Maturing self-development
CPC’s 105-year journey proves itself a party dedicated to serving the people and addressing the challenges in the country’s progress
In July 1921, the Communist Party of China was founded in Shanghai. Its mission extended far beyond the struggle for the communalization of the means of production that shaped European communism following Marx and Engels. China’s path to finding its own place in a new world — initially shaped, for better or worse, by Europe and the United States — has been a process of self-cultivation. Anyone visiting the sites today that commemorate the Party’s history and culture is likely to be struck by the vibrant energy and thematic diversity of this movement.
Yet the roots of the CPC reach deep into the 19th century and into China’s interior. A folk open-air theater on the grounds of a cultural industry base in Shaoshan, near Changsha, the capital of Central China’s Hunan province, reenacts the fundamental motifs of the march toward a new China. The performance begins with the steel fetters of the new heavy industry, which alienates people from themselves and whose blazing flames seem beyond control. The price paid for the new goods and opportunities is high. The common people experience exploitation, new forms of warfare, and more sophisticated oppression, while the decrepit Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) collapses amid its own luxury. At the same time, ideas emerge, carrying hope for new forms of social participation: trade unions, cooperatives, the press, new professions, scientific foundations for education, medicine and agriculture. The world grows larger, horizons draw nearer, everything changes.
How was China to preserve the peace of a simple life? This was a question about dignity and justice in the everyday lives of Chinese people, about traditional virtues and human values for modernity, the birth of human solidarity among the disadvantaged. It was about the bewildering shock of collective powerlessness in the face of a world turned upside down, where a “small” Japan suddenly ravaged China’s traditional breadbasket and culture with immense brutality; it was about the courage, determination, foresight and fortune of the few individuals who paved the way for the CPC. The Party and its members took their destiny into their own hands and forged ahead through the Long March — whose 90th anniversary falls this year. Following the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, they established a new framework for national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
In the current Year of the Fire Horse, steam, flame and locomotion take on a symbolism of their own. After 105 years, with the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for economic and social development, China is now definitively galloping into the phase of its cultural self-determination, following decades of catch-up modernization. The heat of progress, the pressure of social restructuring, and the harshness of competition are being shifted into a calmer gear. With a cool head and a gentler hand, the energy of the growth momentum is being channeled, the thrust balanced, and development steered to a new level. In this process, the “Chinese Dream” is not a feverish delusion but renders achievable the desire of the vast majority of the Chinese people to develop China, by the middle of this century, into a modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, civilized and peaceful. A key building block on this path is the comprehensive reform of the education system, presented in early 2025 by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to build a strong education system by 2035 to support the country’s modernization drive and national rejuvenation.
In Changsha, Central China’s Hunan province, where late Chairman Mao Zedong spent his youth, visitors can witness veritable pilgrimages of large crowds of all ages, educational backgrounds and income groups. The history of the CPC is personalized, kept alive through stories of individual fates and memorable events. The essence of politics enters through the stomach, through the eyes, hearts and minds; in rituals, all this merges into a shared experience. Statues, photos, films or stories connect into a felt and perceived coherence.
An essential difference from the historical models that New China oriented itself toward and worked through is the ancient virtue of development through learning. No Chinese institution embodies the nature of modern China’s development as fully as the CPC. The trust of an educated, entrepreneurial, rebellious, proud and smart people is not secured permanently by words alone. Decades of struggles of all kinds have made the population allergic to false promises and alert to pragmatic projects. Thus, the CPC must continually prove itself at the current level of challenges and opportunities. Its power comes with the duty to understand itself as a serving organization. This is why the fight against corruption is of paramount importance.
The contrast with the political parties of Europe and the United States, which have increasingly specialized in the self-serving preservation of power at the expense of public welfare, could hardly be starker. If good medicine is what makes people healthy, and good economic management leads to fair prosperity, then good politics makes society wealthier, healthier and more cultivated. The more than 100 million members of the CPC represent approximately 7 percent of China’s population: a disciplined, serving group that is increasingly meeting the demands of modern political management.
What there is to celebrate on the CPC’s anniversary lies in the new form of political constitution that China has forged for itself through the CPC as its path into modernity. There are many approaches to understanding the history and work of the CPC. The date of 105 years gives us a fine occasion to thoroughly review them.
The author is a professor at the Foreign Language Studies College at Hunan Normal University, a private lecturer at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, a philosopher and a sinologist.
The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.
