The Communist Party of China has become the world‘s largest ruling party, “the strongest entrepreneurial team in history”-why a century-old party
To the reader
From 1921 to 2021, the Chinese Communist Party has gone through a magnificent century-long journey. Looking back on the road of struggle-from the founding of the party to the creation of the new China, from the earth-shaking reform and opening up to the earth-shattering of the new era, the Communist Party of China is determined to fulfill its original mission, lay the foundation and establish a foundation, create brilliant and open up the future, and unite to lead the people to create He has created a “miracle on earth” that shines through the annals of history, and has composed a section of the “Legend of Heaven and Earth” that is trembling in the past.
At the key node of the historical intersection of the “two centenary” struggle goals, General Secretary Xi Jinping said boldly: “The Communist Party of China is determined to make great achievements for the Chinese nation in the future. A hundred years is exactly the prosperity and prosperity!” After a century of hard work, the Communist Party of China has become More mature, powerful, and vigorous-it has grown from a small and weak party with only more than 50 party members and kept secret at the time of its establishment into the world‘s largest socialist country with more than 70 years in power and more than 91 million party members. The Marxist ruling party has become the mainstay of the development of the socialist movement in the world today, and has become a key variable in the profound evolution of the world‘s unprecedented changes in a century. The Communist Party of China is therefore also known as the “biggest entrepreneurial team” and “the biggest success learning” in the world.
“To understand today’s China, you must understand the Communist Party of China.”-General Secretary Xi Jinping wrote in a reply to the foreign students at Peking University. And to understand the core meaning of the Communist Party of China is to understand “the century-old party, vigorous and prosperous.” To celebrate the centenary of the Communist Party of China, this magazine carefully planned and launched a special issue of “One Hundred Years of Great Party Style”, focusing on the four levels of “big party”, “road”, “big picture” and “big cause”, and deeply review the extraordinary of the Communist Party of China. History, brilliant performance, great creation, vividly expounding why the Chinese Communist Party “can”, why Marxism “does”, why socialism with Chinese characteristics is “good”, and why the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation “successful”, and then profoundly reveals the “century of great party style” The core password of “Hua Zhengmao”-this is: never forget the original intention, keep the mission in mind, and strive forever.
Editorial department
June 28, 2021
Read the synopsis
●In 1956, Dong Biwu borrowed a sentence from the inner part of “Zhuangzi”, “Human World“, waved an inscription, and gave it to a large memorial hall: “The beginning is also simple, and the completion is also great.” “Great” means “giant” and big. and also. The 100-year history of the Communist Party of China is such a process from “simplicity” to “great”. This “big” and this “great” did not fall from the sky, but developed through a hundred years of struggle, a hundred years of exploration, and a hundred years of self-construction.
●The size of the big party of the Chinese Communist Party is not only in quantity, but also in strength. Quantity is the basis of power, but only by transforming a huge quantity into a tight organization can it have great power.
●A century-old party, its scale, strength, and effect have all reached unprecedented levels. This is the basic condition for the development and progress of Chinese society. Generally speaking, big is still an external form, and fundamentally lies in the inner nature, quality and temperament behind the big.
After 100 years, the Communist Party of China has truly become a big party. If you compare it in the world, it can even be said to be the world‘s largest ruling party. In 1956, Dong Biwu borrowed a sentence from the inner chapter of “Zhuangzi”, “Human World“, and gave it to a large memorial hall: “The beginning is also simple, and the completion is huge.” “Great” means “giant”, great. . The 100-year history of the Communist Party of China is such a process from “simplicity” to “great”. This “big” and this “great” did not fall from the sky, but developed through a hundred years of struggle, a hundred years of exploration, and a hundred years of self-construction. When the whole country celebrates the centenary birthday of the party, we examine the question of why the Communist Party of China thinks it is so great and why it is so great, we can further deepen our understanding of the party, and learn some regular principles from it.
Large scale
“Big” has many standards, which can be interpreted from different angles. Let’s start with the scale.
General Secretary Xi Jinping said: “Our party has developed into the largest Marxist ruling party in the world that has gone through a century of glorious history, has been in power in the largest socialist country for more than 70 years, and has more than 91 million members.” If the countries of the world are sorted by population, these 91 million can also be ranked in the top 20.
Back 100 years ago, when the Chinese Communist Party was founded, there were only more than 50 members. According to the “First Program of the Communist Party of China (English Translation)” adopted by the National Congress of the Communist Party of China: “When the number of party members exceeds 500, or more than five local executive committees have been established, an appropriate place shall be selected to establish a national representative The Central Executive Committee was composed of ten members elected by the meeting.” Because the number of members did not meet this standard at that time, the Central Executive Committee was not elected at the First One, but a three-member Central Bureau was elected. Such a small scale seems trivial, and it is difficult to achieve a major event. But they are seeds, yeast, and pioneers in the forefront of the trend of the times.
After the founding of the party, it immediately went deep into the workers and peasants, launched an extensive mass movement, and expanded the party’s organization and scale. In 1922, the Second National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly pointed out: “Our Communist Party is not a’Marx Society organized by intellectuals’ or a revolutionary group in which a few communists leave the utopian of the masses.’ It should be the most revolutionary spirit among the proletariat. The large masses organize a party to fight for the interests of the proletariat, and to be the vanguard of the revolutionary movement for the proletariat.” “Since we are a party fighting for the proletariat, we have to’go among the masses’ to form a party The big’mass party’.” Thus, in the process of fulfilling its original mission, the party has also begun a process of expanding its scale.
From 1921 to 1949, the number of party members increased rapidly in the ups and downs: at the first year of July 1921, 58 (the Chinese Communist Party is said to be “more than 50”); July 1922 At the time, 195; June 1923 at the 3rd National Congress, 420; January 1925 at the 4th National Congress, 994; April 1927, at the 5th National Congress, nearly 58,000; after the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927, more than 10,000; At the 6th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in June 1928, there were more than 40,000; in 1934, there were more than 300,000; at the beginning of 1937, there were more than 40,000; and at the 7th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in April 1945, there were 1.21 million.
The increase in the number of party members is not a straight line, but has many twists and turns. Mao Zedong said at the Seventh National Congress of the Party: “Our party has become smaller twice, getting bigger and smaller, and getting bigger and smaller. The first time, there were not many more than 50,000 members left; in the later time, 300,000 members were left. There is not much left. Proportionally speaking, the loss in the first time was relatively small. More than 50,000 people were left with 10,000 people, and one-fifth was left. Later, 300,000 people were left with less than 30,000, only 20,000. About five thousand organized party members are less than one tenth. Now they are big again, and the little finger has become a fist. Don’t make it smaller in the future.”
Such changes in magnitude are related to the party’s experience. Before the Anti-Japanese War, the party had flourished, and it had made mistakes and twists. The change in the number of party members intuitively reflects this process. During the Anti-Japanese War, guided by the correct line represented by Mao Zedong, the Communist Party of China held high the banner of resisting Japan and saving the country, won the hearts of the people, and expanded its own ranks. The number of party members increased linearly, and since the Seventh National Congress of 1945, the number of party members has not been there. Reduced again.
In 1949, the Communist Party of China became the ruling party, and party members and party organizations changed from secret to open. Based on the party’s cause, influence, and status in power, more people hope to join the Communist Party of China. So the party’s team has grown and grown all the way. Although the party has constantly cleaned up itself, the number of party members is still showing an unabated trend.
From 1949 to 1978, the number of party members was: 4.49 million at the end of 1949; 10.73 million at the 8th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1956; 22 million at the 9th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1969; 28 million at the 10th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1973; When he was older, there were more than 35 million.
Among them, in the process of the gradual development of “Left” errors, the party’s ranks have advanced and advanced. During the “Cultural Revolution,” the organization of the party was paralyzed and chaotic, but the party was still there, the ranks of party members were not scattered, and the party still had strong cohesion. Through party consolidation and party building, the number of party members is still slowly increasing.
Marked by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee in 1978, the party and the country achieved a great historic turning point. Chinese society has increased its vitality, and the Chinese Communist Party has also increased its vitality. The party’s ranks are advancing all the way, and the number of party members is growing rapidly. Even in the face of ups and downs, the party did not worry that its size would shrink, but was wary of possible problems caused by the expansion of the number of party members, and has been strictly guarding the door of quality. At the end of 1978, 36.98 million; at the 12th National Congress of 1982, more than 39 million; at the 13th National Congress of 1987, more than 46 million; at the 14th National Congress of 1992, more than 51 million; at the 15th National Congress of 1997 , More than 58 million; at the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002, more than 66 million; at the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, more than 73 million; at the 18th National Congress of 2012, more than 82 million; at the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, 8900 More than 10,000; as of December 31, 2019, the total number of party members reached 91.914 million.
Obviously, the number of party members is like a password. From the composition, changes and comparison of these figures, we can interpret the changes in the situation in different historical periods in the past 100 years, interpret the implementation process of the party’s goals and tasks, interpret the hardships and twists experienced by the party, and interpret the party’s construction. Achievement, to interpret the reason why the size of the party has changed from small to large.
Just as GDP cannot explain all the problems, but it can comprehensively explain the most important issues of national power, the number of party members cannot explain all the problems, but it can illustrate one of the most important facts: the process of the Chinese Communist Party from small to large in the past 100 years has become today. The world‘s largest Marxist ruling party with more than 91 million members is itself a world miracle.
Power
The size of the big party of the Chinese Communist Party is not only in quantity, but also in strength. Quantity is the basis of power, but only by transforming a huge quantity into a tight organization can it have great power. The number of members of the Chinese Communist Party is not a simple, random or even messy number, but a set of rigorous, orderly, and highly organized data.
Lenin said that by giving us an organization of revolutionaries, we can turn Russia over. he made it. The Chinese Communist Party actually turned China over. What do you rely on? There are many reasons, but one basic reason is organization. The degree of organization of the Chinese Communist Party can be said to be the most rigorous and powerful in the world. The combat effectiveness of the Communist Party of China, in addition to its purpose, thoughts, tasks, etc., largely comes from the organization. As soon as the Communist Party of China was founded, it accepted Lenin’s vanguard theory and committed itself to building the party into a unified, rigorous whole with fighting and action capabilities. Over the past 100 years, the party has gradually formed a tight, orderly and unified whole through continuous practice and repeated exploration. The party is regulated by the party constitution and guaranteed by a special disciplinary inspection agency.
The most important organizational principle of the party is democratic centralism. Every party member, regardless of his position, is incorporated into a party branch, group, or other specific organization, participates in the party’s organizational life, and accepts the supervision of the masses inside and outside the party. Party members and leading cadres must also participate in the democratic life meeting of the party committee and the party group. It is not allowed to have any special party members who do not participate in the party’s organizational life and do not accept the supervision of the masses inside and outside the party. On the basis of this organizational system, the party has continuously deepened its understanding of the laws of historical development, proceeded from China’s national conditions and different realities, scientifically determined the party’s goals, tasks, lines, principles and policies, and led the people across the country to work together, thus forming the party’s Comprehensive strength. This power is reflected in the entire historical process of revolution, construction, and reform and opening up, as well as in the economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological civilization construction, science and technology, military, and diplomatic undertakings.
This kind of power of the Communist Party of China has been continuously developing for 100 years, becoming stronger and stronger, and at the same time transformed into the power of the country, the power of the people, and the power of society, thus forming the basic situation of the party and the country of indomitable and invincible, creating many recognized by the people. miracle.
Relying on this strength, the Chinese Communist Party united and led the Chinese people in 28 years of bloody battles, completed the new democratic revolution, and established the People’s Republic of China. Take the War of Liberation as an example. In July 1946, the People’s Army had about 1.27 million people, while the Kuomintang Army had about 4.3 million people. They had obvious advantages in terms of number of troops, equipment, and war resources. By July 1947, the People’s Army had grown to 1.95 million, while the Kuomintang Army had been reduced to 3.73 million. In July 1947, Mao Zedong proposed a plan to solve the problem of fighting Chiang Kai-shek in five years (counting from July 1946). In fact, it took only a little over 3 years to complete it.
Relying on this strength, the Communist Party of China united and led the Chinese people to complete the socialist revolution, established the basic socialist system, and implemented large-scale socialist construction. Take the “First Five-Year Plan” as an example. The first blueprint drawn by the New China reflects the Chinese people’s expectations for the new regime and their good wishes for the country’s development. In five years, the country’s total investment in economic and cultural construction reached 76.64 billion yuan, equivalent to more than 700 million taels of gold. Such a huge construction investment was beyond the reach of previous Chinese governments. By the end of 1957, most of the indicators of the “First Five-Year Plan” were overfulfilled, and 595 large and medium-sized projects were completed and put into operation, filling many gaps in heavy industry construction, and initially changing the unreasonable layout of the old Chinese industry that was too concentrated on the coast, and began to take shape. A new framework for industrial layout.
After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, relying on this force, the Chinese Communist Party united and led the Chinese people to carry out a great new revolution in reform and opening up, which greatly stimulated the creativity of the broad masses of people, greatly liberated and developed social productive forces, and greatly enhanced The vitality of social development has significantly improved the lives of the people, the overall national strength has been significantly enhanced, and the international status has been significantly improved. Take the construction of the Three Gorges Project as an example. After 40 years of demonstration and nearly two years of construction preparation, the Three Gorges Project officially started on December 14, 1994. On July 4, 2012, the last 700,000-kilowatt giant unit was officially put into operation, and all 32 units were put into production. The Three Gorges Project is the world‘s largest water conservancy project, which can withstand extreme floods and has huge comprehensive benefits such as flood control, power generation, and shipping. Without the powerful planning, organizational, decision-making, and mobilization capabilities of the Communist Party of China, it would be difficult to imagine and build.
Since entering the new era, relying on this force, the Communist Party of China has united and led the Chinese people to achieve the “two centenary” goals and the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and promote historic changes in the cause of the party and the country. Historic achievements have been made. Looking at the total economic output since 1949: it was 67.9 billion yuan in 1952; it exceeded 100 billion yuan in 1956. After the reform and opening up, breakthroughs continued: from 364.5 billion yuan in 1978 to 50 trillion yuan in 2012, reaching 51,947 billion yuan. Enter a new era and continue to make great strides: In 2014, it crossed 60 trillion yuan to reach 63.6463 trillion yuan; in 2020, it will break through the one-hundred billion mark. The annual gross domestic product reached 101.5986 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.3% over the previous year. Among the major economies in the world, it was the only one to achieve positive economic growth.
“Strike the mountain and be overwhelmed by the world“, the power of the Chinese Communist Party is probably not an exaggeration to describe the power of the Communist Party of China in this famous saying.
Great effect
The scale and strength of the Communist Party of China continue to expand, and it continues to play a huge role in the Chinese revolution, construction, and reform and opening up.
The Communist Party of China has just been established, and organized the workers and other working people in the form of the Secretariat of the Chinese Labor Union, and set off the first climax of the Chinese labor movement. Among them, in January 1922, Hong Kong seamen went on strike to demand an increase in wages. Under the leadership of Su Zhaozheng and Lin Weimin, they overcame all kinds of obstruction and sabotage by the British Hong Kong authorities, insisted on strike for 56 days, and finally won. This is the first time that the Chinese working class has directly engaged in an organized contest with imperialist forces.
In the Agrarian Revolutionary War, the Chinese Communist Party led the creation of the Central Revolutionary Base and a series of other revolutionary bases, the first, second, and fourth fronts of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and many other Red Army units. In the revolutionary base areas, the party established Soviet power, carried out political, economic, military, educational, cultural and other aspects, began to learn the skills of governing the country, cultivated the ability to govern, accumulated valuable experience in governing, and created a political, economic, military, educational, cultural and other aspects. The leading cadres and backbone forces who criticize the party, the country, and the army will become a preview of the party’s ruling nationwide and leading the people of all ethnic groups to build a new China.
During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the Communist Party of China played a mainstay role, vigorously advocated, promoted, and maintained the anti-Japanese national united front, mobilized the nation’s army and ordinary people to the maximum, and promoted the formation of the entire nation’s anti-Japanese war; opened up a broad battlefield behind the enemy line and led the anti-Japanese military and civilians. Carrying out independent guerrilla warfare and establishing a solid anti-Japanese democratic base area created a vast ocean of people’s war; insisting on resisting Japan, opposing compromise, insisting on unity and opposing division, insisting on progress and opposing retrogression, have become a banner guiding the entire nation’s war of resistance to victory.
Since the founding of New China, especially during the “First Five-Year Plan” period, the party and the state have implemented a series of major construction projects. The broad masses of the people and army officers and soldiers have created unimaginable miracles with their high morale and mental state, and have played an important role in laying the foundation for the country’s industry and people’s livelihood. For example, the Changchun No. 1 Automobile Manufacturing Plant was the first large-scale automobile manufacturing plant in New China built from 1953 to 1956, and it was the earliest landmark project for the development of China’s automobile manufacturing. In order to build FAW, the Central Organization Department transferred more than 150 bureau-level cadres from all over the country to the preparatory group to engage in leadership work. The Northeast Bureau deployed 529 agency cadres and selected a large number of party members, league members and demobilized soldiers from rural areas. The number of cadres who came to FAW to participate in the construction soared to more than 4,000. The First Machinery Department recruited a large number of technical cadres, skilled workers, experts in the automotive industry, and graduates from colleges and universities across the country. The Ministry of Construction and Engineering transferred a large number of skilled workers and skilled craftsmen from Shanghai, Dalian, Shenyang, Beijing, Tianjin and other places. Tens of thousands of construction troops braved the wind, frost, rain and snow in the northeast, and finally produced the first batch of Jiefang cars in July 1956, playing the role of the cradle and pioneer of the new China’s automobile industry.
In December 1978, the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China achieved a great and far-reaching transition in the history of the party and the country since the founding of New China, marking the beginning of the party and the country from taking class struggle as the key link to focusing on economic construction. , From rigid and semi-rigid to comprehensive reform, from closed and semi-closed to opening to the outside world; it marks the re-establishment of the Marxist ideological line, political line, and organizational line of the Chinese Communist Party; marks the Chinese Communists’ conditions in the new era The great awakening that we have made shows the party’s determination to follow the trend of the times and the aspirations of the people, and bravely blaze a new path for building socialism. The Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee was a sign of the start and unfolding of reform and opening up, and the beginning of a new era of reform and opening up and socialist modernization. It has had an extremely profound impact on the development of the Communist Party of China and the changes in the face of China since then.
According to Deng Xiaoping’s vision, the Communist Party of China formulated a three-step development strategy to realize modernization by the middle of the 21st century, which concretized the process of my country’s socialist modernization into practical steps, and became an action to inspire the people of the country to fight for a common ideal. Program. China’s socialist modernization drive has been advancing steadily and steadily in accordance with the “three-step” strategy, and has been enriched, developed, refined, extended and advanced in a timely manner in accordance with the implementation results, conditions and new requirements. Guiding all aspects of construction and has made remarkable achievements. It is breathtaking to make such a long-term plan for a large developing country and continue to play such an important role.
Poverty is a worldwide problem, and eradicating poverty is the dream of mankind. After the reform and opening up, the party and the country insisted on focusing on economic construction, vigorously liberating and developing productive forces, and continuously improving the living standards of the broad masses of people. In response to a large number of poor people, a series of policies and measures have been specially adopted to implement poverty alleviation and development strategies, and great achievements have been made. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has placed poverty alleviation and development at an important position in governance and has launched a new fight against poverty with unprecedented intensity, scale and depth. By the end of 2020, the goal and task of poverty alleviation in the new era will be completed as scheduled. Under the current standards, all rural poor people have been lifted out of poverty, and all poor counties have removed their hats. Absolute poverty and overall regional poverty have been eliminated. Nearly 100 million poor people have been lifted out of poverty, and they have achieved a major victory that is impressive to the world and ensured that a well-off society will be built in an all-round way. The successful realization of strategic goals.
The century-old party has reached unprecedented levels of scale, strength, and effect. This is the basic condition for the development and progress of Chinese society. In general, greatness is still an external form, and fundamentally it lies in its strength and strength, the inner nature, quality and temperament behind the “big”, that is, whether the party can always follow the laws of historical development. To be in the forefront of the times; whether to always formulate the correct line, principles and policies, stick to their original aspirations and mission; whether to always get the support and support of the people; whether to always maintain their integrity and clarity; whether to always have affinity and handle well with the outside world Relationship. It is precisely because of the unremitting efforts made in these fundamental contents that the “big” of a century-old party has substantive significance. Looking to the future, we still need to make greater efforts in these areas.
Witness a century of grace
The Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China elected the first central discipline inspection and supervision agency in the party’s history, the Central Supervisory Commission, which is of great significance in the history of party building. The picture shows the scene of the Fifth Congress of the Communist Party of China (Huangpi Hall).
The Permanent Exhibition Hall of the Sixth National Congress of the Communist Party of China is the only permanent exhibition on the history of the Communist Party of China overseas. The picture shows the exterior view of the Permanent Exhibition Hall on the site of the Sixth Congress of the Communist Party of China in Wuyi Village, Moscow, Russia.
The Eighth Route Army troops stationed in Yan’an held a production mobilization meeting.
Representatives of the Seventh National Congress of the Communist Party of China entered the venue.
In July 1981, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council approved and forwarded the “Minutes of the Working Meeting of Guangdong and Fujian Provinces and Special Economic Zones”, which further clarified the guiding ideology and reform and opening measures for the establishment of special economic zones.
——The picture in this edition is selected by Zhong Xing from “A Hundred Years of Party History in Documents” published by Xuelin Publishing House
Source: Beijing Daily Author:Li Zhongjie(The author is a member of the Central Marxist Theoretical Research and Construction Engineering Advisory Committee, and the former deputy director of the Party History Research Office of the Central Committee)
Process editor: l004