Concept

Chinese Communist Party

Overview

The Communist Party of China (CPC), commonly known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP won the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang and proclaimed the establishment of the PRC under the chairmanship of Mao Zedong in October 1949. The CCP has since governed China and has had sole control over the country's armed forces and law enforcement. As of 2025, the CCP has more than 101 million members, making it the second largest political party by membership in the world.

In 1921, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao founded the CCP with the help of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and Far Eastern Bureau of the Communist International. Although the CCP aligned with the Kuomintang (KMT) during its initial years, the rise of the KMT's right-wing under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek and subsequent massacres of tens of thousands of CCP members resulted in a split and a prolonged civil war between the CCP and KMT. During the next ten years of guerrilla warfare, Mao Zedong rose to become the most influential figure in the CCP and the party established a strong base among the rural peasantry with its land reform policies. Support for the CCP continued to grow throughout the Second Sino-Japanese War. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the CCP emerged triumphant in the communist revolution against the Nationalist government. The CCP established the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, and the remnants of the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan shortly after.

Mao Zedong remained the most influential member of the CCP until his death in 1976. Under Mao, the party completed its land reform program, launched a series of five-year plans, and eventually split with the Soviet Union. Although Mao attempted to purge the party of elements deemed capitalist or reactionary during the Cultural Revolution, these policies were only briefly continued by the Gang of Four following his death before a less radical faction seized control. During the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping directed the CCP away from Maoist orthodoxy and towards reform and opening up. Since the collapse of the Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the CCP has focused on maintaining its relations with the ruling parties of the remaining communist states. The CCP has also established relations with several non-communist parties, including dominant nationalist parties of many developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as social democratic parties in Europe.

As a communist party, the CCP officially seeks to adapt Marxism–Leninism to Chinese material conditions and present-day circumstances, a process it refers to as socialism with Chinese characteristics. The party is organized based on democratic centralism, a principle that entails open policy discussion on the condition of unity among party members in upholding the agreed-upon decision. The highest body of the CCP is the National Congress, convened every five years. When the National Congress is not in session, the Central Committee is the highest body, but since that body usually only meets once a year, most duties and responsibilities are vested in the Politburo and its Standing Committee. Members of the latter are regarded as the party's and the state's top leadership.

Today the party's leader holds the offices of general secretary (responsible for civilian party duties, also the top rank official), chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC) (commander-in-chief of the military), and president of China (a largely ceremonial position). Because of these posts, the party leader is seen as the country's "paramount leader". The current leader is Xi Jinping, who was elected at the 1st Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee held on 15 November 2012 and has been reelected twice, on 25 October 2017 by the 19th Central Committee and on 10 October 2022 by the 20th Central Committee.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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But the Nothern Army remained faithful to the dynasty, and could probably have defeated the revolutionaries. Its Commander-in-Chief, Yuan Shih-k'ai, however, hit upon a better scheme. He made peace with the revolutionaries and acknowledged the Republic, on condition that he should be the first President instead of Sun Yat Sen. Yuan Shih-k'ai was, of course, supported by the Legations, being what is called a "strong…
Bertrand Russell, The Problem of China
States what Chinese Communist Party is.
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In bourgeois society, living labour is but a means to increase accumulated labour. In Communist society, accumulated labour is but a means to widen, to enrich, to promote the existence of the labourer. In bourgeois society, therefore, the past dominates the present; in Communist society, the present dominates the past. In bourgeois society capital is independent and has individuality, while the living person is…
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
States what Chinese Communist Party is; the author is tied to Chinese Communist Party in the knowledge graph.
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Cavaignac, the General of the bourgeois republican party, who commanded at the battle of June, stepped into the place of the Executive Committee with a sort of dictatorial power. Marrast, former editor-in-chief of the “National”, became permanent President of the Constitutional National Assembly, and the Secretaryship of State, together with all the other important posts, devolved upon the pure republicans. The…
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
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Chinese Communist Party

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