100 Years: Its Mark On Modern China
We look back at the party’s history, from the 1920’s, to the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Great Famine, the Cultural Revolution and the reforms by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
Did the Great Famine cost more than 15 million lives? How does the Cultural Revolution continue to shape Chinese politics today? What was capitalism like after Mao’s death?
Through rare and never-before-seen historical footage, expert interviews and eyewitness accounts of the Great Famine, Tiananmen incident, and the Cultural Revolution, get to know how one party has so profoundly shaped China.
Party time: 100 years on from the founding of the CCP, who runs China?
From a clandestine meeting of 53 people in a Shanghai house to 92 million members across China, the Communist Party of China has driven the longest and largest political movement the world has ever seen.
In doing so, it has survived internal revolts, foreign invasions and economic devastation to wield more than 70 years in power. It has crushed internal dissent, wiped out cultural identities and overseen the fastest economic expansion of the modern age. “Follow the Party forever,” the banners in Beijing will declare on July 1, the date marked as the centenary of the CCP.
China is now in the midst of the world’s largest social experiment. It is attempting to harness all the benefits of a market economy while eliminating any capitalist threat to its rule. Can an authoritarian government remain in control while it liberalises its economy – but not its population? What role does the Party play? And will it stay in power?
A summary of modern China
China had been a republic from 1912. It was no longer ruled by emperors. The country was politically unstable, and the government had little control. The National People's Party, known as Guomindang, sometimes written as 'Kuomintang', grew more powerful and began to solve some of these problems. In 1928, the party's leader, Chiang Kai-shek, captured Beijing. He set up a new government with the support of the businessmen and landowners.
Between 1927 and 1934, Chiang waged five 'encirclement campaigns' against a rival group, China's communists. They were led by Mao Zedong (sometimes written as 'Mao Tse-tung'). In 1934, Mao and 100,000 communists fled to Yenan in north-west China on 'the Long March'; it was a horrific 6,000-mile march. As they marched, they fought their way past ten opposing armies. Only 20,000 arrived alive in Yenan, but Mao was able to create a small communist state and build up his power.
After the Second World War, the communists waged a guerrilla war against Chiang Kai-shek's government. The Guomindang government was corrupt, and did nothing to improve the life of the peasants. Mao's communists were popular with the peasants, promising land reforms. In 1949, Chiang Kai-shek fled to the island of Taiwan. Mao Zedong took control of a country of 600 million peasants, that was ruined by war and on the brink of mass-starvation. Not everyone agreed with his policies while he was in power, and they are still the subject of much debate.
Reading Between the Lines of the CCP’s Centennial Propaganda Blitz
As the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) prepares to celebrate its 100th birthday on July 1, Beijing’s propaganda and information-control apparatus is out in full force to ensure that the party – and “core leader” Xi Jinping – receive uniform praise for being “great, glorious, and correct.” Many of its initiatives illustrate the extent to which the CCP has managed to repurpose key features of capitalism – social media, e-commerce, and tourism, for example – with an ideological spin that serves the Leninist regime’s political interests.
Despite the bombast and marketing innovations, the campaign seems infused with insecurity. Indeed, its insistent, heavy-handed tone amounts to an acknowledgment that the Chinese people and the world at large are not entirely convinced by the CCP’s claim to be the only legitimate and desirable source of leadership for China.
Propaganda Old and New - Messaging, merchandise, and activities promoting the CCP have long been a part of daily life in China. But ahead of the anniversary, they have become more pervasive, surpassing the usual level of sloganeering. Some efforts fall into the formats one might expect before of an important date: new museums opening, films being released to theaters and at festivals, an upsurge in “red tourism” at sites deemed meaningful to CCP history, and sales of “red clothes” on e-commerce sites. Domestic state media are publishing congratulatory remarks from a hodgepodge of foreign politicians, including counterparts from communist parties in countries like the United Kingdom, Spain, and South Africa. Embassies and consulates have also taken to hosting events and pilgrimages to overseas “red” sites.
Why Western political theories can not explain success of century-old CPC
Herdsman Sonam Tsering poses for a photo with his grandson at a mountainous rural village in Gangcha County of Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Qinghai Province, June 8, 2021. (Xinhua/Wu Gang)
At an altitude of 3,300 metres, Sonam Tsering offered a hada, a traditional Tibetan silk scarf that symbolises purity and auspiciousness, to a guest who had come from afar – Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.
The Tibetan herdsman, whose family previously struggled to make ends meet in a mountainous rural village in northwest China’s Qinghai Province, now owns 80 sheep and 20 cattle, thanks to poverty-alleviation subsidies and loans from the government.
Sonam Tsering, who had bid farewell to his former home, a dilapidated abode structure surrounded by uneven stone walls, welcomed Xi outside his new house that is equipped with a flush toilet and a driveway that leads up to the front door.
What is the July 1 Medal?
China on Tuesday will award the July 1 Medal to outstanding members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) for the first time as the Party celebrates its centenary this year, at an awarding ceremony in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The July 1 Medal, established by the CPC Central Committee, is the highest honor in the Party.
In 2017, the Party issued measures on granting this honorary medal in accordance with the regulation on establishing and improving the honor and reward system of the Party and the nation. The regulation was approved in 2015 by the Political Bureau of the CPC's Central Committee.
The medal, with red, gold and white as its main colors, adopts such key elements as the Party emblem and the five-pointed star. The accolade will be granted every five years to celebrate the Party's major anniversaries. This year, 29 people have been chosen as the first recipients of the medal. The medal is also the fifth in China's highest order of honor system, in addition to the "Medal of the Republic," the "August 1st Medal," the "Friendship Medal" and the national titles of honor.
China’s Communists Face Daunting Future as Party Marks 100 Years
Oath-taking in front of the party flag at the museum in Shanghai
In Shanghai, where China’s Communist Party was founded 100 years ago, signs of celebration are everywhere: Red buses ferry visitors to historical sites, billboards declare “Never Forget Why You Started” and skyscrapers are lit each night with the hammer and sickle.
Next to the modest two-story building where the First Party Congress was held, a state-of-the-art museum draws large crowds jostling to take selfies while waving party flags and chanting the admission oath. “You guys need to take a hard look at how great our country is,” said one woman waiting to get inside.
Yet at a swanky hotel just a short walk away, the sense of triumph around the 100-year anniversary celebrated on July 1 wasn’t shared by a former senior editor at a state-backed media outlet. Speaking softly over breakfast, the journalist -- who asked not to be identified along with more than a dozen others Bloomberg spoke to for this article -- reeled off a list of challenges facing the party as it seeks to stay in power for another century and beyond.
US belittling China, CPC a self-emboldening move: Global Times editorial
Drones form patterns to mark the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China at Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality
As the centennial of the Communist Party of China (CPC) approaches, state opinion war machines of the US and some other Western countries have enhanced their attacks on the CPC, trying to distort the international community's acknowledgment of the CPC's achievements in leading China to advance. At the same time, they are trying to smear China's model of development and to damage the international public opinion environment for China.
They said the anniversary is "an anxious 100th birthday," striving to pin labels such as "unstable" and "loss of confidence" in the CPC's governance. Such rhetoric is ridiculous. It is more like a move to ease the West's own nerves and to embolden Western elites as their societies are becoming more and more diffident.
Currently, is it China or the US together with its allies that are in a state of deep anxiety? Be it in the White House or on Capitol Hill, China is the topic most frequently brought up. Given their focus on China, it seems that everything the US does is aimed at competing with China. Washington is worried that China will become a power that is capable of counterbalancing the US. This is why the elites in Washington keep insisting that they will not allow China to "dominate the future of the world" or to "write the 21st-century rules." Thus, they want their country to compete with China in many fields. If they really think that socialist China is collapsing, they should just wait for the collapse to take place instead of being in such a hurry.
As China’s Communist Party turns 100, economic challenges loom
China’s leaders steer clear of the phrase 'middle-income trap' - a condition where a country fails to reach a higher, more developed status - but that’s where the country could end up if leaders fail to address those fissures [File: Carlos Barria/Reuters]
Private education companies that provide extracurricular lessons to legions of Chinese children are in the crosshairs of the government, as officials seek to ease pressure on students and the financial burden on families. Though aimed at private tutoring firms, the crackdown is symptomatic of wider systemic problems facing China as the ruling Communist Party celebrates its 100th anniversary this week.
Falling birth rates and a rapidly ageing population spell trouble for China’s future economic growth. Income inequality, regional economic divides, and wide gaps in opportunity between rural and urban citizens were issues highlighted by China’s President Xi Jinping in a late January speech as pressing matters the nation must tackle to reach what he called an era of “common prosperity” in the coming years.
China’s leaders steer clear of the phrase “middle-income trap” – a condition where a country fails to reach a higher, more developed status – but that’s where the country could end up if leaders fail to address those fissures. Xi’s remedies – better income distribution, education, social security, affordable medical care, housing, elderly care, child support, and quality employment; also mentioned in the same speech – are many of the same wants as most working families and youths.
Explained: Why China chooses CPC and socialism
A screenshot of the China Daily video
How did the Communist Party of China (CPC) grow from an organization of just over 50 members to the world's biggest political party with more than 91 million members during the past 100 years? What are the reasons behind its creation, development and success? A recently released short video by China Daily explored the answers. The five-minute video, released days ahead of the CPC's centenary, reviewed China's struggles for independence, development and modernization amid a series of crises in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the CPC's role in the process.
Since China's defeat in the Opium War in the 1840s, generations of Chinese patriots made a number of attempts to transform the country. "They tried to push for reform and build a constitutional monarchy, but it failed. They were able to build a democratic republic through revolution (the Xinhai Revolution in 1911), but it did not last long," the video noted.
"The Chinese people were very motivated," said Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at Renmin University of China. "When facing the external pressure, they made many attempts, but most of them failed." "In the end the people chose the strong leadership of the Communist Party of China because they have a goal of modernizing China," Jin added.
CPC shepherds a booming economy in China: official
A worker inspects a car at an auto factory in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province. Photo: cnsphoto
China's economy has kept booming, with its size soaring by 189 times since 1949, thanks to the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Han Wenxiu, an official with the Central Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs, said on Monday.
When the People's Republic of China (PRC) was founded in 1949, the country even could not manufacture a tractor, now China has become the only country in the world that obtain all the industrial categories listed in the UN industrial classification, with the output of over 220 industrial products, including cars and computers, leading globally, Han said at a press conference held to mark the 100th anniversary of the CPC. Over the past 70-odd years, China's economy surged by about 189 times, with the total economic size having exceeded 100 trillion yuan to become the second largest economy in the world, Han said, noting that the country's economy accounts for over 17 percent of global economic output.
In addition, the country's per capita national income has exceeded $10,000 from merely dozens of dollars about 70 years ago, he said. Since the CPC launched reform and opening-up drive in 1978, China has lifted approximately 770 million impoverished rural citizens out of poverty, accounting for more than 70 percent of the world's total, according to Han.
‘Not quite a religion’: China’s Communist Party attracts new devotees
Wang Ying is young, educated and an unquestioning believer in the Communist Party’s sole right to rule China -– exactly what the increasingly conformist institution seeks as it enters a new century.
As the ruling body celebrates its 100th birthday on July 1, current members describe an increasingly cult-like atmosphere under leader Xi Jinping, propagandising successes such as its control of the coronavirus, and viewed as the only viable saviour for China. “Belief in the Party is steadfast. Perhaps not as deep as a religion like Buddhism or Christianity, but something that fosters self-discipline,” said Wang, a partial pseudonym to protect the Party member’s identity.
The membership focus of the Chinese Communist Party has continually evolved, from intellectuals, to the proletariat, and welcoming entrepreneurs from the 1990s.
China on a long march to a grey future
Elderly people play mahjong in a park in Beijing, China, on April 6, 2021. REUTERS
China’s leader Xi Jinping had warned the officials of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) several years before to watch out for “black swans”—unusually rare disruptive events; and “grey rhinos”—obvious problems of high impact which are generally overlooked. The “black swan” has already unleashed itself upon the world from China a year back, leading to the current pandemic. Meanwhile, the “grey rhino” has made its presence felt recently with the release of China’s census conducted in 2020, the seventh since 1953. This has added credence to past assessments that China’s population will peak by 2027 or much before, perhaps well within the next couple of years.
According to the census, the population of China grew to 1.412 billion in 2020 from 1.34 billion in 2010, a growth of 5.38%. The census revealed that China’s population grew at the slowest rate in any decade since the 1950s. The annual population growth in the past decade was just 0.53%, compared to the 0.57% the decade before that. The rate of growth in China’s population has been falling continuously for the past four years. The census noted that there has been an 18% decline in the number of births in China compared to the previous year. In fact, China’s fertility rate has dropped much below the population replacement level of 2.1 to 1.3.
One of the biggest reasons behind China’s projected demographic decline is the “One Child Policy” adopted by China since the late 1970s. This controversial policy was initiated by China’s reformist leader Deng Xiaoping at a time when he was opening up the country’s closed economy. The policy was projected as the panacea to China’s problems of widespread poverty and underdevelopment. The government at the time feared that an uncontrolled, rapidly growing population could put undue stress on the resources of a country at the cusp of high trajectory economic growth.
Major achievements in infrastructure, military, aerospace announced in celebration of CPC's centenary
The Baihetan Dam opens to release water. Photo: Lin Xiaoyi/GT
Major achievements in infrastructure, military as well as aerospace sectors have debuted in recent days to mark China's major achievements in various fields under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in celebration for the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding.
On Monday, Baihetan Hydropower Station in Southwest China, the world's largest hydropower project under construction, reached a milestone on Monday with the official start of operations of the first group of unique 1 million kilowatt generating units.
Also on Monday, the Tiaoshun Bridge in Zhanjiang, South China's Guangdong Province, was inaugurated to link the western part of Guangdong with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
CPC Centenary: Tracing the footsteps of the CPC over past century
The two-story brick-and-wood house at 76 Xingye Road in Shanghai looks no different from other buildings in the vicinity. However, a secret meeting held inside the building 100 years ago changed the fate of the world's most populous country.
On July 23, 1921, the first national congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was convened in the house. The meeting marked the founding of the CPC -- an epochal event in China's history.
Starting from there, the Party's leadership had moved across China strategically before settling in Beijing in 1949. Today the CPC has grown into the largest political party in the world with over 91 million members, and the country under its leadership has become the world's second-largest economy.
China holds art performance to celebrate CPC centenary
An art performance was held in Beijing on Monday evening in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Party and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Li Zhanshu, Wang Yang, Wang Huning, Zhao Leji, Han Zheng and Wang Qishan joined about 20,000 people to watch the performance, titled "The Great Journey," at the National Stadium.
At around 7:57 p.m., Xi and other Chinese leaders walked onto the rostrum, waving to the people amid applause and cheers. With fireworks rocketing into the sky, displaying the number 100 over the stadium, the performance unveiled its curtain.
The epic show, divided into four parts, depicted how the Chinese people, under the leadership of the CPC, have carried out revolution, construction and reform over the past 100 years. It extolled the fact that under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core since the 18th CPC National Congress, socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era, and China is embarking on a new journey of fully building a modern socialist country. After the performance, all the audience rose to chorus the song "Without the Communist Party, There Would Be No New China."
In Pictures: China holds cultural performance
The gala show celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).
Performers dance during a cultural performance as part of the celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China, at the Bird's nest national stadium in Beijing on June 28, 2021.
The event, held under tight security and not broadcast live on television, comes before the July 1 centenary of the party that has shaped the modern history of China, guiding the country from war-torn to superpower status.
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