The Rise And Rise Of The Communist Party Of China

On July 1, the Communist Party of China (CPC) turned 100, an occasion that was celebrated on a grand scale across the length and breadth of the People’s Republic of China.

- Gautam Bambawale

Founded in 1921 by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the CPC held its first Congress in July 1921 at Shanghai and has had a turbulent history ever since. Soon after its founding, the CPC was embroiled in a civil war with the Nationalist forces led by Chiang Kai-shek. The Red Army—today referred to as the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)—was formed in 1927 as the armed forces of the CPC. So, though the PLA became China’s army after 1949, its first loyalty lies with the CPC, of which it is an integral and indivisible part.

From their early beginnings, the Chinese Communists realised that power did indeed flow from the barrel of a gun. Through the early 1930s, the Red Army suffered a string of military setbacks at the hand of the Nationalist military which eventually led to the Long March, essentially a military retreat to a safer and more remote base in Shaanxi Province from October 1934 to October 1935. Thousands of members of the CPC, including the Red Army, perished during this arduous Long March. It was during this period that Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai emerged as leaders of the CPC. Eventually, the battle-hardened PLA turned the tables on the Nationalists and took power in Beijing while Chiang Kai-shek and his followers were only able to find refuge in Taiwan.