Communist Party of China

Communist Party of China 中国共产党 Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng
Abbreviation	CPC (official) CCP (common)
General Secretary	Xi Jinping
Standing Committee	Xi Jinping Li Qiang Zhao Leji Wang Huning Cai Qi Ding Xuexiang Li Xi
Founders	Chen Duxiu Li Dazhao
Founded	23 July 1921 (1921-07-23) (1st National Congress)
Headquarters	Zhongnanhai, Xicheng District, Beijing
Newspaper	People's Daily
Youth wing	Communist Youth League of China
Children's wing	Young Pioneers of China
Armed wing	People's Liberation Army People's Armed Police Militia of China
Research office	Central Policy Research Office
Membership (2022)	98,041,000
Ideology	Socialism with Chinese characteristics Communism Marxism–Leninism Mao Zedong Thought Deng Xiaoping Theory Three Represents Scientific Outlook on Development Xi Jinping Thought Socialist patriotism Chinese nationalism
International affiliation	IMCWP
Slogan	"Serve the People" (Zh: 为人民服务)
Anthem	The Internationale (unofficial)

The Communist Party of China (CPC) or Chinese Communist Party (CCP) (simplified Chinese: 中国共产党; Pinyin: Zhōngguó Gòngchǎndǎng) is the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of China. The party was founded in 1921 in Shanghai by a group of Chinese communists and Marxists, among them Mao Zedong, who went on to lead the party's policy during the Sino-Japanese Wars and the Chinese Civil War.

The Communist Party practiced a groundbreaking strategy of guerilla warfare focused on gaining the support of rural peasants, later codified by Mao under the name protracted people's war, which was a major factor in the victory of the communists over the Chinese Nationalists. In 1949, with the final consolidation of communist rule in the mainland, the party officially proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China. The following year, the United States, hostile to a Communist government in China, seized upon minor border skirmishes in divided Korea to begin a full-scale imperialist war with the intention to destabilize the newly founded PRC. The Chinese government provided key support to the North in the conflict until an armistice was signed in 1953.

The economic policy of the Communist Party of China caused key outputs like steel and cereal production to increase several-fold and produced a massive increase in the quality of life of ordinary Chinese workers and peasants during the 1950s. However, the country was still dangerously underdeveloped, leading Mao to carry out the comprehensive Great Leap Forward policy, whose ultimate failure threw the direction and leadership of the CPC into question. A struggle known as the Cultural Revolution was carried out between two factions, one led by Mao Zedong and the other, reformist or "capitalist roader" faction led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, surrounding questions of economic policy, greater democratic involvement from workers and peasants within the Party, and the treatment of reactionary elements of Chinese culture. After Mao died in 1976, a group of his close associates, known as the Gang of Four, were blamed and prosecuted for the violence and brutality of the struggle. By 1978, Deng had come to power, initiating his faction's reform and opening up policy and the attendant theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Both remain official policy to the present day.

As of 2022, the party had over 98 million members, making it one of the largest political parties in the world. Critics of various stripes exist today both within and outside the Communist Party, including modern Maoists or "neo-Maoists", social democrats, right-wing liberals, and far-right neoliberals. However, support for the party has remained high in the past several decades as its economic policies have resulted in huge increases in real wealth for the poorest Chinese. This support has only increased during the government's highly effective response to the COVID pandemic, with one Western outlet reporting an average government trust rating of nearly 90%. In addition, a majority of Chinese continue to affirm the integrity and effectiveness of the Party's local government bodies.

Name

In Mandarin Chinese, the word "China" functions similarly to a noun adjunct, meaning that the phrases "Chinese" and "of China" often translate the same term. However, some critics allege that the English translation "Chinese Communist Party", the form used most frequently in Western sources, is an incorrect translation or even bears racial undertones, implying that the party stands for Han Chinese people rather than for the plurinational Chinese state or equating the government's policies with "Chinese people" in general. Despite a lack of evidence, China-aligned leftists and so-called Dengists tend to cite these as arguments for favoring the abbreviation "CPC" over "CCP"; this usage could be considered a shibboleth. CPC is the preferred form in the Chinese government's English-language media.

Policies

National policy

See also: Xinjiang vocational education and training centers

Criticism

Western critics

The US government and governments aligned with it have ramped up anti-PRC rhetoric in the past decade. Western propaganda produces daily pieces which accuse the CPC of tyranny, censorship, and genocide, as well as for negligence or even malicious intent during the early stages of the COVID pandemic. The most recent examples include the unhinged and disproven "spy balloon" hoax and Congress's hysterical reaction to the proliferation of the China-based social media app TikTok.

Falun Gong

The US-based cult Falun Gong and its propaganda organ The Epoch Times produce daily anti-CPC propaganda pieces which have been cited in mainstream Western sources.

See also

• New Democracy