The Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China

It was held in Wuhan from April 27 to May 9, 1927. The Congress was attended by 82 delegates, including Chen Duxiu, Qu Qiubai, Cai Hesen, Li Weihan, Mao Zedong, Zhang Guotao and Li Lisan. The representatives of the Communist International, such as Luo Yi, Dorio, Voitinsky and Soviet advisor Borodin, also attended the Congress.

The main task of the Congress was to accept the "Resolution of the Seventh Enlarged Plenary Session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the Chinese Revolution", in order to correct the opportunist mistakes of Chen Duxiu and to decide on the major guidelines and policies of the Party. Chen Duxiu presided over the Congress and presented a "Political and Organizational Report" to the Congress on behalf of the Fourth Central Executive Committee. Luo Yi, head of the delegation of the Communist International, made a speech entitled "The Question of the Chinese Revolution and the Role of the Proletariat".

The Congress discussed Chen Duxiu's report. Many delegates, including Qu Qiubai, Cai Hesen, Mao Zedong, Ren Bishi and Yun Daiying, spoke and criticized Chen Duxiu's right-leaning opportunist errors. The Congress criticized Chen Duxiu's rightist mistake of neglecting to compete with the bourgeoisie for the leadership of the revolution, rejected Chen Duxiu's erroneous idea of "going to the northwest", and proposed the leadership of the proletariat in the revolution.

The Congress adopted the "Resolution on the Acceptance by the Communist Party of China of the Resolution of the Seventh Enlarged Plenary Session of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the Chinese Revolution", the "Resolution on the Political Situation and the Tasks of the Party", the "Resolution on the Land Question", the "Resolution on the Workers' Movement", the "Resolution on the Organization", the "Resolution on the Work of the Communist Youth League", and the "Manifesto of the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China".

The Congress, finally, elected a new Central Committee, including 31 Central Committee members including Chen Duxiu and 14 alternate Central Committee members including Mao Zedong. The new Central Committee continued to elect Chen Duxiu as General Secretary and Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao and Cai Hesen as members of the Standing Committee of the Central Political Bureau.

For the first time in the history of the Party, the Congress elected a Central Supervisory Committee, the first central disciplinary inspection body in the history of the Party. The emergence of the Central Supervisory Commission was a major innovation in the Party's organizational and institutional construction and was of great significance to the development of the Party's disciplinary inspection work. The Central Supervisory Committee elected by the Congress consisted of ten members. Wang Hebo was elected Chairman of the Central Supervisory Commission, Yang Pao’an was elected Vice Chairman, Xu Baihao, Zhang Zuochen, Liu Junshan, Zhou Zhensheng and Cai Yichen were elected members of the Central Supervisory Commission, and Yang Peisen, Xiao Shiyue and Ruan Xiaoxian were elected alternate members of the Central Supervisory Commission.

Although Chen Duxiu admitted some of his mistakes, the Congress failed to change Chen Duxiu's right-leaning opportunist line because the whole Party still lacked from a common and profound understanding of Chen Duxiu's right-leaning opportunism at that time. The document adopted by the Congress treated Chiang Kai-shek's defection from the revolution as if the whole bourgeoisie had defected, thus treating the national bourgeoisie as the object of the revolution and confusing the boundary between the democratic revolution and the socialist revolution. At the same time, it treated Wang Jingwei, Tang Shengzhi and others as representatives of the radical petty bourgeoisie and lacked from a clear understanding and preparation for the danger of their open defection from the revolution.