| Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party | |||||||
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 Front cover of the Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party | |||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 中国共产党 章程 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中國共産黨 章程 | ||||||
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State representative
Executive organ Military organ
Supervisory organ |
 Chinaportal |
The Constitution of the Chinese Communist Party has 55 articles and its contents describe the program of the party, as well as its organizational structure and party symbolism.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s 1945 constitution described Mao Zedong Thought as the party's working compass. [1] : 23 It also discusses democracy in the context of New Democracy. [1] : 22
The constitution adopted during April 1969 at the CCP's 9th National Congress named Lin Biao as Mao Zedong's "close comrade in arms and successor". [2] : 142
The constitution currently in force was adopted at the CCP's 12th National Congress in September 1982. In accordance with the changing situation and tasks, revisions were made in some of the articles at the 13th National Congress in November 1987 and in the General Program and some of the articles at the 14th National Congress in October 1992, and a few revisions were made in the General Program at the 16th National Congress of the CCP in November 2002.[ citation needed ] The constitution can be amended once every five years. [3]
The 1992 revision of the constitution noted the importance of policy experimentation, incorporating language that the CCP "must boldly experiment with new methods, ... review new experience and solve new problems, and enrich and develop Marxism in practice." [4] : 65
The CCP's 16th National Congress in November 2002 included the incorporation of the Three Represents. [5] The CCP's 18th National Congress in November 2012, saw the inclusion of the concept of ecological civilization. [6] : 1 The CCP's 19th National Congress in October 2017 ratified amendments including the incorporation of Xi Jinping Thought. [7] Xi Jinping thus became the first leader since Deng Xiaoping to append his name into party ideology; the change also led to many international media outlets calling Xi the "most powerful leader since Mao." [7] The Belt and Road Initiative was also added to the party constitution. [8] [9] : 58
The CCP's 20th National Congress in October 2022 saw several amendments to the party constitution. Additions included opposition to Taiwan independence, [10] developing a "fighting spirit" and strengthening fighting ability, as well as additions of goals related to Xi, including gradually achieving common prosperity, promoting Chinese-style modernization and developing a "broader, fuller and more robust" whole-process people's democracy. [10] The status of Xi and the CCP were further strengthened with the amendments, with the amended constitution naming the CCP as the "supreme political leadership force". [10] The Two Upholds was added, thereby cementing the "core" status of Xi Jinping. [11]
The constitution states that Marxism–Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought are the party's official ideology. [3] The constitution emphasizes the party's role in promoting socialist democracy, in developing and strengthening a socialist legal system, and in consolidating public resolve to carry out the modernization program. [12]
The constitution states that the interests of the people and the party are paramount over the interests of party members. [13] : 112 The constitution states that in emergencies and urgent situations, members are encouraged to contribute to special funds (as in the case of the special fund for the 2008 Sichuan earthquake). [13] : 111–112
Since 1945, the party's constitution has defined the party's view of democratic centralism as "centralism based on democracy and democracy under centralized leadership." [1] : 23 Academic Jean-Pierre Cabestan writes that this approach defines and limits democracy within the party, indicating that central leadership prevails over the rights of party members to challenge leadership. [1] : 23
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil War against the Kuomintang. In 1949, Mao proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Since then, the CCP has governed China and has had sole control over the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Successive leaders of the CCP have added their own theories to the party's constitution, which outlines the party's ideology, collectively referred to as socialism with Chinese characteristics. As of 2024, the CCP has more than 99 million members, making it the second largest political party by membership in the world after India's Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Three Represents, officially the Theory of Three Represents, is a sociopolitical theory that defines the role of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Chinese society. It was first introduced by Jiang Zemin—then the General Secretary of the CCP—on 25 February 2000, while he was on the inspection tour in Gaozhou, Guangdong. It was ratified by the party at the 16th Party Congress in 2002. The theory legitimized the entry of private business owners and bourgeois elements into the CCP.
The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Since 1989, the CCP general secretary has been the paramount leader of the PRC.
Ideological debate over democracy in China has existed in Chinese politics since the 19th century. Chinese scholars, thinkers, and policy-makers have debated about democracy, an idea which was first imported by Western colonial powers but which some argue also has connections to classic Chinese thinking. Starting in the mid-eighteenth century, many Chinese argued about how to deal with Western culture. Though Chinese Confucians were initially opposed to Western modes of thinking, it became clear that aspects of the West were appealing. Industrialization gave the West an economic and military advantage. The Qing dynasty's defeats in the First and Second Opium Wars compelled a segment of Chinese politicians and intellectuals to rethink their notion of cultural and political superiority.
Xi Jinping is a Chinese politician who has been the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus the paramount leader of China, since 2012. Xi has also been the president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2013. As a member of the fifth generation of Chinese leadership, Xi is the first CCP general secretary born after the establishment of the PRC.
"Serve the People" is a political slogan and the motto of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It originates from the title of a speech by Mao Zedong, delivered in September 1944.
New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a type of democracy in Marxism, based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path that was decisively distinct from that in any other country. He also said every colonial or semi-colonial country would have its own unique path to democracy, given that particular country's own social and material conditions. Mao labeled representative democracy in the Western nations as Old Democracy, characterizing parliamentarianism as just an instrument to promote the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie/land-owning class through manufacturing consent. He also found his concept of New Democracy not in contrast with the Soviet-style dictatorship of the proletariat which he assumed would be the dominant political structure of a post-capitalist world. Mao spoke about how he wanted to create a New China, a country freed from the feudal and semi-feudal aspects of its old culture as well as Japanese imperialism.
Deng Xiaoping Theory, also known as Dengism, is the series of political and economic ideologies first developed by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping. The theory does not reject Marxism–Leninism or Maoism, but instead claims to be an adaptation of them to the existing socioeconomic conditions of China.
The mass line is a political, organizational, and leadership methodology developed by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Chinese Communist Revolution. Who used the term first is disputed, with some crediting Li Lisan and others Zhou Enlai. In mass line methodology, leadership formulates policy based on theory, implements it based on the people's real world conditions, revises the theory and policy based on actual practice, and uses that revised theory as the guide to future practice. This process is summarized as leadership "from the masses, to the masses", repeated indefinitely.
The Scientific Outlook on Development is one of the guiding socio-economic principles of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), credited to former Chinese leader Hu Jintao and his administration, who was in power from 2002 to 2012.
The history of the Chinese Communist Party began with its establishment in July 1921. A study group led by Peking University professors Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao to discuss Marxism, led to intellectuals officially founding the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in July 1921. In 1923, Sun Yat-sen invited the CCP to form a United Front, and to join his Nationalist Party (GMD) in Canton for training under representatives of the Communist International, the Soviet Union's international organization. The Soviet representatives reorganized both parties into Leninist parties. Rather than the loose organization that characterized the two parties until then, the Leninist party operated on the principle of democratic centralism, in which the collective leadership set standards for membership and an all-powerful Central Committee determined the party line, which all members must follow.
The Constitutional history of the People's Republic of China describes the evolution of its Constitutional system. The first Constitution of the People's Republic of China was promulgated in 1954. After two intervening versions enacted in 1975 and 1978, the current Constitution was promulgated in 1982. There were significant differences between each of these versions, and the 1982 Constitution has subsequently been amended several times. In addition, changing Constitutional conventions have led to significant changes in the structure of the Chinese government in the absence of changes in the text of the Constitution.
The Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art was a May 1942 forum held in the Yan'an Soviet and a significant event in the Yan'an Rectification Movement. It is most notable for the speeches given by Mao Zedong, later edited and published as Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art which dealt with the role of literature and art in the country. The two main points were that (1) all art should reflect the life of the working class and consider them as an audience, and (2) that art should serve politics, and specifically the advancement of socialism.
Red tourism is tourism at locations significant to communism. It is a subset of domestic and international tourism in current or former communist countries such as China and Russia, in which people visit locations with historical significance to their "red" (communist) past.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) frames its ideology as Marxism–Leninism adapted to the historical context of China, often expressing it as socialism with Chinese characteristics. Major ideological contributions of the CCP's leadership are viewed as "Thought" or "Theory," with "Thought" carrying greater weight. Influential concepts include Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, and Xi Jinping Thought. Other important concepts include the socialist market economy, Jiang Zemin's idea of the Three Represents, and Hu Jintao's Scientific Outlook on Development.
The organization of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is based upon the Leninist concept of democratic centralism.
The president of China, officially titled the president of the People's Republic of China, is the state representative of the People's Republic of China, which on its own is a ceremonial office and has no real power in China's political system. While the office has many of the characteristics of a head of state, the Chinese constitution does not define it as such. However, since 1993, the post has been held by the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission, who is China's de facto leader.
Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, commonly abbreviated outside China as Xi Jinping Thought, or more recently, Xi'ism is an ideological doctrine created during General Secretary Xi Jinping's leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that combines Chinese Marxism and national rejuvenation. According to the CCP, Xi Jinping Thought "builds on and further enriches" previous party ideologies and has also been called as the "Marxism of contemporary China and of the 21st century". The theory's main elements are summarized in the ten affirmations, the fourteen commitments, and the thirteen areas of achievements.
Historical nihilism is a term used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and some scholars in China to describe research, discussions, or viewpoints deemed to contradict an official state version of history in a manner perceived to question or challenge the legitimacy of the CCP. The CCP opposes historical interpretations that are critical of it, the People's Liberation Army, socialism, and related topics. Viewpoints that the state judges to be historical nihilism are subject to censorship and legal prosecution.
The Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on the Major Achievements and Historical Experience of the Party over the Past Century, commonly known as the "third historical resolution", is a document adopted by the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on its Sixth Plenary Session held between 8–11 November 2021. This document was the third of its kind after "historical resolutions" adopted by Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . China: A Country Study. Federal Research Division. July 1987.
