History
The Communist Chinese Party (CCP) was founded in 1921 by Mao Zedong, who adapted the principles of Karl Marx and the experience in Russia to conditions particular to China. Mao had come of age during the “first revolution” in China in 1912, an era in which the Nationalist (KMT) party unseated the 3,000 year rule of the Qing Dynasty and formed the Republic of China under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen. Mao quickly became disillusioned with the weakness and corruption of the KMT as well as the pervasive power of feudal war lords throughout the country. In 1927, he began his famous travels through rural areas where he witnessed the abysmal plight of the large peasant population, and began to formulate a uniquely Chinese brand of Communism that became characterized by an emphasis on the power of the peasants and the need for continuous revolution to achieve a just society.
By the 1930s, the CCP was engaged in civil war with Sun Yat-sen’s successor Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists for control of the ever-weakening country. After a defeat by KMT forces in 1934, Mao and his army embarked on what became known as The Long March, regrouping to the interior mountains and consolidating their strength. When the Japanese invaded and occupied Nationalist-led China in 1937, the civil war between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao was again in full-swing. The civil war simmered throughout World War II as both sides fought each other and the Japanese. When the US ended World War II in the Pacific in 1945, fighting between the CCP and KMT intensified until Mao’s forces defeated Chiang’s Nationalist army, sending them into exile in Taiwan. The Communist People’s Republic of China (PRC) was formally established in 1949 with Mao as Chairman of the CCP and leader of the nation.
Communist Party Structure
Ever since its founding, all aspects of life in the PRC have been directed, in some way, by the Communist Party. The CCP