S12: Birth of the Chinese Communist Party
History of China Since 1800
February 2, 2026
Recap: May Fourth
- “Mr. Democracy” and “Mr. Science”
- Scientific method: Western import or timeless, universal ideal also practiced in China’s traditional culture?
- Not just complete Westernization, but restructuring and reinterpretation of Chinese tradition
- Enduring moral idealism of educated elites: administrator and educator
On political revolution: Hu Shi
- “Study More about Specific Problems, Talk Less about General Theories”
- Individualism and liberalism
- Scientific attitude was the root of British and American liberalism
On political revolution: Li Dazhao
- Peking University’s librarian and China’s first true Marxist
- faith in a comprehensive solution to the whole set of social problems facing China, rather than a piecemeal approach
- Marxist historical materialism: social life (the superstructure) is determined by fundamental economic realities
Tradition vs. Modernity?
- Not just complete Westernization, but restructuring and reinterpretation of Chinese tradition
- Scientific method: Western import or timeless, universal ideal also practiced in China’s traditional culture?
Legacies of the May Fourth
- Writing China as part of world history
- Cultural parallels between China and the West
- Historical investigation of folklore, literature, anthropology, archaeology
- Enduring moral idealism of educated elites: administrator and educator
Cosmopolitanism vs. Colonialism: Foreign Demands
- Japan: Twenty-One Demands (1915)
- Xinjiang: Anglo-Russian/Soviet rivalry
- Drawing of MacMahon line (1914), de-facto border between Tibet and British India
May Fourth Protest
- Student protests in Beijing on May 4, 1919
- Part of broader New Culture Movement
- Against the Versailles Treaty, which transfers the former German concessions in Shandong province to Japan.
Students and scholars as intellectual actors
Xi Jinping on May Fourth, continued
- Anti-imperial and patriotic movement, driven by national spirit
- Young generation encouraged to join effort in achieving the Chinese dream and the great rejuvenation of the nation
People’s Daily on Kong Yiji: Facing the Anxiety
Contemporary ambitious youth will never be trapped in traditional attire; the value of a degree can only be realized through creative practical activities that fully tap into one’s potential!! The reason for Kong Yiji’s predicament in life is not because of reading, but because he cannot let go of the pretensions of a scholar and is unwilling to change his circumstances through labor.”
Lying flat generation
- Tang ping: online meme that arose in April 2021 as an informal social movement
- Personal rejection of societal pressures to overwork and over-achieve
- Part of a global trend? “quiet quitting”
Key Questions
- How was the Chinese Communist Party founded? Role of intellectuals
- How did protracted warfare change the CCP? From anarchist society to Leninist party
- How did China change communism? From urban insurrection to rural revolution
Xintiandi, Shanghai
CCP First National Congress
CCP National Congress Max Sculptures
Staging Revolutionary History
- CCP First National Congress in Shanghai in June, 1921
- Chen Duxiu, party secretary, absent
- Mao Zedong – one of the two representatives from Changsha – presented as party leader
Difficulties of studying early CCP history
- Secrecy and censorship: Who disappeared from view?
- Soviet copycat vs. Indigenous development: What is socialism with “Chinese characteristics”?
- “Only the CCP can save China…”: Was the CCP destined to lead?
- “The end of history”: Was communism doomed to fail?
Marxism in May Fourth
Anarchism: Forerunner of revolution
- Radical tradition, but not exactly intellectual fringe
- First generation of intellectuals to introduce Marxism to China
- Critique of authority and China’s cultural tradition
- Later anarchists critiqued proletarian hegemony – and criticized by the party for naive idealism
Discuss: Anarchism and Feminism
- What should women know about communism?
- What is the relationship between female liberation and nationalist movement?
- What about men?
From study society to political party
- Marxism as a viable belief system and displacement of other radical ideas (anarchism, etc.)
- From theoretical debates to political activism (labor movements, etc.)
- From interpersonal relations to pre-eminence of organizational discipline
Red missionaries
Leninism as organizational form
- The party as absolute power center: “the party-state”
- Vanguard party: most ideologically enlightened and practically devoted few of the society
- “Democratic centralism”: combining free discussion with central control; binding party line and discipline for all members
- Substitute for the class: loyalty to class become loyalty to the party
Sun Yat-sen and the Comintern
Joint manifesto between Sun Yat-sen and Adolph Joffe on January 26, 1923, for the cooperation of Republic of China’s Kuomintang and Soviet Union
The GMD and the Soviet Union would work together to reunify China, though Communism and the Soviet system were unsuitable for China at that time.
The Soviet Union willing to relinquish all unequal treaties acquired in China during the Tsarist era.
The two side would resolve the issue of the Chinese Eastern Railway’s management rights via negotiation.
The Soviet Union had no intention to detach Outer Mongolia from China.
First United Front
- Tactic approved by the CCP’s third party congress (1923)
- A bloc within the Nationalist Party
- CCP members joining the GMD while retaining CCP membership
Labor uprisings and their failures
Continued struggle
- Strike triggered by killing of Chinese worker by Japanese factory manager
- Protest suppressed by British police in Shanghai
- A new crossroad: conservative loyalism or revolutionary radicalism?
Discuss: Resolution on the Question of Organization (1925)
- What should be the future of the CCP?
- What are the current challenges facing the party? What would make it a “just and good” organization?
- How could the balance strike a balance between mass mobilization and secret work?
White Terror
CCP membership change:
| Year | Membership |
|---|---|
| Apr 1927 | 58,000 |
| Nov 1928 | 10,000 |