(See first post for background: #1 Cultural Revolution, previous post: #3 May 4th Movement and Spread of Marxism in China)
A Concise History of the Communist Party of China (2021, ISBN 978-7-5117-3978-0), pg. 13-22
《中国共产党简史》, pg. 11-19
(Chapter 1)
3. The Founding of the CPC and the Creation of the Platform of Democratic Revolution
The Establishment of Early Communist Party Organizations and Their Activities
With the dissemination of Marxism in China and the emergence of progressives who embraced its ideas, the conditions were ripe in terms of ideology and personnel for founding the Communist Party of China. The task of establishing a working-class political party was put on the agenda.
The idea of establishing a communist party in China was first mooted by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. They realized that to transform China using Marxism it would be necessary to establish a proletarian party to take charge of the revolution. To avoid persecution from the reactionary warlord government, Chen Duxiu moved secretly from Beijing to Shanghai in February 1920. He was escorted on his trip by Li Dazhao, during which the two discussed the establishment of communist party organizations in China.
In March 1920, Li Dazhao established the Society for Marxist Studies at Peking University, which was not only the first group to study and research Marxism in China but also an important preparatory organization for the founding of the Communist Party of China. In April, the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) sent a plenipotentiary Grigory N. Voytinsky to China, along with others. The group met Li Dazhao in Beijing and Chen Duxiu in Shanghai to discuss the establishment of a communist party in China. These discussions materially contributed to the CPC’s creation.
The first early communist party organization was established in Shanghai, a core city with the greatest concentration of workers in China. In May 1920, Chen Duxiu founded the Society for the Study of Marxism to discuss the doctrine of socialism and the transformation of Chinese society. That August, an early communist party organization was set up in the editorial office of New Youth in Shanghai, with Chen Duxiu as secretary. In November, the Communist Party organization drew up the “Manifesto of the Communist Party of China,” which stated that “the aim of the Communists is to create a society in accordance with the communist ideal.” This early organization proved to be an initiator of the CPC and served as a key liaison point for Chinese Communists in various places.
In October 1920, another communist party organization was founded in Beijing by Li Dazhao and others, which was known as “Communist Party Group” at the time. At the end of the year, the decision was made to set up a Beijing branch of the communist party with Li Dazhao as secretary.
The early organizations of the CPC in Shanghai and Beijing actively worked to lend impetus to the founding of CPC organizations in other parts of the country. From the autumn of 1920 to the spring of 1921, with the support of the first two organizations in Shanghai and Beijing, communist party organizations were formed in Wuhan by Dong Biwu, Chen Tanqiu, and Bao Huiseng, in Changsha by Mao Zedong and He Shuheng, in Jinan by Wang Jinmei and Deng Enming, and in Guangzhou by Tan Pingshan and Tan Zhitang. In Japan and France, communist party organizations composed of Chinese students and progressive overseas Chinese were also established.
After their founding, these early communist party organizations primarily carried out the following activities: studied and promoted Marxism and examined China’s practical problems; denounced anti-Marxist ideas and enabled a host of progressives to turn to Marxism by helping them draw a clear line between socialism and capitalism and scientific socialism and other forms of socialism; carried out publicity and organizational work among workers, enabling them to receive Marxist education and raise their class consciousness; and established Socialist Youth League organizations which organized the study of Marxism for their members and arranged for them to take part in concrete struggles, thus cultivating reserve forces for a communist party.
The Communist Manifesto played an important role in the theoretical preparations for the founding of the CPC. In February 1920, to translate The Communist Manifesto, Chen Wangdao secretly returned to his home in Yiwu County, Zhejiang Province. So devoted was he to his mission that he once dipped a sticky rice dumpling into his ink bowl instead of brown syrup. Oblivious to his mistake, Chen declared the snack to be “sweet enough.” The truth is indeed extremely sweet. This was a vivid example of the thirst among Chinese Communists for the truth of Marxism and their firm belief in the ideals of communism. The Chinese translation of The Communist Manifesto, which was published in August 1920, was a major event in the history of the dissemination of Marxism in China.
The CPC’s First National Congress
In July 1921, the First National Congress of the CPC opened at 106 Wangzhi Road (now 76 Xingye Road) in the French Concession of Shanghai.[1]
The delegates in attendance at the meeting were Li Da and Li Hanjun from Shanghai, Zhang Guotao and Liu Renjing from Beijing, Mao Zedong and He Shuheng from Changsha, Dong Biwu and Chen Tanqiu from Wuhan, Wang Jinmei and Deng Enming from Jinan, Chen Gongbo from Guangzhou and Zhou Fohai from Japan; and Bao Huiseng (sent by Chen Duxiu).[2] They represented more than 50 CPC members across the country. Henk Sneevliet (alias Maring) and V. A. Nikolsky attended as representatives of the Communist International. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao did not attend the Congress due to their busy schedules.
To escape the attention of spies and the searches mounted by the French Concession police, the final session of the congress was held on a pleasure boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province.
The First National Congress decided that the name of the new party would be “the Communist Party of China” and adopted its first program. The program consisted of the following points: The revolutionary army shall join hands with the proletariat in overthrowing the bourgeois regime; and the Party shall accept the dictatorship of the proletariat until the end of class struggle, abolish capitalist private ownership, and align itself with the Third International. The CPC made socialism and communism its goals and revolution the means for achieving them as soon as it was established.
The First National Congress decided to set up the Central Bureau as a temporary leading body for the CPC’s central leadership. The Congress elected the Central Bureau with Chen Duxiu as its secretary.
The First National Congress formally declared the founding of the CPC. The CPC’s founding was an inevitable product of the historical development of modern China, of the Chinese people’s tenacious struggle for survival, and of the journey toward the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As the party of the most advanced class in China—the working class, the CPC represents not only the interests of the working class, but also those of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation as a whole. From the beginning, it followed Marxist theory as its guide for action, and it made it its mission to work for the happiness of the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
The founding of the CPC was a groundbreaking event in the history of the Chinese nation, with tremendous, far-reaching significance. The most important reason for the repeated setbacks and failures of the Chinese people in their struggle against imperialism and feudalism in modern times was the absence of a strong and advanced political party to act as a leading core with the power to unify. The birth of the CPC fundamentally changed this situation.
Both sites of the First National Congress, in Shanghai and on the Red Boat on Lake Nanhu in Jiaxing, are the birthplaces of the CPC, the places from where the Party’s dream set sail. The very act of founding the CPC was a demonstration of the Party’s pioneering spirit, indomitability, and devotion to the public good and the people’s interests. These qualities, which underpin the revolutionary spirit of China, are also important elements of the Party’s “Red Boat spirit.” It was by only adhering to this spirit and carrying it forward that the CPC could create miracle upon miracle, that it could build a new society, became the world’s largest political party, and bring profound change to China and have a profound impact on the world.
The CPC’s Second National Congress and the Formulation of the Platform of the Democratic Revolution
After the founding of the CPC, the Party’s most important task was to apply scientific theories to observe and analyze China’s actual conditions. At the time, the most prominent problem in China was the conflict between China’s warlords, which was growing in ferocity under the manipulation of the imperialists. The Party was deeply aware that given the volatile situation, it would have no chance of realizing its ideals if it could not overthrow the regimes of the warlords and imperialists.
The Second National Congress of the CPC was held in Shanghai in July 1922. The Congress was attended by 12 delegates, representing 195 CPC members nationwide.
Through an analysis of China’s economic and political situation, the Congress revealed the semi-colonial and semi-feudal nature of Chinese society and pointed out that the maximum program of the CPC was to realize socialism and communism, while the minimum program in the present stage was to defeat the warlords, overthrow the oppression of international imperialism, and unify China into a genuine democratic republic. The Congress pointed out that in order to achieve its anti-imperialist and anti-warlord revolutionary goal, a “democratic united front” must be formed with all revolutionary parties and bourgeois democrats in the country.
Just a year after its founding, the CPC proposed an explicit anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist program of democratic revolution, the first of its kind in China. The Party ensured that this program was very quickly spread far and wide. As calls of “down with the imperialist powers; down with the warlords” became the common cry among the people, it became clear that only the CPC, armed with Marxism, could point the way forward for the Chinese revolution.
The Second Congress adopted the CPC’s first Constitution, which contained specific provisions on the conditions for membership, the CPC’s organizations at all levels, and its discipline, all explicitly based on the principle of democratic centralism. This was of great importance for strengthening the Party. The Congress adopted a resolution confirming that the CPC was a branch of the Communist International.
The Congress also adopted a resolution stating that the CPC was a party composed of the most revolutionary elements of the proletariat, and that it was “a party struggling for the proletarians.” It stressed that all of its campaigns must reach out to the people and must never alienate them. This resolution proved to be highly significant in initiating the worker and peasant movements in the early days of the CPC.
The Second CPC National Congress elected the Central Executive Committee with Chen Duxiu selected as committee chairman.
The First Upsurge of the Workers’ Movement and the Initial Development of the Peasant Movement
After its founding, the CPC strove to organize and lead the workers’ movement, establishing the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Organization in August 1921 as a headquarters for openly leading the movement. The Secretariat published the Labor Weekly, organized workers’ schools and industrial unions, and launched strikes. This increased the CPC’s influence among workers and across society generally.
Under CPC’s leadership, the first upsurge of the Chinese workers’ movement began with the Hong Kong Seamen’s Strike in January 1922 and ended with the Beijing-Hankou Railway strike in February 1923. Over these 13 months, China was swept by more than 100 strikes, involving over 300,000 people. The railway workers and coal miners’ strike in Anyuan and coal miners’ strike in Kailuan were hallmarks of this upsurge, fully demonstrating the power of the working class when well-organized.
There were more than 17,000 workers at the Anyuan mine and railway. During the autumn and winter of 1921, Mao Zedong, then the Party branch secretary of Hunan Province, visited Anyuan on a fact-finding mission. Li Lisan travelled to Anyuan after this to organize the workers there. On May 1, International Labor Day, 1922, a trade union, the Anyuan Mine and Railway Workers’ Club, was established. In early September, Mao Zedong returned to Anyuan to organize a strike. He was followed by Liu Shaoqi. The strike began on September 14, with workers demanding protection for their political rights, wage increases, and other conditions. Thanks to the valiant struggle of the workers and the sympathy and support they won from people of all walks of life, the mine and railway authorities were forced to meet most of their demands, bringing the Anyuan strike to a victorious conclusion.
On February 4, 1923, workers of the Jinghan (Beijing-Hankou) Railway went on strike to fight for the establishment of the Jinghan Railway Trade Union. On February 7, backed by imperialist forces, the warlord Wu Peifu deployed soldiers and police officers to violently suppress the strike. Reactionaries tied Lin Xiangqian, president of the Jiang’an Branch of the Union in Hankou (a Communist Party member), to a pole and tried to force him to call the strikers back to work. Refusing to surrender, Lin died a hero’s death. Shi Yang, a union legal advisor (also a Communist Party member), was also killed. Having been struck by three bullets, he shouted “Long live the workers!” three times before he died. In the February 7th Massacre, 52 people lost their lives, more than 300 were injured, more than 40 were arrested and imprisoned, while more than 1,000 people were dismissed from their jobs and forced into exile. After the incident, the national workers’ movement fell to a nadir.
While leading the revolutionary struggle, the CPC began, too, to strengthen itself. It started to establish primary-level organizations in industrial and mining enterprises. It also welcomed into its ranks a number of outstanding figures who had emerged as the workers’ struggle unfolded, including Su Zhaozheng, Shi Wenbin, Xiang Ying, Deng Pei, and Wang Hebo.
In addition to focusing on the workers’ movement, the CPC also initiated peasant movements in the countryside. In September 1921, a peasants’ meeting was held in Yaqian Village, Xiaoshan County, Zhejiang Province, at which the first of a new kind of peasants’ organization was founded. In July 1922, Peng Pai established the first secret peasant association in his hometown of Haifeng County, Guangdong Province. By May 1923, peasant associations had been established in Haifeng, Lufeng, and Huiyang counties, and had a combined membership of more than 200,000. In September of the same year, inspired by the workers’ movement in Shuikoushan, peasants in Baiguo of Hengshan Couny, Hunan Province, established the Yuebei Peasants and Workers Association under CPC leadership. It launched a series of struggles and raised the first flag of the peasant movement in Hunan Province. In addition, the CPC also led the youth and women’s movements.
Both the worker and peasant movements, which had been launched and organized under CPC leadership, but particularly the workers’ movement, demonstrated the firm revolutionary commitment and great fighting capacity of the Chinese working class. As a result, the CPC expanded its influence throughout the country, allowing for its cooperation with other revolutionary forces in launching a great nationwide revolution.
[1] It was verified many years later that the exact date of the CPC’s First National Congress was July 23, 1921. In June 1941, the CPC Central Committee issued the Instruction of the Central Committee on the 20th Anniversary of the Founding of the CPC and the 4th Anniversary of the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, officially recognizing July 1 as the founding date of the CPC. From then on, July 1 was fixed as the anniversary of the CPC’s founding.
[2] Zhang Guotao surrendered to the Kuomingtang in 1938 and was expelled from the CPC. Chen Gongbo and Zhou Fohai seriously violated Party discipline and were expelled from the Party shortly after the First National Party Congress. They turned traitors during the War of Resistance against Japan.