(See previous post for background: #1 Cultural Revolution)

A Concise History of the Communist Party of China (2021, ISBN 978-7-5117-3978-0), pg. 1-5

《中国共产党简史》, pg. 1-4

Chapter I

The Founding of the Communist Party of China and Its Involvement in the Great Revolution

One night in July of 1921, the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) opened in secret in a small two-story residence in Shanghai’s French Concession. This moment gave birth to a completely new party of the proletariat whose actions were to be guided by Marxism and Leninism. This was a truly groundbreaking event—a momentous occasion which, like a torch held aloft in the darkness, brought light and hope to the deeply distressed Chinese people. From that moment on, the Chinese people have had in the Party an anchor for their struggles to achieve national independence and liberation, to make their country prosperous and strong, and to realize happiness and contentment, and their mindset changed from passivity to taking the initiative.

1. Various Forces Explore Ways to Rejuvenate China in Modern Times

Over the course of several millennia, the Chinese people created an enduring and splendid civilization, making a marvelous contribution to humankind and becoming one of the great peoples of the world. Following the advent of modern times, however, owing to the aggression of Western powers and the corruption of China’s feudal rulers, China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. As the land of China was laid to waste and the people descended into misery, the Chinese nation experienced suffering of unprecedented proportions.

From 1840 onwards, Western powers launched numerous wars of aggression against China (most famous are the Opium War of 1840–1842 involving Great Britain, the Second Opium War of 1856–1860 with Great Britain and France, the Sino-French War of 1884–1885, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, and the war of 1900 against the aggression of the Eight-Power Allied Forces). Through these wars and other methods, Western powers forced China to cede territory and pay out indemnities, and they greedily extracted privileges of all kinds from China. Britain carved away Hong Kong, Japan occupied Taiwan, and czarist Russia seized the northeastern and northwestern parts of the country. Over one billion taels of silver were extracted from China in war indemnities, even though the Qing government generated just over 80 million taels of annual revenue at the time.

Through unequal treaties of increasingly harsher terms, Western powers obtained many important privileges in China, such as the right to set up ports and concessions, open mines and factories build railways, establish banks and businesses, build churches, station troops, demarcate spheres of influence, and enjoy consular jurisdiction and unilateral most-favored-nation treatment. Hundreds of unequal treaties and conventions, like an all-encompassing net, entrapped China politically, economically, militarily, and culturally. As a result, it was utterly helpless in the face of endless demands, and while it encountered reproach at every turn, Western powers had their way in the country on the strength of their treaties. They ran China’s trading ports, customs, foreign trade, and transport lines and dumped large quantities of their goods in China, treating it as a market for their products and a base for extracting raw materials.

The old summer palace, Yuanmingyuan, was razed to the ground by British and French troops; the Beiyang Fleet was completely annihilated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895; and the forces of the eight imperialist powers—Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan, Russia, France, Italy and Austria burned, killed, raped and looted its way through Beijing in 1901. Such atrocities became indelibly etched in the memory of the Chinese nation. More and more, the Qing government, representing the interests of China’s landlord class and comprador bourgeoisie, became little more than a tool for foreign capitalist rule of China, a traitorous and corrupt regime strangling all vitality from the country. The conflicts between imperialism and the Chinese nation, and between feudalism and the people, thus became the principal conflicts of modern Chinese society. As the Chinese people were reduced to extreme misery, the prospect of imminent destruction loomed for the Chinese nation.

It was at this point that national rejuvenation became the greatest dream of the Chinese people in modern times, and the quest to achieve national independence and liberation, to make the country prosperous and strong, and to realize happiness and contentment became the historic tasks of the Chinese people. The Chinese nation enjoys a glorious tradition of constant self-improvement, and it would never halt the struggle to defend its independence, dignity, and civilization. Many brave men and women stepped forward and devoted their lives to the cause of national progress prior to the founding of the Communist Party of China, working unceasingly to alter the destiny of their motherland. However, failure was the ultimate outcome of each of their struggles—of the wars of resistance against foreign aggression, the peasants’ revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the mid-19th century, the Westernization Movement designed to adopt Western technology while maintaining Chinese systems, the Reform Movement of 1898 aimed at seeking prosperity, and the Yi He Tuan Movement at the turn of the century which developed into a general anti-imperialist patriotic movement, having begun at the lower strata of society. Lacking a scientific theory, a correct approach, and social forces upon which they could rely, many noble patriots were left to bitterly regret these repeated failures.

Then the Revolution of 1911 erupted in October of that year, leading to the overthrow of the Qing government and the founding of the Republic of China. Monarchical dictatorship, which had ruled China for more than 2,000 years, was finally brought to an end. However, the Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen did not change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal nature of Chinese society or the miserable fate of the people. It was unable to accomplish the historic task of realizing national independence and the people’s liberation. Yet it did pioneer a national democratic revolution in modern Chinese history in the truest sense of the term, opening the floodgates to progress and promoting the spread of democratic and republican ideas. A great wave of intellectual emancipation was sparked, and social change swept the country under the tremendous influence of the revolution, permanently undermining the stability of reactionary rule.

Reality, however, can sometimes be incredibly cruel. The fruits of the 1911 Revolution were seized by the Northern Warlords led by Yuan Shikai, with imperialist support. In a matter of just months, the nascent bourgeois republic had perished. After the death of Yuan Shikai, the Northern Warlords split into the Zhili, Anhui, and Fengtian cliques. Under the manipulations of imperialists, the country was thrown into a state of internecine warfare between various warlord regimes. Under the autocratic rule of the feudal warlords, China was reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society.

The immense efforts and innumerable sacrifices of the revolution yielded nothing more than a faux republic. After the Revolution of 1911, China tried various forms of government, including a return to monarchy, a parliamentary system, a multiparty system, and a presidential system. Various political forces and their representatives came to the fore, but none could pinpoint the right solution that would change the nature of old Chinese society and transform the fate of the Chinese people. As a result, China remained fractured, impoverished, and weak. Foreign powers were still running roughshod over the country and profiting at its expense, and the Chinese people continued to live in misery and humiliation.

History had shown that without the guidance of advanced theories, and without the leadership of advanced political parties that were armed with these theories and were willing to follow the trend of history, shoulder its heavy responsibilities, and make great sacrifices, the Chinese people would not be able to defeat the various reactionary factions that oppressed them, and the Chinese nation would not be able to change its fate of oppression and subjugation.

China needed a force to lead the mission of national rejuvenation. This assignment would fall on the shoulders of China’s working class, the representative of the advanced productive forces.