Young Students and Positive Elements for Party Membership Learning Q&A

Author: Lü Cheng et al. / Country:
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-09-01
Features: 2. Why is it said that without the Communist Party there would be no New China? During the leadership of the Communist Party of China in the New Democratic Revolution and the establishment of a socialist new China, several important stages were experienced, including the Northern Expedition, the Agrarian Revolution War, the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, and the socialist revolution and construction. After the founding of the Communist Party of China, it proposed a democratic revolutionary program against imperialism and feudalism, developed the theory of the New Democratic Revolution, and, under the guidance of this theory, finally formulated a general line of the New Democratic Revolution led by the proletariat, supported by the masses, and opposing imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucratic capitalism, achieving political leadership over all revolutionary classes in the country. In January 1924, the Party helped Sun Yat-sen reorganize the Kuomintang, establishing the three major policies of uniting with the Soviet Union, uniting with the Communist Party, and assisting peasants and workers, realizing the first cooperation between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Later, the Party helped the Kuomintang establish the Whampoa Military Academy and the National Revolutionary Army, and sent many Communist Party members to engage in political work in the National Revolutionary Army. At the same time, the Party launched and led the workers' and peasants' movements, mobilizing millions of revolutionary masses to participate in the great revolution, strengthening the revolutionary forces. By spring 1927, the number of trade union members led by the Party reached over 2.8 million, the number of peasant association members reached over 9.5 million, and the number of revolutionary armed forces directly led and influenced by the Party reached over 30,000, with the Party membership growing to nearly 60,000. The Northern Expedition, from late May 1926 when the Ye Ting Independent Brigade entered Hunan, to the end of 1926, had achieved decisive victories, severely punishing the reactionary rule of imperialism and feudal warlords. At a critical moment when the Northern Expedition was successfully advancing and the workers' and peasants' revolutionary movement was rapidly rising, the big bourgeoisie represented by Chiang Kai-shek openly abandoned the policies formulated by Sun Yat-sen, allied with imperialism, and launched a counter-revolutionary coup on April 12, 1927, brutally slaughtering Communist Party members and revolutionary people. Due to the Party's relative immaturity at the time and its leadership under Chen Duxiu's rightist opportunism, the revolution suffered a heavy defeat under the sudden attack of powerful enemies, with nearly 60,000 Party members reduced to over 10,000. This was the Party's first severe failure after its founding. The failure of the Great Revolution further made the Communist Party of China realize the serious errors of Chen Duxiu's rightist opportunism in dealing with the rightist faction of the Kuomintang and his neglect of winning over the army, making them understand the extreme importance of controlling the army, carrying out armed struggle, and the workers' and peasants' alliance for the Chinese revolution. The Nanchang Uprising, the Autumn Harvest Uprising, and the Guangzhou Uprising were great initiatives by the Communist Party of China to oppose the Kuomintang's massacre policies and to use revolutionary armed forces against counter-revolutionary armed forces. As the struggle developed, the Communist Party of China, represented by Mao Zedong, gradually shifted its focus of work from cities to the countryside, establishing rural bases, carrying out land reform, establishing revolutionary armed forces and workers' and peasants' governments, anding a revolutionary path of encircling the city with the countryside and ultimately seizing national victory. From 1927 to 1934, the Party successively established several bases, including the Central Revolutionary Base Area in Jiangxi, the Hubei-Hunan Western Border Base Area, the Hailufeng Base Area, the Hubei-Henan-Anhui Base Area, the Qiongyai Base Area, the Fujian-Zhejiang-Jiangxi Base Area, the Hunan-Jiangxi Base Area, the Right and Left Jiangxi Base Areas, the Sichuan-Shaanxi Base Area, the Shaanxi-Gansu Base Area, and the Hunan-Hubei-Sichuan-Colorado Base Area, establishing the Red Army's First, Second, and Fourth Fronts and many other Red Army units. In the white areas under Kuomintang rule, the Party developed its organizations and carried out mass revolutionary struggles. The various armies of the Red Army led by the Party, with the strong support of the people in the revolutionary bases, successively defeated the Kuomintang's multiple "encirclement campaigns" and continuously expanded their forces, with the number of Red Army members growing to over 300,000. At this time, the number of Party members in the country also reached over 300,000. However, later, due to the dominance of Wang Ming's leftist dogmatism, the fifth "encirclement campaign" failed, and the Fourth Front had to embark on the Long March and transfer to northern Shaanxi, meeting the northern Shaanxi Red Army and the Red Army Twenty-Fifth Army that had arrived earlier. The Second and Fourth Fronts also successively underwent the Long March and transferred to northern Shaanxi. Some southern bases left by the main force of the Red Army persisted in arduous guerrilla warfare. The failures caused by Wang Ming's leftist errors greatly weakened the revolutionary forces in both the bases and the white areas, reducing the Red Army from 300,000 to about 30,000 and the Party membership from 300,000 to about 40,000. In January 1935, the Central Committee Plenary Session held in Zunyi, Guizhou, during the Long March, held great historical significance. The session corrected the errors of the leftist line in military affairs, decided to reorganize the central leadership, ended the rule of Wang Ming's leftist dogmatism in the Central Committee, and established Comrade Mao Zedong's leadership position in the Red Army and the Central Committee. This was an important sign of the Communist Party of China moving from a young party to a mature party, marking a critical turning point in the Party's history. It was precisely because of this transformation that the Central Committee and the Red Army were able to survive under extremely difficult and perilous circumstances and, later, overcome Zhang Guotao's splitism, successfully complete the Long March, and open up a new situation for the Chinese revolution. During the entire period of the Agrarian Revolution War, the Party accumulated rich experience in building the army, fighting wars, land reform, and base area construction through sharp and intense struggles. Represented by Mao Zedong, the Communist Party of China finally found a correct path that the actual conditions of Chinese society and the characteristics of the Chinese revolution—encircling the city with the countryside and seizing political power by armed struggle—solving a series of theoretical and policy issues related to army building, operational principles, land reform, base area construction, and the revolutionary united front, thereby finding the basic approach to realizing the Party's general line of the New Democratic Revolution and ending the difficult situation of the Chinese people and the Communist Party of China wandering in the dark for a long time, providing a theoretical weapon for the Party and the people to win the victory of the New Democratic Revolution. The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was the greatest, most vibrant, and most active period in the history of modern China's national liberation war, a period of great development for the revolutionary forces led by the Communist Party of China, and a period when Mao Zedong Thought was systematically summarized and expanded to maturity. During the war, the Kuomintang ruling group adhered to a one-sided war policy, passively resisting Japan, and thus suffered losses and territory in the front battlefield of the war of resistance. The Communist Party of China adhered to the principle of independence and initiative in the united front, closely relying on the broad masses of the people, carried out guerrilla warfare in the rear areas, and established bases. The Eighth Route Army and the New Fourth Army, formed from the Red Army, quickly became the backbone forces of the war of resistance. Various forms of anti-Japanese struggles were widely carried out in the enemy-occupied areas and the Kuomintang-controlled areas. As a result, the Chinese people's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was able to last for eight years until the final victory. Throughout the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the revolutionary forces led by the Party experienced three stages of development: an upward stage, a downward stage, and a second upward stage. From 1937 to 1940 was the first stage. During this stage, the Party overcame the rightist opportunism in the united front, adhered to the principle of independence and initiative, established rear bases, and struck at Japanese imperialism, repelling the first anti-communist climax launched by the Kuomintang reactionaries, allowing the revolutionary forces to develop rapidly. From 1941 to 1942 was the second stage. During this stage, due to the encirclement, "sweeps," and brutal "three-all" policies of Japanese imperialism, as well as the economic blockade and military attacks by the Kuomintang, the rear bases led by the Party were in extremely difficult circumstances. In the arduous struggles, the Party led the rear-area people and armed forces to the continuous "sweeps" of the Japanese invaders, carried out large-scale production campaigns, and implemented the whole-Party rectification movement. During this period, the construction of the Party also developed greatly through practical struggles. The whole-Party rectification movement, which began in 1942, was a Marxist ideological education movement. The Party's practical and realistic ideological line and its three major styles—theory connected with practice, close ties with the masses, and criticism and self-criticism—were all formed during the rectification movement. The Party repelled the second anti-communist climax launched by the Kuomintang reactionaries, overcame the left and right deviations within the Party, adhered to the anti-Japanese national united front, and successfully passed through the difficult stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. From 1943 to 1945 was the third stage. During this stage, the rear-area people and armed forces launched continuous offensives against the enemy, consolidating and expanding the rear bases, repelling the third anti-communist climax launched by the Kuomintang reactionaries, and ushering in the final victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. In 1945, the Party's Seventh National Congress was held, summarizing historical experience, formulating correct lines, principles, and policies for establishing a new democratic China, achieving an unprecedented unity and solidarity in thought, politics, and organization throughout the Party, and ushering in an unprecedented development of the Party's cause. The period of the War of Liberation was a time of great decisive battle between the revolutionary forces and the counter-revolutionary forces. After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek reversed his policies, attempted to seize the fruits of victory and restore his autocratic rule nationwide, relying on the support of the United States imperialists, rejecting the just demands of our Party and the people of the country for peace and democracy, and rashly launched a full-scale civil war. At a time of dark clouds looming over the country, the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, clearly analyzed the situation, with the full support of the people in the liberated areas, and with the active cooperation of the democratic parties and non-party democratic individuals, led the People's Liberation Army in a decisive battle against the Kuomintang reactionaries. After the Liaoshen, Huaihai, and Beiping campaigns, the People's Liberation Army achieved successive victories nationwide. On New Year's Day, 1949, Mao Zedong wrote a New Year's message for Xinhua News Agency titled "Carry the Revolution to the End," which pointed out that we must carry the revolution to the end, must use revolutionary methods to resolutely, thoroughly, and completely eliminate all counter-revolutionary forces, overthrow the reactionary rule of the Kuomintang nationwide, and establish a new China. On April 21, 1949, Mao Zedong and Zhu De issued the "Order to the People's Liberation Army to Advance Nationwide." Subsequently, the Party led and directed the People's Liberation Army in the, overthrew the rule of the Chiang family dynasty, and held the founding ceremony in Beijing on October 1, 1949, establishing the People's Republic of China and realizing the revolutionary ideal that the Chinese people had long dreamed of. At this point, the New Democratic Revolution in China achieved its final victory, marking a new chapter in Chinese history and opening a new era in Chinese history. The victory of the Chinese revolution ended the history of a few exploiters ruling the vast laboring people in China and the history of imperialism and colonialism enslaving the people of all ethnic groups in China. The laboring people became the masters of the new country and new society. The victory of the people's revolution in a country with a population accounting for nearly a quarter of the world changed the balance of world political forces and also inspired many countries and peoples, like China, who were exploited and oppressed by imperialism and colonialism, to strengthen their confidence in their struggles. The victory of the Chinese revolution was the most significant political event after World War II, with far-reaching impacts on the international situation and the development of the struggles of the people of the world, as well as on the development of the communist movement. From the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, to 1956, the Party led the people of all ethnic groups in the country to achieve a step-by-step transformation from the New Democratic Revolution to socialism. This period experienced two stages: continuing to complete the tasks of the democratic revolution and restoring the national economy; and comprehensively carrying out the socialist transformation of private ownership of productive forces and conducting planned economic construction. During this historical period, the guiding principles and basic policies formulated by the Party were correct, and the victories achieved were glorious.