishable. In practice, the core was not responsible to the collective leadership. However, by the time of Jiang, the party had begun propagating a responsibility system, referring to it in official pronouncements as the "core of the collective leadership".
Democratic centralism
The CCP's organizational principle is democratic centralism, a principle that entails open discussion of policy on the condition of unity among party members in upholding the agreed-upon decision. It is based on two principles: democracy (synonymous in official discourse with "socialist democracy" and "inner-party democracy") and
centralism
Centralisation or centralization (see spelling differences) is the process by which the activities of an organisation, particularly those regarding planning and decision-making, framing strategy and policies become concentrated within a particu ...
.
This has been the guiding organizational principle of the party since the
5th National Congress, held in 1927.
In the words of the party constitution, "The Party is an integral body organized under its program and constitution and on the basis of democratic centralism".
Mao once quipped that democratic centralism was "at once democratic and
centralized, with the two seeming opposites of democracy and centralization united in a definite form." Mao claimed that the superiority of democratic centralism lay in its internal contradictions, between democracy and centralism, and
freedom and
discipline.
Currently, the CCP is claiming that "democracy is the lifeline of the Party, the lifeline of socialism".
But for democracy to be implemented, and functioning properly, there needs to be centralization.
The goal of democratic centralism was not to obliterate capitalism or its policies but instead it is the movement towards regulating capitalism while involving socialism and democracy. Democracy in any form, the CCP claims, needs centralism, since without centralism there will be no order.
''Shuanggui''
''Shuanggui'' is an intra-party disciplinary process conducted by the
Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is the highest internal control institution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), tasked with enforcing internal rules and regulations and combating corruption and malfeasance in the pa ...
(CCDI). This formally independent
internal control Internal control, as defined by accounting and auditing, is a process for assuring of an organization's objectives in operational effectiveness and efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with laws, regulations and policies. A broad ...
institution conducts ''shuanggui'' on members accused of "disciplinary violations", a charge which generally refers to
political corruption. The process, which literally translates to "double regulation", aims to extract confessions from members accused of violating party rules. According to the
Dui Hua Foundation
The Dui Hua Foundation ( zh, s=中美对话基金会, t=中美對話基金會, p=Zhōngměi Duìhuà Jījīnhuì, l=China-America Dialogue Foundation), or Dui Hua, is a San Francisco-based nonprofit humanitarian organization that seeks clemency a ...
, tactics such as cigarette burns, beatings and simulated drowning are among those used to extract confessions. Other reported techniques include the use of induced hallucinations, with one subject of this method reporting that "In the end I was so exhausted, I agreed to all the accusations against me even though they were false."
United Front
The CCP employs a political strategy that it terms "united front work" that involves groups and key individuals that are influenced or controlled by the CCP and used to advance its interests.
United Front work is managed primarily but not exclusively by the
United Front Work Department
The United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (UFWD; ) is a department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which is officially tasked with "united front work". For this endeav ...
(UFWD). The United Front has historically been a
popular front
A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault".
More generally, it is "a coalition ...
that has included eight
legally-permitted political parties alongside other
people's organizations which have nominal representation in the
National People's Congress
The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China.
With 2,9 ...
and the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). However, the CPPCC is a body without real power. While consultation does take place, it is supervised and directed by the CCP. Under Xi Jinping, the United Front and its targets of
influence
Influence or influencer may refer to:
*Social influence, in social psychology, influence in interpersonal relationships
** Minority influence, when the minority affect the behavior or beliefs of the majority
*Influencer marketing, through individ ...
have expanded in size and scope.
Organization
Central organization
![18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/18th_National_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg)
The
National Congress is the party's highest body, and, since the
9th National Congress in 1969, has been convened every five years (prior to the 9th Congress they were convened on an irregular basis). According to the
party's constitution, a congress may not be postponed except "under extraordinary circumstances." The party constitution gives the National Congress six responsibilities:
# electing the
Central Committee;
# electing the
Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) is the highest internal control institution of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), tasked with enforcing internal rules and regulations and combating corruption and malfeasance in the pa ...
(CCDI);
# examining the report of the outgoing Central Committee;
# examining the report of the outgoing CCDI;
# discussing and enacting party policies; and,
# revising the party's constitution.
In practice, the delegates rarely discuss issues at length at the National Congresses. Most substantive discussion takes place before the congress, in the preparation period, among a group of top party leaders. In between National Congresses, the Central Committee is the highest decision-making institution. The CCDI is responsible for supervising party's internal anti-corruption and ethics system. In between congresses the CCDI is under the authority of the Central Committee.
![Front cover of Constitution of the Communist Party of China](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Front_cover_of_Constitution_of_the_Communist_Party_of_China.jpg)
The Central Committee, as the party's highest decision-making institution between national congresses, elects several bodies to carry out its work. The first
plenary session
A plenary session or plenum is a session of a conference which all members of all parties are to attend. Such a session may include a broad range of content, from keynotes to panel discussions, and is not necessarily related to a specific st ...
of a newly elected central committee elects the
general secretary of the Central Committee, the party's leader; the
Central Military Commission (CMC); the
Politburo; the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC); and since 2013, the
Central National Security Commission (CNSC). The first plenum also endorses the composition of the
Secretariat
Secretariat may refer to:
* Secretariat (administrative office)
* Secretariat (horse)
Secretariat (March 30, 1970 – October 4, 1989), also known as Big Red, was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse who is the ninth winner of the Ame ...
and the leadership of the CCDI. According to the party constitution, the general secretary must be a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), and is responsible for convening meetings of the PSC and the Politburo, while also presiding over the work of the Secretariat.
The Politburo "exercises the functions and powers of the Central Committee when a plenum is not in session". The PSC is the party's highest decision-making institution when the Politburo, the Central Committee and the National Congress are not in session. It convenes at least once a week. It was established at the 8th National Congress, in 1958, to take over the policy-making role formerly assumed by the Secretariat. The Secretariat is the top implementation body of the Central Committee, and can make decisions within the policy framework established by the Politburo; it is also responsible for supervising the work of organizations that report directly into the Central Committee, for example departments, commissions, publications, and so on. The CMC is the highest decision-making institution on military affairs within the party, and controls the operations of the People's Liberation Army. The general secretary has, since Jiang Zemin, also served as Chairman of the CMC. Unlike the collective leadership ideal of other party organs, the CMC chairman acts as
commander-in-chief with full authority to appoint or dismiss top military officers at will. The CNSC "co-ordinates security strategies across various departments, including intelligence, the military, foreign affairs and the police in order to cope with growing challenges to stability at home and abroad."
The general secretary serves as the Chairman of the CNSC.
A first plenum of the Central Committee also elects heads of departments, bureaus, central leading groups and other institutions to pursue its work during a term (a "term" being the period elapsing between national congresses, usually five years). The
General Office A General Office (also known as "administrative office") is an important administrative political organ in the communist party organizations and communist countries (such as China, Laos and Vietnam for instance). Generally speaking, the General Offi ...
is the party's "nerve centre", in charge of day-to-day administrative work, including communications, protocol, and setting agendas for meetings. The CCP currently has four main central departments: the
Organization Department, responsible for overseeing provincial appointments and vetting cadres for future appointments,
the
Publicity Department (formerly "Propaganda Department"), which oversees the media and formulates the party line to the media, the
International Department, functioning as the party's "foreign affairs ministry" with other parties, and the United Front Work Department, which oversees work with the country's non-communist parties, mass organizations, and influence groups outside of the country. The CC also has direct control over the
Central Policy Research Office
The Central Policy Research Office () is an institution of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party responsible for providing policy recommendations and insights to matters of governance, spanning political, social, and economic realm ...
, which is responsible for researching issues of significant interest to the party leadership, the
Central Party School
The Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (), commonly known as the Central Party School (), located in Beijing, is the higher education institution which trains Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres. As of 2012, it has around 1,6 ...
, which provides political training and ideological indoctrination in communist thought for high-ranking and rising cadres, the
Party History Research Centre, which sets priorities for scholarly research in state-run universities and the Central Party School, and the
Compilation and Translation Bureau, which studies and translates the classical works of Marxism. The party's newspaper, the ''
People's Daily'', is under the direct control of the Central Committee and is published with the objectives "to tell good stories about China and the (Party)" and to promote its party leader. The theoretical magazines ''
Seeking Truth from Facts
"Seek truth from facts" is a historically established idiom, idiomatic expression (''chengyu'') in the Chinese language that first appeared in the ''Book of Han''. Originally, it described an attitude toward study and research.
In modern Chine ...
'' and ''
Study Times'' are published by the Central Party School. The
China Media Group, which oversees
China Central Television (CCTV),
China National Radio (CNR) and
China Radio International
China Radio International (CRI) is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of China. It is currently headquartered in the Babaoshan area of Beijing's Shijingshan District. It was founded on December 3, 1941, as Radio Peking. It later ...
(CRI), is under the direct control of the Publicity Department. The various offices of the "Central Leading Groups", such as the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the
Taiwan Affairs Office
The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council is an administrative agency under the State Council of Mainland China. It is responsible for setting and implementing guidelines and policies related to the Republic of China (Taiwan), as stipul ...
, and the Central Finance Office, also report to the central committee during a plenary session. Additionally, CCP has sole control over the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) through its Central Military Commission.
Lower-level organizations
After seizing political power, the CCP extended the dual party-state command system to all government institutions, social organizations, and economic entities. The State Council and the Supreme Court each has a party core group (党组), established since November 1949. Party committees permeate in every state administrative organ as well as the People's Consultation Conferences and mass organizations at all levels. Party committees exist inside of companies, both private and state-owned. Modelled after the Soviet
Nomenklatura system, the party committee's organization department at each level has the power to recruit, train, monitor, appoint, and relocate these officials.
Party committees exist at the level of
provinces
A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
, cities,
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
, and neighbourhoods.
These committees play a key role in directing local policy by selecting local leaders and assigning critical tasks.
The Party secretary at each level is more senior than that of the leader of the government, with the CCP standing committee being the main source of power.
Party committee members in each level are selected by the leadership in the level above, with provincial leaders selected by the central Organizational Department, and not removable by the local party secretary.
In theory, however, party committees are elected by party congresses at their own level.
Local party congresses are supposed to be held every fifth year, but under extraordinary circumstances they may be held earlier or postponed. However that decision must be approved by the next higher level of the local party committee.
The number of delegates and the procedures for their election are decided by the local party committee, but must also have the approval of the next higher party committee.
A local party congress has many of the same duties as the National Congress, and it is responsible for examining the report of the local Party Committee at the corresponding level; examining the report of the local Commission for Discipline Inspection at the corresponding level; discussing and adopting resolutions on major issues in the given area; and electing the local Party Committee and the local Commission for Discipline Inspection at the corresponding level.
Party committees of "a province, autonomous region, municipality directly under the
central government
A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...
, city divided into districts, or autonomous prefecture
reelected for a term of five years", and include full and alternate members.
The party committees "of a county (banner), autonomous county, city not divided into districts, or municipal district
reelected for a term of five years", but full and alternate members "must have a Party standing of three years or more."
If a local Party Congress is held before or after the given date, the term of the members of the Party Committee shall be correspondingly shortened or lengthened.
Vacancies in a Party Committee shall be filled by an alternate members according to the
order of precedence
An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of nominal importance and can be applied to individuals, groups, or organizations. Most often it is used in the context of people by many organizations and governments, for very formal and state o ...
, which is decided by the number of votes an alternate member got during his or hers election.
A Party Committee must convene for at least two plenary meetings a year.
During its tenure, a Party Committee shall "carry out the directives of the next higher Party organizations and the resolutions of the Party congresses at the corresponding levels."
The local Standing Committee (analogous to the Central Politburo) is elected at the first plenum of the corresponding Party Committee after the local party congress.
A Standing Committee is responsible to the Party Committee at the corresponding level and the Party Committee at the next higher level.
A Standing Committee exercises the duties and responsibilities of the corresponding Party Committee when it is not in session.
Funding
The funding of all CCP organizations mainly comes from state fiscal revenue. Data for the proportion of total CCP organizations’ expenditures in total China fiscal revenue is unavailable. However, occasionally small local governments in China release such data. For example, on 10 October 2016, the local government of Mengmao Township, Ruili City, Yunnan Province released a concise fiscal revenue and expenditure report for the year 2014. According to this report, the fiscal Revenue amounted to RMB 29,498,933.58, and CCP organization' expenditures amounted to RMB 1,660,115.50, that is, 5.63% of fiscal revenue is used by the CCP for its own operation. This value is similar to the social security and employment expenditure of the whole town—RMB 1,683,064.90.
Members
The CCP reached 96.71 million members at the end of 2021.
It is the second largest political party in the world after India's
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...
.
To join the CCP, an applicant must go through an approval process. In 2014, only 2 million applications were accepted out of some 22 million applicants.
Admitted members then spend a year as a probationary member.
In contrast to the past, when emphasis was placed on the applicants' ideological criteria, the current CCP stresses technical and educational qualifications. To become a probationary member, the applicant must take an admission oath before the party flag. The relevant CCP organization is responsible for observing and educating probationary members. Probationary members have duties similar to those of full members, with the exception that they may not vote in party elections nor stand for election. Many join the CCP through the
Communist Youth League
The Communist Youth League of China (CYLC), also known as the Young Communist League of China or simply the Communist Youth League (CYL), is a youth movement of the People's Republic of China for youth between the ages of 14 and 28, run by the ...
. Under Jiang Zemin, private entrepreneurs were allowed to become party members. According to the CCP constitution, a member, in short, must follow orders, be disciplined, uphold unity, serve the Party and the people, and promote the socialist way of life.
Members enjoy the privilege of attending Party meetings, reading relevant Party documents, receiving Party education, participating in Party discussions through the Party's newspapers and journals, making suggestions and proposal, making "well-grounded criticism of any Party organization or member at Party meetings" (even of the central party leadership), voting and standing for election, and of opposing and criticizing Party resolutions ("provided that they resolutely carry out the resolution or policy while it is in force"); and they have the ability "to put forward any request, appeal, or complaint to higher Party organizations, even up to the Central Committee, and ask the organizations concerned for a responsible reply."
No party organization, including the CCP central leadership, can deprive a member of these rights.
![党员徽章图样](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3d/%E5%85%9A%E5%91%98%E5%BE%BD%E7%AB%A0%E5%9B%BE%E6%A0%B7.jpg)
As of 30 June 2016, individuals who identify as farmers, herdsmen and fishermen make up 26 million members; members identifying as workers totalled 7.2 million.
Another group, the "Managing, professional and technical staff in enterprises and public institutions", made up 12.5 million, 9 million identified as working in administrative staff and 7.4 million described themselves as party cadres.
As of 2021, CCP membership had become more educated, younger, and less blue-collar than previously.
28.43 million women are CCP members (less than a third of the party).
Women in China have low participation rates as political leaders. Women's disadvantage is most evident in their severe under representation in the more powerful political positions.
At the top level of decision making, no woman has ever been among the nine members of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party's Politburo. Just 3 of 27 government ministers are women, and importantly, since 1997, China has fallen to 53rd place from 16th in the world in terms of female representation at its parliament, the National People's Congress, according to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Party leaders such as
Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang ( zh, 赵紫阳; pronounced , 17 October 1919 – 17 January 2005) was a Chinese politician. He was the third premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, vice chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 19 ...
have vigorously opposed the participation of women in the political process. Within the party women face a
glass ceiling
A glass ceiling is a metaphor usually applied to women, used to represent an invisible barrier that prevents a given demographic from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.Federal Glass Ceiling Commission''Solid Investments: Making Full ...
.
Communist Youth League
The Communist Youth League (CYL) is the CCP's
youth wing
A youth wing is a subsidiary, autonomous, or independently allied front of a larger organization (usually a political party but occasionally another type of organization) that is formed in order to rally support for that organization from members ...
, and the largest mass organization for youth in China. According to the CCP's constitution the CYL is a "mass organization of advanced young people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China; it functions as a party school where a large number of young people learn about socialism with Chinese characteristics and about communism through practice; it is the Party's assistant and reserve force."
To join, an applicant has to be between the ages of 14 and 28. It controls and supervises
Young Pioneers, a youth organization for children below the age of 14. The organizational structure of CYL is an exact copy of the CCP's; the highest body is the
National Congress, followed by the ,
Politburo and the
Politburo Standing Committee
The Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), officially the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, is a committee consisting of the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Histori ...
. However, the Central Committee (and all central organs) of the CYL work under the guidance of the CCP central leadership.
Therefore, in a peculiar situation, CYL bodies are both responsible to higher bodies within CYL and the CCP, a distinct organization.
As of the
17th National Congress (held in 2013), CYL had 89 million members.
Symbols
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'', "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."
Party-to-party relations
The
International Liaison Department of the CCP is responsible for dialogue with global political parties.
Communist parties
The CCP continues to have relations with non-ruling communist and workers' parties and attends international communist conferences, most notably the
International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
The International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties (IMCWP) is an annual conference attended by communist and workers' parties from several countries. It originated in 1998 when the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) invited communist a ...
. While the CCP retains contact with major parties such as the
Communist Party of Portugal,
the
Communist Party of France
The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Uni ...
,
the
Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the
Communist Party of Brazil
The Communist Party of Brazil ( pt-BR, Partido Comunista do Brasil, PCdoB) is a political party in Brazil. The PCdoB officially adheres to Marxist–Leninist theory. It has national reach and deep penetration in the trade union and student ...
, the
Communist Party of Greece, the
Communist Party of Nepal
The Communist Party of Nepal ( ne, नेपाल कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी), abbreviated CPN, was a communist party in Nepal from 1949 to 1962. It was founded on 15 September 1949 to struggle against the autocratic Rana ...
and the
Communist Party of Spain
The Communist Party of Spain ( es, Partido Comunista de España; PCE) is a Marxist-Leninist party that, since 1986, has been part of the United Left coalition, which is part of Unidas Podemos. It currently has two of its politicians serving a ...
, the party also retains relations with minor communist and workers' parties, such as the
Communist Party of Australia
The Communist Party of Australia (CPA), known as the Australian Communist Party (ACP) from 1944 to 1951, was an Australian political parties, Australian political party founded in 1920. The party existed until roughly 1991, with its membersh ...
, the
Workers Party of Bangladesh
The Workers Party of Bangladesh ( bn, বাংলাদেশের ওয়ার্কার্স পার্টি) is a communist party in Bangladesh. Rashed Khan Menon is the president of the Workers Party of Bangladesh and Anisur Rahm ...
, the
, the
Communist Party of Sri Lanka, the
Workers' Party of Belgium
The Workers' Party of Belgium (french: Parti du Travail de Belgique, PTB; nl, Partij van de Arbeid van België, PVDA; ) is a Marxist and socialist political party in Belgium. It is one of the few Belgian parties that is a fully national party, r ...
, the
Hungarian Workers' Party
The Hungarian Workers' Party ( hu, Magyar Munkáspárt) is a communist party in Hungary led by Gyula Thürmer. Established after the fall of the communist Hungarian People's Republic, the party has yet to win a seat in the Hungarian parliament ...
, the
Dominican Workers' Party
The Dominican Workers Party ( es, Partido de los Trabajadores Dominicanos, PTD) was a communist party in the Dominican Republic founded in 1979. The leader and secretary general of the party was José González Espinosa. In the 16 May 2006 electio ...
, the
Nepal Workers Peasants Party
The Nepal Workers Peasants Party (NWPP), also known as the Nepal Workers' and Peasants' Party and the Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party ( ne, नेपाल मजदुर किसान पार्टी; abbr. , ), is a communist political party ...
, and the
Party for the Transformation of Honduras, for instance. In recent years, noting the self-reform of the European social democratic movement in the 1980s and 1990s, the CCP "has noted the increased marginalization of West European communist parties."
Ruling parties of socialist states
The CCP has retained close relations with the ruling parties of
socialist state
A socialist state, socialist republic, or socialist country, sometimes referred to as a workers' state or workers' republic, is a sovereign state constitutionally dedicated to the establishment of socialism. The term '' communist state'' is of ...
s still espousing
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
:
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...
,
Laos,
North Korea
North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...
, and
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. It spends a fair amount of time analysing the situation in the remaining socialist states, trying to reach conclusions as to why these states survived when so many did not, following the
collapse of the Eastern European socialist states in 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In general, the analyses of the remaining socialist states and their chances of survival have been positive, and the CCP believes that the socialist movement will be revitalized sometime in the future.
The ruling party which the CCP is most interested in is the
Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV). In general the CPV is considered a model example of socialist development in the post-Soviet era. Chinese analysts on Vietnam believe that the introduction of the
Doi Moi reform policy at the
6th CPV National Congress is the key reason for Vietnam's current success.
While the CCP is probably the organization with
most access to North Korea, writing about North Korea is tightly circumscribed. The few reports accessible to the general public are those about
North Korean economic reforms. While Chinese analysts of North Korea tend to speak positively of North Korea in public, in official discussions circa 2008 they show much disdain for
North Korea's economic system, the
cult of personality which pervades society, the
Kim family, the idea of hereditary succession in a socialist state, the security state, the use of scarce resources on the
Korean People's Army
The Korean People's Army (KPA; ) is the military force of North Korea and the armed wing of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK). Under the '' Songun'' policy, it is the central institution of North Korean society. Currently, WPK General S ...
and the general impoverishment of the North Korean people. Circa 2008, there are those analysts who compare the current situation of North Korea with that of China during the Cultural Revolution. Over the years, the CCP has tried to persuade the
Workers' Party of Korea
The Workers' Party of Korea (WPK) is the founding and sole ruling party of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea. Founded in 1949 from the merger of the Workers' Party of North Korea and the Workers' Party ...
(or WPK, North Korea's ruling party) to introduce economic reforms by showing them key economic infrastructure in China. For instance, in 2006 the CCP invited then-
WPK general secretary Kim Jong-il to
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...
to showcase the success economic reforms had brought China. In general, the CCP considers the WPK and North Korea to be negative examples of a ruling communist party and socialist state.
There is a considerable degree of interest in Cuba within the CCP.
Fidel Castro, the former
First Secretary of the
Communist Party of Cuba
The Communist Party of Cuba ( es, Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26 ...
(PCC), is greatly admired, and books have been written focusing on the successes of the
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
.
Communication between the CCP and the PCC has increased since the 1990s. At the 4th Plenary Session of the 16th Central Committee, which discussed the possibility of the CCP learning from other ruling parties, praise was heaped on the PCC. When
Wu Guanzheng, a Central Politburo member, met with Fidel Castro in 2007, he gave him a personal letter written by Hu Jintao: "Facts have shown that China and Cuba are trustworthy good friends, good comrades, and good brothers who treat each other with sincerity. The two countries' friendship has withstood the test of a changeable international situation, and the friendship has been further strengthened and consolidated."
Non-communist parties
Since the decline and fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the CCP has begun establishing party-to-party relations with non-communist parties. These relations are sought so that the CCP can learn from them. For instance, the CCP has been eager to understand how the
People's Action Party
The People's Action Party (abbreviation: PAP) is a major conservative centre-right political party in Singapore and is one of the three contemporary political parties represented in Parliament, alongside the opposition Workers' Party (WP) and ...
of Singapore (PAP) maintains its total domination over
Singaporean politics through its "low-key presence, but total control." According to the CCP's own analysis of Singapore, the PAP's dominance can be explained by its "well-developed social network, which controls constituencies effectively by extending its tentacles deeply into society through branches of government and party-controlled groups." While the CCP accepts that Singapore is a
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...
, they view it as a
guided democracy
Guided democracy, also called managed democracy, is a formally democratic government that functions as a ''de facto'' authoritarian government or in some cases, as an autocratic government. Such hybrid regimes are legitimized by elections th ...
led by the PAP. Other differences are, according to the CCP, "that it is not a political party based on the working class—instead it is a political party of the elite.... It is also a political party of the
parliamentary system
A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of th ...
, not a
revolutionary party." Other parties which the CCP studies and maintains strong party-to-party relations with are the
United Malays National Organization
The United Malays National Organisation ( Malay: ; Jawi: ; abbreviated UMNO () or less commonly PEKEMBAR), is a nationalist right-wing political party in Malaysia. As the oldest continuous national political party within Malaysia (since its i ...
, which has ruled
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
(1957–2018, 2020–present), and the
Liberal Democratic Party in Japan, which dominated
Japanese politics since 1955.
Since Jiang Zemin's time, the CCP has made friendly overtures to its erstwhile foe, the Kuomintang. The CCP emphasizes strong party-to-party relations with the KMT so as to strengthen the probability of the reunification of Taiwan with mainland China. However, several studies have been written on the KMT's loss of power in 2000 after having ruled Taiwan since 1949 (the KMT officially ruled mainland China from 1928 to 1949). In general, one-party states or dominant-party states are of special interest to the party and party-to-party relations are formed so that the CCP can study them. The longevity of the
Syrian Regional Branch of the
Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party is attributed to the personalization of power in the
al-Assad family
The al-Assad family ( ar, عَائِلَة الْأَسَد '), also known as the Assad dynasty, has ruled Syria since General Hafez al-Assad became President of Syria in 1971 under the Ba'ath Party. After his death, in June 2000, he was succee ...
, the strong
presidential system, the inheritance of power, which passed from
Hafez al-Assad to his son
Bashar al-Assad, and the role given to the
Syrian military in politics.
Circa 2008, the CCP has been especially interested in Latin America, as shown by the increasing number of delegates sent to and received from these countries. Of special fascination for the CCP is the 71-year-long rule of the
Institutional Revolutionary Party
The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...
(PRI) in Mexico. While the CCP attributed the PRI's long reign in power to the strong presidential system, tapping into the
machismo
Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...
culture of the country, its nationalist posture, its close identification with the rural populace and the implementation of
nationalization alongside the
marketization
Marketisation or marketization is a restructuring process that enables state enterprises to operate as market-oriented firms by changing the legal environment in which they operate.
This is achieved through reduction of state subsidies, organizati ...
of the
economy
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...
, the CCP concluded that the PRI failed because of the lack of inner-party democracy, its pursuit of
social democracy
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...
, its rigid party structures that could not be reformed, its
political corruption, the pressure of
globalization
Globalization, or globalisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences), is the process of foreign relation ...
, and American interference in
Mexican politics. While the CCP was slow to recognize the
pink tide
The pink tide ( es, marea rosa, pt, onda rosa, french: marée rose), or the turn to the left ( es, giro a la izquierda, link=no, pt, volta à esquerda, link=no, french: tournant à gauche, link=no), is a political wave and perception of a tur ...
in Latin America, it has strengthened party-to-party relations with several socialist and
anti-American
Anti-Americanism (also called anti-American sentiment) is prejudice, fear, or hatred of the United States, its government, its foreign policy, or Americans in general.
Political scientist Brendon O'Connor at the United States Studies Centr ...
political parties over the years. The CCP has occasionally expressed some irritation over
Hugo Chávez's
anti-capitalist and anti-American rhetoric. Despite this, the CCP reached an agreement in 2013 with the
United Socialist Party of Venezuela
The United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( es, Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, PSUV) is a left-wing to far-left socialist political party which has been the ruling party of Venezuela since 2010. It was formed from a merger of some of the p ...
(PSUV), which was founded by Chávez, for the CCP to educate PSUV cadres in political and social fields.
By 2008, the CCP claimed to have established relations with 99 political parties in 29 Latin American countries.
Social democratic movements in Europe have been of great interest to the CCP since the early 1980s. With the exception of a short period in which the CCP forged party-to-party relations with far-right parties during the 1970s in an effort to halt "
Soviet expansionism", the CCP's relations with European social democratic parties were its first serious efforts to establish cordial party-to-party relations with non-communist parties. The CCP credits the European social democrats with creating a "capitalism with a human face". Before the 1980s, the CCP had a highly negative and dismissive view of social democracy, a view dating back to the
Second International
The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...
and the
Marxist–Leninist
Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...
view on the social democratic movement. By the 1980s, that view had changed and the CCP concluded that it could actually learn something from the social democratic movement. CCP delegates were sent all over Europe to observe. By the 1980s, most European social democratic parties were facing electoral decline and in a period of self-reform. The CCP followed this with great interest, laying most weight on reform efforts within the
British Labour Party and the
Social Democratic Party of Germany. The CCP concluded that both parties were re-elected because they modernized, replacing traditional
state socialist tenets with new ones supporting
privatization
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
, shedding the belief in
big government, conceiving a new view of the
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equita ...
, changing their negative views of the market and moving from their traditional support base of trade unions to entrepreneurs, the young and students.
Electoral history
National People's Congress elections
See also
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List of Chinese Communist Party members
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Politics of the People's Republic of China
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Succession of power in the People's Republic of China
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
Books
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* Saich, Tony. ''From Rebel to Ruler: One Hundred Years of the Chinese Communist Party'' (2021)
* Saich, Tony. ''Finding Allies and Making Revolution The Early Years of the Chinese Communist Party'' (2020)
* Saich, Tony. ''Governance and Politics of China '' (2015)
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Journal articles
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External links
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''People's Daily'' official newspaper of the
CCP Central Committee
The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is a political body that comprises the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It is currently composed of 205 fu ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Communist Party of China
Communist parties in China
Ruling communist parties
People's Republic of China
Political parties established in 1921
Political parties in the Republic of China
Chinese Civil War
Maoist parties
Marxist parties
Government of China
1921 establishments in China
Parties of one-party systems
Chinese nationalist political parties