The Sunday Mail
Liu Tao
Special Correspondent
THIS month, the world is joining the Communist Party of China in commemorating the formation of China’s ruling party and as part of celebrating this milestone it is significant to trace the founding pillars of this revolutionary party.
In July 1921, the Communist Party of China (CPC) was born amid domestic turmoil and foreign aggression. It started to unite and lead the Chinese people to fight tenaciously for national independence and the liberation of the people. In the face of strong enemies and lessons learnt at the cost of blood, the CPC built a people’s liberation army and embarked on the right revolutionary path, using rural areas to encircle the cities and seizing state power with military force. The fundamental principle and system of absolute party leadership over the military was initiated in the Nanchang Uprising (1927), established at Sanwan Reorganisation (1927), confirmed at the Gutian Conference (1929), and kept enriching in revolutionary struggles. Under the leadership of the CPC, the people’s liberation army fought in bloody battles to defeat exceptionally fierce enemies at home and abroad, and succeeded in the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, thus laying a solid foundation for the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in which the people are the masters.
Since the CPC was founded in 1921, it had actively promoted co-operation with the Kuomintang (KMT) in establishing the Whampoa Military Academy, initiated and led political work in the National Revolutionary Army. It trained a group of its own military cadres, took direct control of some revolutionary armed forces, actively organised and established armed forces of the workers, peasants and the public, and later actually led the political work in the Northern Expedition (1926-1927). The CPC’s military exploration in early days provided essential preparations for the founding of the people’s liberation army and the conduct of armed struggles.
On July 23, 1921, the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China opened in Shanghai, officially announcing the birth of the CPC. This was an epoch-changing moment. The site of the first CPC National Congress in Shanghai and the Red Boat on Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing are considered as the ”birthplace” of the CPC, where the Party’s dream sets sail. The photo shows the site of the first CPC National Congress and the Red Boat on Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing.
In 1924, the CPC collaborated with the KMT in creating the Whampoa Military Academy (WMA) and helped the KMT establish a system of party representatives and political departments in the WMA and the National Revolutionary Army. The photo shows the former site of the WMA.
After the failure of the Nationalist Revolution in China (1924-1927), the CPC independently raised the banner of revolution and led the Chinese people’s anti-imperialist and anti-feudal struggles into a period of the Agrarian Revolutionary War (1927-1937). The Party combined general principles of Marxism with the concrete practices of the Chinese revolution and established the new people’s military. It set up rural bases for the revolution and embarked on the right revolutionary path, using rural areas to encircle the cities and seizing state power with military force. During the arduous Agrarian Revolutionary War, the People’s military endured severe tests and continued to grow and develop, laying a solid foundation for the great victory of the Chinese revolution.
After the Nationalist Revolution, the CPC began to understand the importance of an agrarian revolution and a revolutionary army of its own. The Nanchang Uprising on August 1 1927 marks the first military resistance against KMT counter revolutionaries. The Nanchang Uprising, together with the Autumn Harvest Uprising and the Guangzhou Uprising in1927, as well as the armed uprisings in many other regions, marked the beginning of the CPC’s independent leadership of revolutionary wars and the creation of a people’s military, opening up a new era of the Chinese revolution.
In September 1927, Mao Zedong led the troops of the Autumn Harvest Uprising in Yongxin County, Jiangxi Province, to carry out the Sanwan Reorganisation, which established the CPC’s branches in the companies and soldiers’ committees at all levels; implemented a democratic system to ensure political equality between officers and soldiers; and established the Party’s leadership over the military in terms of institutional arrangements. The Sanwan Reorganisation serves as an important start in building the new people’s military under the proletarian leadership.
The Gutian Conference was successfully held in December 1929. It summarised the rich experience drawn from the battle against various erroneous ideas and tendencies in the Party since the founding of the Red Army in 1928. It unified understanding and thinking, unanimously adopted the resolution of the conference and elected the new Front Committee of the Fourth Army of the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army with Mao Zedong as its secretary. The Gutian Conference resolution is a guiding document for the building of both the CPC and the Red Army, and is an important milestone in the development of the Party and the People’s military. Since then, political work has played a decisive role for the survival and development of the military.
Mao Zedong put forward the concept of an armed independent regime of workers and peasants in light of the realities of the Chinese revolution when he led his troops to the Jinggang Mountain. This concept explained that the Chinese revolution must create rural bases for the revolution, and that the development of the Red Army and rural bases must be used to promote the national revolution to a climax. This marked the basic formation of the Chinese Communists’ theory that the Chinese revolution must take the path of using rural areas to encircle the cities to win countrywide victory.
The Central Red Army began its long march due to the defeat of the fifth counter campaigns against ”encirclement and suppression”. In January 1935, the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee (CPCCC) held an enlarged meeting in Zunyi, which established Mao Zedong’s leadership of the CPCCC and the Red Army. The Zunyi Conference saved the Party, the Red Army and the Chinese revolution at a critical moment in history.
In 1936, the three major forces of the Red Army joined forces with each other and the Long March came to a victorious end. Under the leadership of CPC, the Red Army was ready to go to the battlefield in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, and take on the historical responsibility of saving the nation from peril.
