{"id":16726,"date":"2021-07-06T14:21:09","date_gmt":"2021-07-06T18:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/?p=16726"},"modified":"2021-07-06T14:21:09","modified_gmt":"2021-07-06T18:21:09","slug":"history-of-ccp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/chinese\/history-of-ccp\/","title":{"rendered":"China Marks the 100th Anniversary of the Communist Party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week in Beijing, there was a massive celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u56fd\u5171\u4ea7\u515a\u6210\u7acb100\u5468\u5e74\u5e86\u795d\u6d3b\u52a8 zh\u014dng gu\u00f3 g\u00f2ng ch\u01cen d\u01ceng ch\u00e9ng l\u00ec 100 zh\u014du ni\u00e1n q\u00ecng zh\u00f9 hu\u00f3 d\u00f2ng). The speech given by current General Secretary of the CCP and President of China, Xi Jinping<\/strong> (\u4e60\u8fd1\u5e73 x\u00ed j\u00ecn p\u00edng) is making a lot of headlines, so I figured it would be a good topic for the blog this month. I’ll share some highlights from the event and break down his speech in my next post. But first, a little history lesson.<\/p>\n

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Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images<\/a> from Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

History of the CCP<\/h2>\n

The Chinese Communist Party<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u56fd\u5171\u4ea7\u515a zh\u014dng gu\u00f3 g\u00f2ng ch\u01cen d\u01ceng) was founded on July 1, 1921. Just a decade earlier, the Xinhai Revolution<\/strong> (\u8f9b\u4ea5\u9769\u547d x\u012bn h\u00e0i g\u00e9 m\u00ecng) ended 2,000 years of imperial China with the fall of the Qing Dynasty<\/strong> (\u6e05\u671d q\u012bng ch\u00e1o). After the revolution, the Republic of China<\/strong> (\u4e2d\u534e\u6c11\u56fd zh\u014dng hu\u00e1 m\u00edn gu\u00f3) was formed.<\/p>\n

A few months later, Sun Yat-Sen<\/strong> (\u5b59\u9038\u4ed9 s\u016bn y\u00ec xian) was inaugurated as president in Nanjing. He had competition up north, though, as Yuan Shikai<\/strong> (\u8881\u4e16\u51ef yu\u00e1n sh\u00ec k\u01cei) consolidated power in Beijing and eventually took over. This led to the founding of the Kuomintang<\/strong> (\u56fd\u6c11\u515a gu\u00f3 m\u00edn d\u01ceng), which tried to check the growing power of Yuan. They attempted a Second Revolution<\/strong> (\u4e8c\u6b21\u9769\u547d \u00c8r c\u00ec g\u00e9 m\u00ecng), which failed and resulted in the fleeing of Sun and many other KMT members to Japan.<\/p>\n

Yuan would go on to declare himself the Hongxian Emperor<\/strong> (\u6d2a\u61b2\u7687\u5e1d h\u00f3ng xi\u00e0n hu\u00e1ng d\u00ec) in 1915, a name meaning “constitutional abundance.” Things didn’t exactly go swimmingly for him, as many provinces declared their independence from his “empire,” resulting in a National Protection War<\/strong> (\u62a4\u56fd\u6218\u4e89 h\u00f9 gu\u00f3 zh\u00e0n zh\u0113ng). His reign lasted a mere 83 days and he would die shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

The country then experienced a Warlord Era<\/strong> (\u519b\u9600\u65f6\u4ee3 j\u016bn f\u00e1 sh\u00ed d\u00e0i), where rival military cliques split control of the nation. It was during this period that the May 4th Movement<\/strong> (\u4e94\u56db\u8fd0\u52a8 w\u01d4 s\u00ec y\u00f9n d\u00f2ng) occurred. This anti-imperialist movement was born out of frustration with China’s weak response to the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, primarily due to the concession of German territories in Shandong to Japan. This came to be known as the Shandong Problem\u00a0<\/strong>(\u5c71\u4e1c\u95ee\u9898 sh\u0101n d\u014dng w\u00e8n t\u00ed).<\/p>\n

Prior to this, Western democracy and liberalism appealed to Chinese intellectuals. After the disappointment of the treaty, they instead took an interest in Marxism and Leninism. Leaders at the time included Chen Duxiu<\/strong> (\u9648\u72ec\u79c0 ch\u00e9n d\u00fa xi\u00f9) and Li Dazhao<\/strong> (\u674e\u5927\u948a l\u01d0 d\u00e0 zh\u0101o), who together formed the CCP on July 1, 1921. A few weeks later, the 1st National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party occurred in Shanghai.<\/p>\n