The Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China

It was held in Shanghai from January 11 to 22, 1925. The Congress was attended by 20 delegates, including Chen Duxiu, Cai Hesen, Qu Qiubai, Chen Tanqiu, Zhang Tailei, Zhou Enlai, Peng Shuzhi, Li Lisan and Luo Zhanglong. Voitinsky, the representative of the Communist International, also attended the Congress. The main agenda of the Congress was to study and discuss how the Communist Party of China could strengthen its leadership of the growing revolutionary movement, how the working class could participate in the national revolutionary movement, and how the Party could prepare itself organizationally and in terms of mass work.

Chen Duxiu presided over the Congress and made a work report on behalf of the Third Central Executive Committee. Voitinsky, Peng Shuzhi, Cai Hesen, Qu Qiubai and Zhou Enlai made relevant reports or speeches at the Congress. After discussions, the Congress adopted the “Resolution on the Report of the Delegates to the Fifth Congress of the Communist International”, the “Resolution on the Report of the Central Executive Committee”, the “Resolution on the Report of the Delegates to the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the Status of the World Communist Movement”, the “Resolution on the National Revolutionary Movement”, the “Resolution on the Workers’ Movement”, the “Resolution on the Peasants' Movement”, and the resolutions on the “Youth Movement”, the “Women's Movement”, the “Party Organization”, and the “Publicity”. Moreover, it adopted the “Second Revised Constitution of the Communist Party of China” and issued the “Manifesto of the Fourth National Congress of the Communist Party of China”.

The Congress elaborated and answered some basic questions that the Party had to solve at that time, and clearly raised the question of the leadership of the proletariat in the democratic revolution. The document adopted by the Congress pointed out that for the bourgeois democratic revolution in China, the proletariat should not take a subordinate position in relation with the bourgeoisie instead adopt and independent class stand and pursue for its own aims. In China, the proletariat, although still immature, was the most revolutionary class force because it was the most oppressed, and the national revolutionary movement in China needed the strong participation and leadership of the proletariat in order to achieve victory.

The Congress raised the question of the workers' and peasants' alliance, pointing out that the peasants were the natural allies of the proletariat and that the leadership of the proletariat could not be achieved without the proletariat and its party mobilizing and organizing the peasants' struggle. Based on its experience in establishing a united front with the KMT, the Congress also determined a new policy for the Party's relations with the KMT, the basic policy of which was to combat the rightists, win over the centrists and expand the left forces. The Congress stressed that the Party should have adhered to a thoroughly democratic revolutionary program and maintain its independence both within and outside the KMT.

The Congress, finally, elected a new Central Executive Committee, with Chen Duxiu, Qu Qiubai, Cai Hesen, Zhang Guotao, Peng Shuzhi, Li Dazhao, Tan Pingshan, Li Weihan and Xiang Ying as the nine elected members of the Central Executive Committee, and Deng Pei, Wang Hebo, Zhang Tailei, Luo Zhanglong and Zhu Jintang as the five alternate members. After the Congress, the Central Executive Committee elected Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao, Peng Shuzhi, Cai Hesen and Qu Qiubai to form the Central Bureau, with Chen Duxiu as the General Secretary of the Central Executive Committee.

The Congress' elaboration on the issues of the leadership of the proletariat in the democratic revolution and the peasant-allied army showed that the Party had taken another step forward in its understanding of the laws of the Chinese revolution.