Organization
The party's organizational structure was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution and rebuilt afterwards by Deng Xiaoping, who subsequently initiated "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and brought all state apparatuses back under the control of the CPC.
Theoretically, the party's highest body is the National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which meets at least once every five years. The primary organization of power in the Communist Party which are listed in the include:
*, which includes:
** The , which currently consists of nine members; see for a complete list.
** The , consisting of 24 full members and one alternate; see for a complete list.
** The , the principal administrative mechanism of the CPC, headed by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China;
** The ;
* The , which is directly under the National Congress and on the same level with the Central Committee, charged with rooting out and malfeasance among party cadres.
Other central organizations include:
* General Office;
* ;
*
* International Liaison Department; and
* Department
In addition, there are numerous commissions and leading groups, the most important of which are:
*
* Work Committee for Organs under the Central Committee
* Work Committee for Central Government Organs
* Central Financial and Economic Leading Group
* Central Leading Group for Rural Work
* Central Leading Group for Party Building
* Central Foreign Affairs Leading Group
* Central Taiwan Affairs Leading Group
* Commission for Protection of Party Secrets
* Leading Group for State Security
* Party History Research Centre
* Party Research Center
*
Every five years, the Communist Party of China holds a National Congress. The latest happened on October 15, 2007. Formally, the Congress serves two functions: to approve changes to the Party constitution regarding policy and to elect a , about 300 strong. The Central Committee in turn elects the . In practice, positions within the Central Committee and Politburo are determined before a Party Congress, and the main purpose of the Congress is to announce the party policies and vision for the direction of China in the following few years.
The party's central focus of power is the Politburo Standing Committee. The process for selecting Standing Committee members, as well as Politburo members, occurs behind the scenes in a process parallel to the National Congress. The new power structure is announced obliquely through the positioning of portraits in the ''People's Daily'', the official newspaper of the Party. The number of Standing Committee members varies and has tended to increase over time. The Committee was expanded to nine at the 16th Party National Congress in 2002.
There are two other key organs of political power in the People's Republic of China: the formal government and the People's Liberation Army.
There are, in addition to decision-making roles, advisory committees, including the People's Political Consultative Conference. During the 1980s and 1990s there was a Central Advisory Commission established by Deng Xiaoping which consisted of senior retired leaders, but with their passing this has been abolished.
Internal or external groupings
Political scientists have identified two groupings within the Communist Party
leading to a structure which has been called "one party, two ". The first is the "elitist coalition" or ''Shanghai clique'' which contains mainly officials who have risen from the more prosperous provinces. The second is the "populist coalition" or "Youth League faction" which consists mainly of officials who have risen from the rural interior, through the Communist Youth League. The interaction between these two factions is largely complementary with each faction possessing a particular expertise and both committed to the continued rule of the Communist Party and not allowing intra-party factional politics threaten party unity. It has been noted that party and government positions have been assigned to create a very careful balance between these two groupings.
Within his "one party, two factions" model, Li Chen has noted that one should avoid labeling these two groupings with simplistic ideological labels, and that these two groupings do not act in a zero-sum, winner take all fashion. Neither group has the ability or will to dominate the other completely.
History
As Revolutionary Party
ideas started to spread widely in China after the 1919 May Fourth Movement. In June 1920, Comintern agent Gregory Voitinsky was sent to China, and met Li Dazhao and other reformers. He financed the founding of the Socialist Youth Corps. The Communist Party of China was initially founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao in the of Shanghai in 1921 as a study society and an informal network. There were informal groups in China in 1920, and also overseas, but the official beginning was the 1st Congress held in Shanghai and attended by 53 men in July 1921, when the formal and unified name ''Zhōngguó Gòngchǎn Dǎng'' was adopted and all other names of communist groups were dropped. The key players were Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Chen Gongbo, Tan Pingshan, Zhang Guotao, He Mengxiong, Lou Zhanglong and Deng Zhongxia. Mao Zedong was present at the first congress as one of two delegates from a Hunan communist group. Other attendees included Dong Biwu, Li Hanjun, Li Da, Chen Tanqiu, Liu Renjing, Zhou Fohai, He Shuheng, Deng Enming, and two representatives from the Comintern, one of them being Henk Sneevliet . Notably absent at this early point were future leaders Li Lisan, Zhou Enlai and Qu Qiubai.
In August 1922, Sneevliet/Maring called a surprise special plenum of the central committee and proposed that party members join the Kuomintang on the grounds that it was easier to transform the Nationalist Party from the inside than to duplicate its success. According to Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Cai Heshen and Gao Yuhan opposed the motion, whereupon Maring invoked the authority of the Comintern and forced the CCP to accept his decision.
Under the guidance of the Comintern, the party was reorganized along Leninist lines in 1923, in preparation for the . However, the nascent party was not held in high regard: Karl Radek, one of the five founding leaders of the Comintern, said in November 1922 that the CCP did not enjoy a high reputation in Moscow. Moreover, it was divided into two camps, led by Deng Zhongxia and Li Dazhao on the more moderate "bourgeois, national revolution" model and Zhang Guotao, Lou Zhanglong, He Mengxiong and Chen Duxio on the strongly anti-imperialism side.
The role of the Comintern cannot be overstated. Mikhail Markovich Borodin negotiated with Sun Yat-sen and Wang Jingwei the 1923 KMT reorganization and the CCP’s incorporation into the newly expanded party. Borodin and General Vasilii Blyukher worked with Chiang Kai-shek to found the Whampoa Military Academy. And, it was the CCP’s reliance on the leadership of the Comintern that was the first indication that the 1923-27 First United Front was fragile.
Membership
The party was small at first, but grew intermittently through the 1920s. Twelve voting delegates were seated at the 1st National Party Congress in 1921, as well as at the 2nd , when they represented 195 party members. By 1923, the 420 members were represented by 30 delegates. The 1925 4th Congress had 20 delegates representing 994 members; then real growth kicked in. The 5th Congress comprised 80 voting delegates representing 57,967 members.
It was at the 1928 6th Congress that the now-famliar ‘full’ and ‘alternate’ structure originated, with 84 and 34 delegates, respectively. Membership was estimated at 40,000. In 1945, the 7th Congress had 547 full and 208 alternate delegates representing 1.21 million members, a ratio of one representative per 1,600 members as compared to 1:725 in 1927.
After the Party defeated the Nationalists, participation at National Party Congresses became much less representative. Each of the 1026 full and 107 alternate members represented 9,470 party members at the 1956 8th Congress. Subsequent congresses held the number of participants down despite membership growing to more than 60 million by 2000.
End of the 1st United Front
In 1927, just before final success of the revolution CPC and Kuomingtang were split, and the CPC was massacred with more than four in five members being killed. The only major section of the party which survived was the section built around Mao Zedong, which established Soviet Republic of China in some remote areas within China through peasant riots. After a number of military campaigns from KMT army, the CPC had to give up their bases and started the Long March to search for a new base. During Long March, the party leadership re-examine its policy and blamed their failure on the CPC military leader , a sent by Comintern. After they resettled in Yan’an, the native Communists, such as Mao Zedong and Zhu De gained power, and the CPC became less dependent on the Comintern and Soviet Union. The Western world first got a clear view of the Communist Party of China through Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China.
During the Second Sino-Japanese war, the CPC and KMT were temporarily in alliance to fight their common enemy. The Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army became army group belonging to the national army, and the Soviet Republic of China changed into a special administration region. However, essentially the army and the region controlled by CPC remained independent from the KMT’s government. In eight years, the CPC controlled armed forces grew from ten thousand to one million.
After 1945, the civil war resumed and despite initial gains by the Kuomintang, it was defeated and forced to flee to off-shore islands, the biggest among which is Taiwan. The Kuomintang's defeat marked the onset of the Chinese Revolution whence Mao Zedong proclaimed the People's Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 1949.
As Ruling Party
The CPC's ideologies have significantly evolved since its founding. Mao's revolution that founded the PRC was nominally based on Marxism-Leninism with a rural focus based on China's social situations at the time. During the 1960s and 1970s, the CPC experienced a significant with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev and their allies. Since then Mao's peasant revolutionary vision and so-called "continued revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat" stipulated that class enemies continued to exist even though the socialist revolution seemed to be complete, giving way to the ''Cultural Revolution''. This fusion of ideas became known officially as "", or Maoism outside of China. It represented a powerful branch of communism that existed in opposition to the Soviet Union's "Marxist revisionism".
Following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, however, the CPC under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping moved towards ''Socialism with Chinese characteristics'' and instituted Chinese economic reform. In reversing some of Mao's "extreme-leftist" policies, Deng argued that a socialist country and the market economy model were not mutually exclusive. While asserting the political power of the Party itself, the change in policy generated significant economic growth. The ideology itself, however, came into conflict on both sides of the spectrum with Maoists as well as progressive liberals, culminating with other social factors to cause the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. Deng's vision for economic success and a new socialist market model became entrenched in the Party constitution in 1997 as ''Deng Xiaoping Theory''.
The "third generation" of leadership under Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, and associates largely continued Deng's progressive economic vision while overseeing the re-emergence of Chinese nationalism in the 1990s. Nationalist sentiment has seemingly also evolved to become informally the part of the Party's guiding doctrine. As part of Jiang's nominal legacy, the CPC ratified the ''Three Represents'' into the 2003 revision of the Party Constitution as a "guiding ideology", encouraging the Party to represent "advanced productive forces, the progressive course of China's culture, and the fundamental interests of the people." There are various interpretations of the ''Three Represents''. Most notably, the theory has legitimized the entry of private business owners and quasi-"bourgeoisie" elements into the party.
The insistent road of focusing almost exclusively on economic growth has led to a . The CPC's "fourth generation" of leadership under Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, after taking power in 2003, attempted reversing such a trend by bringing forth an integrated ideology that tackled both social and economic concerns. This new ideology was known as the creation of a Harmonious Society using the Scientific Development Concept.
The degree of power the Party had on the state has gradually decreased as economic liberalizations progressed. The evolution of CPC ideology has gone through a number of defining changes that it no longer bears much resemblance to its founding principles. Some believe that the large amount of economic liberalization starting from the late 1970s to present, indicates that the CPC has transitioned to endorse economic neoliberalism. The CPC's current policies are fiercely rejected as by most communists, especially anti-revisionists, and by adherents of the Chinese New Left from within the PRC.
The Communist Party of China comprises a single-party state form of government; however, there are parties other than the CPC within China, which report to the and do not act as opposition or independent parties. Since the 1980s, as its commitment to ideology has appeared to wane, the party has begun to increasingly invoke Chinese nationalism as a legitimizing principle as opposed to the socialist construction for which the party was originally created. The change from socialism to nationalism has pleased the CPC's former enemy, the Kuomintang , which has warmed its relations with the CPC since 2003.
Viewpoints: criticism and support
There are a variety of opinions about the Communist Party of China, and opinions about the CPC often create unexpected political alliances and divisions. Trotskyists argue that the party was doomed to its present character, that of petty-bourgeois nationalism, because of the near-annihilation of the workers' movement in the KMT betrayal of 1927, which was made possible by 's order that the Communists disarm and surrender. This slaughter forced the tiny surviving Party to switch from a workers' union- to peasant guerrilla-based organization, and seek aid of the most heterodox sources, from "patriotic capitalists" to the dreaded KMT itself, with which it openly sought a coalition government even into early 1949. Chinese Trotskyists from Chen Duxiu onward have called for a political revolution against what they see as an opportunist, capitalist leadership of the CPC. Opinions about the CPC also create very strong divisions among groups normally ideologically united such as in the United States.
Many of the unexpected opinions about the CPC result from its rare combination of attributes as a party formally based on Marxism which has overseen a dynamic market economy, yet maintains an authoritarian political system.
Supporters of the International Tibet Independence Movement, the , Falun Gong, a spiritual group, Taiwan independence, s in the United States and Japan, international human rights groups, proponents of civil liberties and freedom of expression, advocates of democracy, , along with many democratic and anti-authoritarian forces in those same countries, are among the groups which have opposed the CPC government because it is said to be a repressive single-party state regime.
Some of the opponents of the Party within the Chinese democracy movement have tended not to argue that a strong Chinese state is inherently bad, but rather that the Communist leadership is corrupt. The Chinese New Left, meanwhile, is a current within China that seeks to "revert China to the socialist road" – i.e., to return China to the days after Mao Zedong but before the reforms of Deng Xiaoping and his successors.
Another school of thought argues that the worst of the abuses took place decades ago, and that the current leadership is not only unconnected with them, but were actually victims of that era. They have also argued that while the modern Communist Party may be flawed, it is comparatively better than previous regimes, with respect to improving the general standard of living, than any other government that has governed China in the past century and can be put in more favorable light against most governments of the developing nations. However, farmers and other rural people have been marginalized, and national influence have been greatly reduced, as a result, the CPC has recently taken sweeping measures to regain support from the countryside, to limited success.
In addition, some scholars contend that China has never operated under a decentralized democratic regime in its several thousand years of history, and therefore it can be argued that the structure present, albeit not up to western moral standards, is the best possible option when compared to its alternatives. A sudden transition to democracy, they contend, would result in the economic and political upheaval that occurred in the Soviet Union in the 1990s, and that by focusing on economic growth, China is setting the stage for a more gradual but more sustainable transition to a more liberal system. This group sees Mainland China as being similar to Spain in the 1960s, and South Korea and Taiwan during the 1970s.
As with the first group, this school of thought brings together some unlikely political allies. Not only do most intellectuals within the Chinese government follow this school of thinking, but it is also the common belief held amongst pro-free trade liberals in the West.
Many observers from both within and outside of China have argued that the CCP has taken gradual steps towards democracy and transparency, hence arguing that it is best to give it time and room to evolve into a better government rather than forcing an abrupt change. However, other observers question whether these steps are genuine efforts towards democratic reform or disingenous measures by the CCP to retain power.
Many current party officials are the sons and daughters of prominent Party officials. These young, powerful individuals are referred to as the "Crown Prince Party", or "Princelings", and their rise to power has been criticized as a form of nepotism or cronyism.
Current leadership
The Members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China are:
#Hu Jintao: President of the People's Republic of China, General Secretary of the CPC, Chairman of the .
#Wu Bangguo: Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
#Wen Jiabao: of the State Council of the People's Republic of China
#Jia Qinglin: Chairman of the People's Political Consultative Conference
#Li Changchun: "Propaganda Chief"
#Xi Jinping: Vice President of the People's Republic of China, top-ranked member of
#Li Keqiang: Executive Vice Premier
#He Guoqiang: Head of Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
#Zhou Yongkang: Head of
Members of the Politburo of the CPC Central committee:
Wang Lequan, Wang Zhaoguo, Hui Liangyu, , Liu Yunshan, Li Changchun, Wu Yi, Wu Bangguo, Wu Guanzheng, Zhang Lichang, Zhang Dejiang, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang, Hu Jintao, Yu Zhengsheng, He Guoqiang, Jia Qinglin, Guo Boxiong, Cao Gangchuan, Zeng Qinghong, Zeng Peiyan, Wen Jiabao.
Alternate member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee:
Members of Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee: Zeng Qinghong, Liu Yunshan, Zhou Yongkang, He Guoqiang, , Xu Caihou, .
List of leaders of the Communist Party of China
Between 1921 and 1943 the Communist Party of China was headed by the :
* Chen Duxiu, General Secretary 1921–1922 and 1925–1927
* Qu Qiubai, General Secretary 1927–1928
* Xiang Zhongfa, General Secretary 1928–1931
* Li Lisan, acting General Secretary 1929–1930
* Wang Ming, acting General Secretary 1931
* Bo Gu, a.k.a. Qin Bangxian, acting General Secretary 1932–1935
* Zhang Wentian a.k.a. Luo Fu, acting General Secretary 1935–1943
In 1943 the position of Chairman of the Communist Party of China was created.
* Mao Zedong, Chairman 1943–1976
* Hua Guofeng, Chairman 1976–1981
* Hu Yaobang, Chairman 1981–1982, also General Secretary
In 1982, the post of Chairman was abolished, and the General Secretary, at this time held by the same man as the post of Chairman, once again became the supreme office of the Party.
* Hu Yaobang, General Secretary 1980–1987
* Zhao Ziyang, General Secretary 1987–1989
* Jiang Zemin, General Secretary 1989–2002
* Hu Jintao, General Secretary since 2002
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