Article explores roots of Communist Party of China

China Daily, 24 May 2001

Eighty years ago, Chinese Communists came to realize that all conditions were ripe in China for establishing a unitary Communist Party to promote the Communist Movement in the most populous nation of the world.

This was concluded in an article published by Xinhua News Agency Wednesday. It is one of a series of articles written by experts and published by Xinhua to mark the 80th birthday of the Communist Party of China (CPC) which falls on July 1.

The article explores the roots of the CPC, making it clear that the founding of the CPC 80 years ago was based on the Chinese Proletarian Class, Marxism, and a group of Chinese intellectuals who believed in Communist theories.

According to the article, since 1840, the year the First Opium War broke out, foreign capitalism had begun to invade China, resulting in running of a large number of modern factories and by 1919, the number of industrial workers in the country reached two million.

The Chinese Working Class has, from the very beginning, been well-organized and disciplined, the article says, adding that the Chinese proletarians have been firm revolutionaries due to the oppression by imperialism, capitalism and feudalism before 1949.

In 1915, China's advanced democrats held up the banners of democracy and science and waged a war against the outdated feudal morals, thinking and culture. In 1917, the October Revolution succeeded in Russia, bringing Marxism to China and making many Chinese intellectuals aware that only Marxism could help resolve social problems in the country.

The May 4 Movement, in 1919, was the first time in China's history that the Chinese Proletarian Class came into the limelight as masses of students, factory workers and civilians joined hands in a revolutionary campaign against imperialism and feudalist warlords.

It was the May 4 Movement that made Chinese intellectuals realize that the Chinese Proletarian Class must be organized and depended on for the sake of the Chinese revolution.

In July 1921, representatives of different Communist groups from across the country gathered in Shanghai to establish the CPC and held its first national congress. From the very beginning, the CPC set the realization of socialism and communism as its principal goal.

The First CPC National Congress, which declared the founding of the Party, is the greatest event in China's history, the article notes.

(xinhua)