The most powerful political party in the world, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) celebrates its 100th anniversary today. Founded in 1921 at a meeting attended by a mere 12 members in a small room in Shanghai in 1921, the party has since grown to comprise over 95 million members – nearly 7 per cent of China’s population.
Ahead of July 1, President Xi Jinping recounted its early days of struggle in the city of Yan’an, adding that the last century has seen the CCP write ‘a splendid chapter in the history of the Chinese nation’s development and that of humanity’s progress.’
Early struggle
In the early 20th century, China was a country marred by regional infighting between rival warlord factions, following the collapse of its first republican government. Starvation was widespread and the ruling Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) was struggling to reunify the country under its leadership.
It was against this backdrop that a new political movement inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia began to blossom. Unified by the philosophies of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin, the CCP came into existence in July 1921 with, according to its official history, a membership of just 50 people.
Its primary objective was to ‘overthrow the bourgeoisie by means of the revolutionary army of the proletariat.’ The next few years would see the party grow in stature and influence as it battled against the KMT.
Of the several critical moments during this phase was the 10,000 km Long March in 1934 that coincided with Mao Zedong becoming the party’s undisputed leader. Outnumbered by the KMT, Mao’s CCP was forced to retreat inland to the hilly city of Yan’an. According to some reports, of the roughly 100,000 or so that set out on the Long March, only 7,000 finally reached their destination. The party though had clung to life.
Putting aside their differences to resist the Japanese invasion, the KMT and CCP would eventually go on to win the Sino-Japanese war but by 1945, Mao’s forces were ideally positioned to oust his opposition, and after a bloody civil war, the remaining KMT forces were forced to flee to Taiwan. On October 1, 1949, Mao declared victory over the KMT and proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in Beijing.
The Great Leap Forward
Mao’s insistence in catching up to the Western world would see the CCP embark upon an ambitious and ultimately misguided attempt to remake the face of Chinese society from an agrarian one to an industrial one.
But the disastrous policies that characterised the Great Leap Forward – an aggressive phase of industrialisation – would lead to an episode of famine that, some scholars believe, cost over 30 million lives.
Cultural Revolution
Fearing his grip on power was waning, Mao would plunge the country into chaos again, launching the Cultural Revolution in 1966 as he sought to vanquish political opposition and reframe Chinese culture.
His unleashing of the Red Guards, reportedly, led to the deaths of over 2 million people. The death of Mao in 1976 though would signal the start of a new chapter in the party’s and, by extension, the country’s history.
Economic transformation
Under a new Reform and Opening Up in 1979 policy, China, over the next three decades, would transform itself from one of the poorest nations into an economic powerhouse under the leadership of Hua Guofeng, and later Deng Xiaoping.
The CCP government, while maintaining a single-party system, would loosen controls on the economy and personal freedom for the first time, in what amounted to its first embrace of some capitalist ideals. However, the party retained strict control over several aspects of public life, resulting in numerous military crackdowns to quash dissent, most notably the incident at Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Its consolidation of power would, effectively, be complete in 2018, following President Xi Jinping’s decision to abolish term limits, enabling him to remain in power indefinitely. In doing so, he established himself as the party’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong.
