The Communist Party of China at 100

Written by Frank Li

Today, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is celebrating its 100th birthday in style (Special coverage of grand gathering celebrating CPC centenary). So, let’s truly understand it, now …

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0. What is the CPC, anyway?

Below is an excerpt from Wikipedia – Communist Party of China.

The life of the CPC can be simply divided into three periods as follows:

1. 1921–1935: Pre-Mao era.
2. 1935–1949: Mao‘s era to unify China.
3. 1949–Present: People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Let me elaborate on each …

1. 1921–1935: Pre-Mao era

With its first congress being held in Shanghai on July 23, 1921, the CPC was born as a result of both domestic developments (e.g., May Fourth Movement) and international developments (e.g., Russia’s October Revolution).

Attended by only 13 members (shown below), it was such a non-event event that by the late 1930s, when the party became a political force significant enough to celebrate its founding, Mao had forgotten its exact date and chose July 1st.

After more than one decade of hard struggle and a few rounds of leadership changes, the CPC, by 1935, had Mao Zedong as the party’s Politburo Standing Committee member and informal leader. The fortune of the CPC started to change for the better …

2. 1935–1949: Mao’s era to unify China

Mao was a very skilled politician and a brilliant military leader. For example, he let the Kuomintang (aka “Nationalist Party of China”) do most of the heavy fighting against Japan throughout WWII in China (1937-1945), while nurturing and growing the red army in the poor northwest.

For more, read What Is the Chinese Communist Revolution, Anyway?

3. 1949–Present: The People’s Republic of China

Over this period, the CPC history is the PRC history, and vice versa.

The life of the PRC can be simply divided into three periods:

1. 1949–1976: Mao’s era. It was nearly a total disaster.
2. 1978–2011: Deng’s era. China came back.
3. 2012–Present: Xi’s era. China continues to come back, while facing an increasingly hostile America, thanks to America’s totally misguided foreign policy (A Deadly Contradiction: the Chinese Dreamers vs. the U.S. Hegemon).

For more, read The People’s Republic of China at Age 70.

4. Discussion

Three big questions:

1. How can the CPC be best explained in American terms?
2. Would China have come back so spectacularly without the CPC?
3. What is the biggest and unique challenge facing the CPC?

Let me answer them one by one …

4.1 How can the CPC be best explained in American terms?

See image below for a simple analogy.

Beyond this analogy, the CPC is like a private club – You must be good enough to join. It has a well-designed tiered system for a member to advance his/her career. For more, read The U.S. vs. China: Meritocracy.

Now, what about China’s one-party system?

It is better than America’s two-party system, however slightly.

4.2 Would China have come back so spectacularly without the CPC?

No!

Two simple logical deductions:

1. There would have been no modern China, without the PRC.
2. There would have been no PRC, without the CPC.

For more, read The People’s Republic of China at Age 70.

4.3 What is the biggest and unique challenge facing the CPC?

Developing a succession system, with the term limit, hopefully, for the CPC General Secretary (not the Chinese Presidency, as many in the West believe).

For more, read Will Xi Become Mao?

5. What is so special about China’s system?

Meritocracy (The U.S. vs. China: Meritocracy)!

Simply put, the Chinese government is not only extremely competent, but also truly for the people. In contrast, the American government is not only extremely incompetent, but also actually by/of/for the rich mostly!

The challenge for America?

Can the American government be peacefully transformed into a form that is truly of/by/for the people, without a bloody proletarian revolution first, like China did?

6. American disinformation about China

Several recent news stories …

6.1 CIA

6.2 Origin of Covid-19

Here is a recent news story: Wuhan Lab Scientist Danielle Anderson Gives Her Take On Coronavirus Lead Theory. Below is an excerpt:

Anderson appeared to respond to a Wall Street Journal report in May that researchers there had fallen seriously ill in late 2019 from COVID-19-like symptoms, according to U.S. intelligence. Anderson, who specializes in bat-borne viruses, arrived at the lab in November 2019.

“If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick — and I wasn’t,” Anderson told Bloomberg. “I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it.”

6.3 Xinjiang

6.4 Human rights and Hong Kong

6.5 Xinjiang again

7. Why is America so hostile to China?

America is losing in its head-on competition with China!

Three major perspectives:

1. Economic growth: China surpassed America in PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) in 2014, and will almost certainly surpass America in GDP by 2040 (BBC: Chinese economy to overtake US ‘by 2028’ due to Covid).
2. Government approval rating at home: China (95.5%) vs. America (38%). For more, read The Harvard Gazette: Ash Center research team unveils findings from long-term public opinion survey.
3. Global approval rating: China (34%) vs. America (31%). For more, read China’s global approval rating has surpassed the U.S.

More profoundly, three informative readings for my fellow Americans:

1. What If Karl Marx Was Right, Mostly?
2. What If America Is Actually More Communistic Than China?
3. President Biden in the Real World of Three New Kingdoms.

America, reform our failing political system, as I have suggested (History 2.0 – China’s Comeback vs. America’s Decline), or become a fiddle, second to China!

For more on China and the world, watch the video below.

8. Closing

Overall, the CPC not only has done a great job in China, with no end in sight, but also enjoys overwhelming support of the Chinese people (Vilified abroad, popular at home: China’s Communist Party at 100).

So, to America’s MPC (Media-Political Complex), stop attacking the CPC! If you do, you are attacking China, including most of the Chinese people, inside and outside of China!

Now, please sit back and enjoy the video below.

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