In July 2021, people across the world celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party.
From its very modest beginnings in a small room in Shanghai, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) charted a course for liberation of the Chinese people from the remnants of feudal oppression by warlords and the imperialist schemes of Britain, the USA, France, Germany, Czarist Russia and Japan.
From 1931 till 1945, against tremendous odds, the Communist Party of China united the working class, the vast peasantry, sections of the middle classes and patriotic big business classes to defeat the Japanese military. This war cost the lives of 25 million Chinese people.
For a time, the CCP was in alliance with the Kuomintang party (KMT) founded by Sun Yat-sen. However when the KMT was lead by Chiang Kai-Shek it came more and more under the influence of U.S. imperialism. Its reluctance to fight the Japanese invaders and its vicious anti-people policies isolated the KMT and boosted the popularity of the Communist Party of China. After the defeat of the Japanese, the KMT turned on the Chinese Communist Party and its supporters and was soon defeated.
Ever since the leader of the Communist Party of China, Mao Zedong, announced that the Chinese people “have stood up” at the founding of the Peoples’ Republic of China on 1 October 1949, the situation and condition of the Chinese people has made vast, unimaginable improvements.
At the end of the Japanese war and civil war, there were hordes of displaced people and refugees and swathes of destroyed cities, villages and infrastructure. The country’s GDP ranked 40th in the world and it struggled to provide the largest population on the planet with enough food, clothes and other basic needs. Starvation, disease and poverty were rampant for the 500 million survivors. China also inherited 80 percent illiteracy rates among youth and adults aged from 12 to 40 and lacked educational facilities to tackle this issue.
Using the principles of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong thought as scientific socialism, the Communist Party of China set off on a path to rebuild a new China.
But China not allowed to get on with this task of reconstruction and forging a new society unimpeded. The forces of imperialism were determined to retrieve their economic privileges and territories that they extracted from China.
So China was subjected to unrelenting campaigns of espionage, military incursions, encirclement and exclusion by U.S. imperialism and its allies.
China relied on a policy of self reliance and friendship with other socialist countries and with other newly independent former colonial countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. These links with the third world reflected their shared experience of exploitation and colonialism.
Inside China the battle was on to pull the people out of feudal poverty, and develop the country economically, culturally and socially. Advances were made and set-backs occurred. Various experimental industrialization and collectivised agricultural plans were planned and tried and the foundations were laid to transform China.
Mao Zedong, who had lead the party during the War Of Resistance Against Japan and the following Civil War with the Kuomintang, and provided the theoretical backbone and leadership for China’s re-birth, died in 1976. Eventually he was succeeded in 1978, by Deng Xiao Ping whose leadership built on the foundations and made some policy initiatives which helped to unleash the potential of the Chinese people.
Rapid advances in technical and intellectual skills paralleled the economic development. New factories and whole industries started up and over 700 million people made the transition from rural peasantry to urban workers, the greatest movement of people in the world’s history managed seamlessly by the CCP. Now in 2021, China is the world’s largest manufacturing economy and exporter of goods. It is also the world’s fastest-growing consumer market and second-largest importer of goods. It is the largest trading nation in the world and plays a prominent role in international trade.
With its $15.66 trillion GDP in 2020, China now has the world’s second-largest economy.
To match this expansion of industry and technology there was a commensurate expansion of universities and learning. China ranks at the top globally in patents, utility models, trademarks, industrial designs and creative goods exports and also has the second and fourth spots of the global top five science and technology clusters, which is more than any other country.
All of this development has been overseen by the Communist Party of China with constant and regular consultations with the diverse groups and people of China. The new wealth has grown by the toil of the Chinese people without invading and plundering other countries.
China has shared its knowledge and wealth with most of the countries of the world. Trade, investment, education and tourism have enabled China to interact with the nations of the world for mutual benefit. This stands in strong contrast to the actions of former imperialist powers who dominated China and brought it to its knees, Britain, the USA, Japan, France and Germany
The future of China and indeed the world is bright as the Chinese Communist Party has led the transformation of China to develop its true potential free from imperialist domination. As the old imperialist system crumbles worldwide and the billionaire class seeks to hang on to their privileged position, China and the Chinese Communist Party continues to show tremendous leadership and to illuminate the path ahead for all the world’s nations and peoples.
Appropriately, the CCP has successfully applied Marxism Leninism to the particular and unique characteristics of China. It is incumbent on all Communist Parties to likewise apply Marxism Leninism to their own particular and unique characteristics in their own countries.
We salute the Chinese Communist Party and their wise and outstanding leadership over the last one hundred years to China and the world. The Preparatory Committee of the Marxist Leninist Communist Party of Australia wishes you and your esteemed leader Xi Jinping continued inspirational successes in the future.
