Winton Dong

dht0620@126.com

TODAY marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

In 1921, the CPC’s 13 founders originally convened the Party’s First National Congress in Shanghai. For safety reasons the congress was later forced to transfer to a small boat, known as the Red Boat, on Nanhu Lake in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. At this congress, attendees announced the founding of the CPC on the boat.

The Red Boat symbolizes the courageous and pioneering spirit of the Party’s early leaders. With the small boat as the starting point, the CPC has been leading Chinese people on a great journey through brambles and thorns to save and revitalize the Chinese nation that has been marked by many sacrifices, many struggles and many achievements during the past century.

The CPC has stood arduous tests of history. During its odyssey, the Party has also grown from a small organization of some 50 members in 1921 into the world’s largest ruling party now with more than 95 million members. Under the leadership of the Party, China has overcome one difficulty after another over the past 100 years and written spectacular chapters in the development of the Chinese nation and the progress of human society. During the initial years of its founding, the CPC established itself as an alternative power by developing bases among peasants and in remote rural areas. With the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the CPC made a historic transformation from a “revolutionary party” seeking power into a ruling party exercising power. In the 1950s and 1960s, China was such a big yet poor nation. At that time, the Party’s main responsibility was to enable Chinese people to get rid of hunger and meet their basic needs. When late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping raised the reform and opening-up policies in 1978, few people in the world believed that China would be able to eliminate absolute poverty in such a short time. When talking about the COVID-19 pandemic control and prevention, the CPC has also done a wonderful job and set an example for the whole world.

Reasons behind the Party’s success include its adaptability to new situations, its people-oriented policies and a great deal of support from the Chinese people, its strong determination, high resilience, long-term vision, peace-loving philosophy, scientific worldview, multilateral cooperation, extraordinary reform capacity and great improvement of state governance.

The CPC has been following Marxism since its establishment and has been unceasingly developing that philosophy. It uses Marxism as an important spiritual weapon for China’s revolution and economic and social construction, as well as its reform and openingup to the outside world. The challenges for the Party in 1949 were totally different from what they are now. For the CPC, Marxism is not a set dogma, but an open and continuously developing system, which has always stood at the forefront of the times. With different generations of Chinese leaders contributing to Marxist theory, the CPC has been promoting and updating Marxism according to the practical needs of the country during different stages of development.

Strong and systematic CPC leadership also originates from the rapid and unanimous response of the people. The CPC has always upheld the fundamental interests of the people. As a result, Chinese people’s satisfaction with the Party has been greatly improved, especially after the country quickly resumed social stability during the pandemic and took the lead in realizing economic recovery. Surveys conducted by foreign institutions also echo Chinese people’s trust in the Party. For example, a Harvard University survey released in 2020 found that almost all Chinese citizens rated the CPC as more capable, effective and satisfactory than ever before.

As a century-old Party and at the juncture of its centenary celebration, it is now worthwhile and important to summarize the history of the CPC, inherit and carry forward the Party’s precious experience in order to draw strength from the past to forge ahead.

To better understand China, one must first understand the history of the CPC. China has been doubling down on the effort to help young people learn the history of the Party. The country has actively included Party history in textbooks and made it part of classroom curricula. Moreover, through study tours and social research activities, young students can visit patriotism education bases to learn the Party history and martyrs’ sacrifices to the country.

Meanwhile, fascinated by the robust development of the CPC and China, many foreigners have also been looking forward to the chance of getting a better understanding of how the largest political party in the world governs China and maintains its vitality. It is happy to see that the Central Government has recently invited foreign envoys and representatives of international organizations to visit the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing and sites of the First National Congress of the CPC in Shanghai. We sincerely need more international friends to help make our voices heard by the world. This is very important because China and the CPC have real and successful stories here.

Currently China is in a crucial stage of realizing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As for the CPC, nothing is more dangerous than deviating from its original aspiration and becoming out of touch with the people. All Party members should firm up their ideas and beliefs to overcome obstacles and secure new victories on the new journey.

(The author is the editor-in-chief of Shenzhen Daily with a Ph.D. from the Journalism and Communication School of Wuhan University)