Communist Party of China

The **Chinese Communist Party** (**CCP**), officially the **Communist Party of China** (**CPC**) (中国共产党 in Chinese, Zhōngguó gòngchǎndǎng in Pinyin), is the dominant political party and founder of the People's Republic of China, and is the only ruling party in People's Republic of China.

Originally, the party was founded by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao; Duxiu served as the **General Secretary of the Central Committee**. In the early years, the CPC got help from the Communist International (Comitern), and worked with Kuomintang until 1927. After the victory of World War II, the CPC led its own army called People's Liberation Army to fight with Kuomintang. Their fight is called The Chinese Communist Revolution. The CPC won the war. In 1949, the CPC drove Kuomintang out from mainland China and established (formed) the People's Republic of China. Ideologically, it is a communist Marxist-Leninist party.

From 1943 to 1982 the most powerful position in the party was **Chairman**. In 1982, members of the Central Committee voted to name the leader of the party **General Secretary** again. The current General Secretary is Xi Jinping.

Organization: The party has a _central committee_, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. It has a five-year term. In October 2025, that committee will meet; That meeting will a plenary session; It will be the 4th of seven of those sessions, during the five-year period.

### Xinhai Revolution

In 1911, after the Wuchang Uprising led by pro-Tongmenghui military personnel, the Chinese monarchy was overthrown by nationalist forces influenced by the ideas of Sun Yat-sen. Many people who later joined the CPC were also part of Tongmenghui or were indirectly influenced by the Chinese nationalism exercised by Sun Yat-sen: For example, Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China and main leader of the CPC during 1931 - 1976.

Unfortunately for Yat-sen, the nationalist forces were inferior to the forces loyal to the empire under Yuan Shikai's command; Therefore, he agreed to hand over power from China temporarily until new elections to Shikai. After the assassination of Song Jiaoren, democratically elected by parliament, Yuan Shikai dissolved parliament in 1914 and became de facto dictator of China.

### Early Years (1919 - 1931)

In 1915, the Tongmenghui, now renamed the Kuomintang (KMT), rebelled under Sun Yat-sen against the forces of Yuan Shikai and the Warlords.

#### May Fourth Movement

In May 1919, Chinese intellectuals inspired by Western ideas such as Marxism and anarchism, disgusted by the situation in China after the Great War and the government of Yuan Shikai, organized themselves under the leadership of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao into the "Chinese Communist Party", supported, together with the Kuomintang, by Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik Russia.

#### First KMT-CPC Alliance

The CPC, recently founded and without much military power, with many members under the influence of Sun Yat-sen, allied itself at the request of the Bolsheviks with the KMT to reunify China.

#### End of KMT-CPC Alliance

After Yat-sen's death in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek assumed power from the KMT and sought in the following years to diminish communist and socialist influence in China.

In 1931, the communists officially separated from the KMT after the 1927 Shanghai massacre and proclaimed the Soviet Republic of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong.

### With other communist parties

The CPC tries to keep good relationships (how good or bad they feel with each other) with other communist parties. Other communist parties also send people to have meets with the CPC. For example, the chairman of Portuguese Communist Party, Jeronimo de Sousa, met with Liu Qibao, a member of the Central Politburo in 2007. For another example, Pierre Laurent, the National Secretary of the French Communist Party (FCP), met with Liu Yunshan, a Politburo Standing Committee member.

Also, the CPC gives help to the Communist party of Cuba in a wide range and a deep degree. After the disintegration of the USSR (USSR was not a whole country anymore), the CPC became the only major helpers of Cuba.

### With other non-communist parties

Communism had fallen in the Western Europe. The CPC began to make good party-to-party relations with other non-communist parties. The CPC also used this way to learn.

The relationships between the CPC and the Kuomintang and other parties in Taiwan, has loosened since Jiang Zemin's time.