On November 11, 2021, the 6th plenary session of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) adopted the Resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century. As the third resolution on historical issues in 100 years of the CPC’s history, it bears great importance by elaborating with immense breadth, depth and profoundness on the great mission, the glorious journey and the splendid vision of the CPC. In retrospect of the CPC’s journey of 100 years, that literature answers why the leadership of the CPC is a historical choice.
Firstly, the CPC saved the Chinese nation from peril and changed the fate of China. After the Opium War of 1840, China was gradually reduced to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal society due to the aggression of Western powers and the corruption of feudal rulers. The country endured intense humiliation, the people were subjected to untold misery, and the Chinese civilization was plunged into darkness. The Chinese people rose to fight back, and a variety of plans were devised to ensure national survival. There was the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the largest-scale peasant uprising in Chinese history. There was the Westernization Movement, an endeavor of about 30 years to learn from the West of advanced technologies and turn China into a power. There was the Reform Movement of 1898, a movement driven by the reformist bourgeoisie to establish constitutional monarchy. There was the Yihetuan Movement, a patriotic movement to oppose colonialism. However, all of these struggles ended in failure. The Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen brought down the absolute monarchy that had reigned over China for thousands of years, but it failed to change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal nature of Chinese society and to alter the bitter fate of the Chinese people. Only after the founding of the CPC in 1921, the Chinese revolution took on an entirely new look. The CPC successfully led the Chinese people to wage bitter and courageous struggles against imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism, and founded the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Huge sacrifices were made in 28 years’ struggle, among which were the casualty of 35 million in the war against the Japanese aggression, and the Red Army’s 12,000-km Long March, in which 30,000 out of 300,000 soldiers survived.
Secondly, the CPC put in place the socialist system and advanced the socialist construction. Under the CPC’s leadership, a government with the people as the masters of their own country was established and consolidated. In 1954, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was formulated and promulgated, and the system of people’s congresses was set up. In 1956, China basically completed the socialist transformation of private ownership to public ownership of the means of production, thus marking the establishment of the socialist economic system. By establishing the socialist system and an independent and relatively complete industrial system and national economic framework, a solid foundation was laid for all of China’s subsequent progress and development. Through tenacious struggle, the CPC and the people showed the world that the Chinese people were not only capable of dismantling the old world, but also of building a new one. It also testified that only socialism could save China, and only socialism could develop China.
Thirdly, the CPC introduced reform and opening up for China. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, a catastrophic movement which lasted for 10 years, China stood at a crucial historical juncture in which it was confronted with the question of which course the country should take. In December 1978, the third plenary session of the CPC’s 11th Central Committee decisively abandoned the policy of taking class struggle as the key link, and initiated a strategic shift in the focus of the Party and country’s work, thereby ushering in a new period of reform, opening up, and socialist modernization. This marked a great turning point of far-reaching significance in the Party’s history since the founding of the People’s Republic of China. From then on, China embarked afresh on a right path. Reform and opening up represented a great awakening for the Party and a great revolution in the history of the Chinese nation’s development. China achieved the historic transformation from a country with relatively backward productive forces to the world’s second largest economy, and made the historic strides of raising the living standards of its people from bare subsistence to moderate prosperity in general and then toward moderate prosperity in all respects. Reform and opening up was a crucial move in making China what it is today.
Fourthly, the CPC ushered China into a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Following the CPC’s 18th National Congress in 2012, socialism with Chinese characteristics entered a new era. The main tasks facing China in this period are to fulfil the First Centenary Goal, embark on the new journey to accomplish the Second Centenary Goal, and continue striving toward the great goal of national rejuvenation. The First Centenary Goal is to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects by 2021, the centenary founding of CPC; the Second Centenary Goal is to build China into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful by 2049, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Since 2012, the Central Committee of CPC with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core has led the entire Party, the military, and all Chinese people in forging ahead. The First Centenary Goal has been accomplished on schedule, while the cause of the Party and the country has scored historic achievements and gone through historic changes. All this demonstrates the great vitality of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Through tenacious struggle, the CPC and the Chinese people have shown the world that the Chinese nation has achieved the tremendous transformation from standing up and growing prosperous to becoming strong.
Ever since its founding in 1921, the CPC has united and led Chinese people in the “long march” for national independence, liberation and prosperity, and achieved great success. The leadership of the CPC is not self-entitled. Rather, it is established by unremitting endeavors of the CPC, empowered by the Chinese people, and chosen by history.
Rao Hongwei
Chinese Ambassador to the Republic of Rwanda
