The Founding of the Communist Party of China

In early 1920, Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu began to think about the establishment of a party. And Cai Hesen, who was studying in France, clearly proposed the establishment of the "Communist Party of China". With the help of the representatives of the Communist International and advanced intellectuals in Shanghai, Beijing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Changsha and Jinan, early Party organizations were established one after another. Young students studying in France and Japan also set up early Party organizations. Among them, the early Communist Party organization established in Shanghai in August 1920, named the "Socialist Youth League". It actively promoted the establishment of early Communist Party organizations in various places through various means, and actually acted as the initiating group of the Communist Party of China.

After the establishment of the early Communist Party organizations in various places, they carried out multifaceted revolutionary activities. In order to widely disseminate Marxism-Leninism and unify the ideology for Party building, in September 1920, the Shanghai initiating group changed the magazine New Youth (starting from volume 8, number 1) into a theoretical journal of the Party; in November of the same year, it also founded the monthly Communist Party magazine, which was secretly distributed in major cities throughout China, the first Party journal in the history of the Communist Party of China. At the same time, early Communist Party organizations in various regions also founded a number of popular publications for workers to enlighten them about class consciousness. On this basis, local communist groups actively reached out to the workers, held workers' night schools and established trade union organizations. In June 1921, the Communist International sent Ma Lin to Shanghai. The Shanghai Party Initiation Group, under the chairmanship of Li Da, carried out preparations for the National Congress and sent notices to early Communist Party organizations in various places, requesting that delegates be selected to attend the Congress. Thereon, delegates from Beijing, Hankou, Guangzhou, Changsha, Jinan and Japan all arrived in Shanghai on July 23.

On July 23, 1921, the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held at No. 106 Wangzhi Road in the French Concession of Shanghai. During this period, due to the attention of undercover agents and the searches of the French Concession police, the last day of the Congress was rescheduled to be held on a cruise ship on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. The Congress was attended by 13 delegates from 7 places, representing more than 50 Party members nationwide. They were: Li Da and Li Hanjun from Shanghai, Zhang Guotao and Liu Renjing from Beijing, Mao Zedong and He Shuheng from Changsha, Dong Biwu and Chen Tanqiu from Wuhan, Wang Jinmei and Deng Enming from Jinan, Chen Gongbo from Guangzhou, and Zhou Fohai from Japan. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao did not attend the Congress because they were busy in Guangzhou and Beijing respectively. Bao Huiseng was delegated by Chen Duxiu to attend the Congress. Also the representatives of the Communist International, Hendricus Sneevliet (Maring) and Nikolsky (Vladimir Neiman) were present at the Congress.

The Congress determined the name of the Party as the Communist Party of China. “With the revolutionary army of the proletariat, to overthrow the capitalistic classes and to reconstruct the nation from the labor class, until class distinctions are eliminated; to adopt the dictatorship of the proletariat in order to complete the end of class struggle—abolishing classes; to overthrow the private ownership of capital, etc. The Congress also adopted the main plan for the near future work, i.e., to concentrate on organizing the workers' movement. It then elected a provisional leadership of the Party, the Central Bureau, composed of Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao and Li Da, with Chen Duxiu as the Party secretary.

The Party's First Congress proclaimed the formal establishment of the Communist Party of China. From then on, a completely new type of unified working-class party with communism as its goal and Marxism-Leninism as its guide to action was born in China.

The founding of the CPC brought light and hope to the Chinese people in the midst of a catastrophe and gave direction to the Chinese revolution. As Mao Zedong said, the founding of the CPC was a great event that opened up the heaven and the earth. After the founding of the CPC, the face of the Chinese revolution became new. This "newness" was mainly manifested in the following aspects: the establishment of the CPC gave the Chinese revolution a strong leading core that could take up the historical mission of leading the revolution to victory; a scientific guiding ideology that could be guided by Marxism and the Sinicization of Marxism, providing a powerful ideological weapon for the Chinese revolution; a new revolutionary method, that is, the method of the mass line, the broadest mass of the people could be mobilized to form a vast revolutionary army; a clear revolutionary program that the correct direction of the Chinese revolution could be indicated, and thereby the Chinese revolution could finally achieve victory.