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The Communist Party of China (CPC) or Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (simplified Chinese: 中国共产党; traditional Chinese: 中國共産黨; pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng) is the ruling political party of the People's Republic of China. The party was founded in 1921, and fought the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War. With more than 63 million members, the CPC is the largest party in the world.

From The Sixties until the death of its principal leader, Mao Tse-Tung, the CPC was the main inspiration for the worldwide communist social movement. Today, because of subsequent policies, the CPC is generally considered to have lost all such influence. Meanwhile, college-educated people within China are said to be more likely to join because of economic benefits from membership. In periods of relative liberalization, the influence of people and organizations outside the formal party structure has tended to increase.

Policies

The CPC was initially founded by Chen Du-xiu and Li Da-zhao in Shanghai in 1920 under the guidance of the Soviet Union. Today, officially the guiding ideology of the CPC is Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought; however, since 1978, the party has embarked on a series of Chinese economic reform leading to what it calls a socialist market economy, or "Socialism with Chinese characteristics". The pragmatic nature of the CPC's current economic policies have led many around the world to question the authenticity of its self-proclaimed socialist credentials and to ask whether the party is in fact supporting capitalism.

The Party supports a one-party authoritarian system rejecting pluralistic liberal democracy. Since the 1990's, as its commitment to Marxist ideology has seemed to weaken, the party has begun to increasingly invoke Chinese nationalism as a legitimizing principle. This has led to strong opposition to independence movements such as Taiwan independence and Tibetan independence, but has also led since 2003 to a warming of relations with its former enemy the Kuomintang. The use of the cult of personality around Mao Zedong, meanwhile, has also been shifted to assist in the proliferation of Chinese nationalist sentiment, as opposed to the socialist construction for which it was originally created.

Role within the People's Republic of China

The CPC is one of the three centers of power within the People's Republic of China, the other two being the state apparatus and the People's Liberation Army.

The relationship between party and state is somewhat different than that of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in which the party controlled the state. In the current PRC structure, power derives from the state position, but key state positions are invariably held by members of the party and party through its organization department makes crucial decisions on who occupies what position. However, in contrast to the Soviet situation where the party had extra-legal authority, since the early-1990's, it is has been established that the party is subject to rule of law and is therefore subject to the authority of the state and the Constitution of the People's Republic of China.

In a January 19, 2006 press release, Scoop News reported that "7.25 million (people) have withdrawn from the Chinese Communist Party" and that various "pro-democracy" movements the world over are planning to hold rallies to encourage more in China to quit. Scoop reports that "he wave of renunciations follow the publication of the book, Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, released by The Epoch Times in November of 2004 ... although illegal in China, has shocked Chinese around the world, initiating mass withdrawals from the CCP," the article adds.

This latest development appears unconnected to the Maoist strain of Neo-leftism in China that led to the arrest of the Zhengzhou Four in December 2004. Rather, the rash of resignations from the CCP probably signals a more pro-Western and/or pro-market society political stance, as was the case with many among the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Organization

The party's organizational structure was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution begun by Mao Zedong 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 5 years. The primary organs of power in the Communist Party which are listed in the party constitution include:

Other central organizations include

  • The International Liaison Department
  • The United Front Work Department
  • The Organization Department
  • The Propaganda Department

Also important are "leading small groups," which are committees of high ranking party members within state agencies. These can be extremely powerful, particularly in the area of foreign policy.

Every five years, the Communist Party of China holds a National Congress. Formally, the Congress serves two functions: to approve changes to the Party constitution and to elect a Central Committee, about 300 strong. The Central Committee in turn elects the Politburo. 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 locus 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.

Current members of the Central Committee

The Members of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China are (as of 2003):

Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central committee:

Wang Lequan, Wang Zhaoguo, Hui Liangyu, Liu Qi, Liu Yunshan, Li Changchun, Wu Yi, Wu Bangguo, Wu Guanzheng, Zhang Lichang, Zhang Dejiang, Chen Liangyu, Luo Gan, Zhou Yongkang, Hu Jintao, Yu Zhengsheng, He Guoqiang, Jia Qinglin, Guo Boxiong, Huang Ju, Cao Gangchuan, Zeng Qinghong, Zeng Peiyan, Wen Jiabao.

Alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee: Wang Gang

Members of Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee: Zeng Qinghong, Liu Yunshan, Zhou Yongkang, He Guoqiang, Wang Gang, Xu Caihou, He Yong.

List of leaders of the Communist Party of China

List of Chairmen of the Communist Party of China

The list ends here because the position was abolished in 1982. Since then the General Secretary has become the most powerful position in the party.

List of General Secretaries of the CPC Central Committee

Prior to the abolition of the post of Chairman in 1982, the General Secretary served more of a bureaucratic role subordinate to the Chairman.

Criticism and support

There is a variety of opinions about the Communist Party of China, and opinions about the CPC often create unexpected political alliances and divisions. For example, many chief executive officers of Western companies tend to have favorable impressions of the CPC, while many revolutionary Maoists and other Marxists have strongly negative opinions. A few Trotskyists argue that the party lost its Marxist credentials in the 1920s and adhered to a state capitalist political doctrine. Opinions about the CPC also create very strong divisions among groups normally ideologically united such as conservatives 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 Tibetan nationalism, the Republic of China on Taiwan, and Taiwan independence, neoconservatives in the United States and Japan, along with most left-wing forces in those same countries, are among the groups which have opposed the CPC government as a single-party state regime. They refer to the events of the Cultural Revolution, Chinese famine of 1958-1961, and Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 as examples. They note that millions of people died in the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward under Communist rule and see the current Chinese government as a continuation of the Chinese governments of the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, some within this group, especially American neoconservatives, argue that the Communist Party of China is a grave threat to peace because of its authoritarian nature, its adherence to a military build up and threats made to Taiwan.

The CCP has received particularily strong criticism from The Epoch Times, a multinational newspaper deeply concerned with ongoing human rights violations in China, especially the persecution of Falun Gong and lawless torture in China's labor camps. The newspaper has published an article series named Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party (jiuping). According to The Epoch Times, almost 7,500,000 people had denounced CCP and resigned from the party as of January 2006 after reading the publication. The mass movement has been named Tuidang, and dozens of demonstrations supporting the resignations have been organized around the world. The number of resignations is visible on the Epoch Times website, with a daily increase by approximately 20,000 - 40,000 people. The Epoch Times articles allege that the Chinese authorities have arrested, violently abused, and even killed people with the jiuping in their possession.

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.

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 Communist Party may be flawed, it is comparatively better, 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. Finally, it has been argued that despite its flaws, the Communist Party is better than its alternatives, and that a sudden forced transition to democracy would result in the economic and political collapse that occurred in Russia 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 are most members of the Chinese government members of this school of thinking, but it also include business conservatives in the United States and pro-free trade liberals.

See also

External links

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