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The Communist  Party Of China

The Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded on July 1, 1921 in Shanghai. It is the ruling party in China, representing the interests of the entire Chinese nation.

After 28 years of arduous struggle, the CPC led the Chinese people of all ethnic groups to finally win the victory in the New-Democratic Revolution and founded the People's Republic of China. Since then, it has overcome various difficulties, transforming China from a poor and backward semi-colonial and semi-feudal country into a socialist state with initial prosperity.

The CPC mainly exercises ideological and political leadership. The Party derives its ideas and policies from the people's concentrated will and then transform them into State laws and decisions that are adopted by the NPC. But the Party does not take the place of the government in the State leadership system. It conducts activities within the framework of the Constitution and laws, which it has no right to transcend. All Party members, like other citizens in the country, are equal before the law.

The Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, held in December 1978, decided to shift the focus of the Party's work to the socialist modernization drive and set the reform and opening-up policy.

During the process of reform and opening up, and the establishment of a socialist market economy, the CPC faces severe tests. The Party takes the fight against corruption and institution of honesty as its primary goals of self-building. The Third Plenary Session of the 14th CPC Central Committee, held in 1993, pointed out that combating corruption and building a clean administration are the essential conditions and important guarantees for establishing a socialist market economic structure, and have a vital bearing on the success of the reform program and the fate of the Party and the State. To crack down on corruption, the CPC Central Committee has paid great attention to directing the Party and government leading officials to take the lead in performing their duties in a clean-handed and self-disciplined manner. It has investigated and handled a number of major cases, thus stopping some unhealthy tendencies that had a bad influence on the people.

The 15th National Party Congress was held in Beijing September 12-18, 1997. At the opening session, General Secretary Jiang Zemin, on behalf of the 14th CPC Central Committee, delivered a report entitled “Hold High the Great Banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory for an All-Round Advancement of the Cause of Building Socialism With Chinese Characteristics Into the 21st Century”. The congress elected the new CPC Central Committee and the new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI). It also adopted the resolutions on the report of the 14th CPC Central Committee, the amendments to the Constitution of the CPC, and the work report of the CCDI. The Party Constitution defines Deng Xiaoping Theory as the guiding Party ideology, explicitly stipulating that the CPC takes Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory as its guide to action.

The Fifth Plenary Session of the 15th CPC Central Committee, held in Beijing October 9-11, 2000, was attended by 183 members and 144 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee. Members of the Standing Committee of the CCDI and relevant leading members attended the session as non-voting delegates.

The session examined and approved the Proposal of the CPC Central Committee for the Formulation of the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05) for National Economic and Social Development. Zhu Rongji explained the draft proposal.

The plenary session highly evaluated the tremendous achievements China had made in economic construction and social development during the previous 20-odd years, especially since the beginning of the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000).

The session made an in-depth analysis of the international and domestic situations facing China's reform and opening-up and modernization drive at the turn of the century. It maintained that, at the beginning of the new century, China will enter a new development stage characterized by the construction of a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and an accelerated modernization drive. The coming five to 10 years will be important for China's economic and social development, for the strategic adjustment of the economic structure, and for improvement of the socialist market economic structure and expansion of opening up.

In accordance with the overall prospects and arrangements made for the modernization drive in the new century by the 15th National Party Congress, the session set forth the main objectives for economic and social development during the 10th Five-Year Plan period as follows: To maintain a fairly rapid growth rate in the national economy, achieve noticeable success in the strategic restructuring of the economy, and make marked improvement in the quality and returns of economic growth to lay a solid foundation for doubling the 2000 GDP by 2010; make significant progress in establishing a modern corporate structure in State-owned enterprises, increase the soundness of the social security system, make substantial progress in improving the socialist market economy, and participate in international economic cooperation and competition in a broader scope and to a deeper extent; expand channels for employment, increase the income of urban and rural residents steadily, improve people's material and cultural well-beings, and intensify ecological conservation and environmental protection; accelerate the development of science, technology and education, further improve the quality of the Chinese people, and achieve marked progress in improving culture and ethics, democracy and the legal system. The session emphasized that to formulate the 10th Five-Year Plan and ensure accomplishment of these objectives, it is imperative to make development the central theme, concentrate on economic restructuring, make reform and opening up and scientific and technological progress the driving force, and take improvement of the people's living standards as the basic starting point.

The session noted that development is the essential principle and the key to the solution of all China’s problems. China now faces a new situation featuring enhanced economic globalization, a rapidly developing technological revolution, accelerating adjustment of the industrial structure, and intensifying international competition. Given the situation, in light of the arduous tasks of domestic modernization, and in order to solve the contradictions and problems in economic and social life, it is imperative to maintain a fairly rapid growth of development. Efforts should be made to unswervingly carry out the principles of the 15th National Party Congress, firmly persist in taking economic construction as the central task, seize the opportunity, speed up development, and improve the comprehensive national strength of China.

In line with the Party Constitution, the session decided to promote, in the arranged order, CPC Central Committee alternate members Yue Haiyan, Huang Zhiquan and Wang Zhifu to be members of the CPC Central Committee.

The session examined and approved the Report of the CCDI on the Investigation of the Problems of Comrade Xu Penghang, and decided to dismiss him from his post of alternate member of the CPC Central Committee and place him on probation within the Party for two years.

Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee are Jiang Zemin, Li Peng, Zhu Rongji, Li Ruihuan, Hu Jintao, Wei Jianxing and Li Lanqing. The secretary of the CCDI is Wei Jianxing.

Currently, the CPC has more than 64.517 million members and over 3.3 million grass-roots branches. Renmin Ribao (People's Daily) is the organ of the CPC Central Committee, and Qiushi (Seeking Truth) is its theoretical publication.

The current general secretary of the CPC Central Committee is Jiang Zemin.

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