Socialism with Chinese Characteristics Enters a New Era

Chapter 3: The leadership of the Communist Party of China is the most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics

Comrade Xi Jinping pointed out in the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China: “The most essential feature of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the greatest advantage of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics is the leadership of the Communist Party of China, and the Party is the highest political leading force.“1 This major political thesis has further deepened the understanding of the law of adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics, enriched and developed the Marxist party theory and state theory, greatly expanded the theoretical and practical vision of party building in the new era, and reached a new height in grasping the party’s leadership and the internal relationship between socialism.

Section 1: The party’s leadership is the most fundamental law summary for adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics

After the founding of New China, the party made long-term explorations in socialist construction and accumulated rich experience in both positive and negative aspects. After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, a path of socialism with Chinese characteristics was embarked upon, and many understandings of regularity were formed. The most fundamental law summed up is that to build socialism, we must adhere to the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

The party’s leadership is the embodiment of the common will and fundamental interests of the whole party and the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country, and the fundamental guarantee for the decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way and winning the great victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. Without the leadership of the Party, other laws would become water without source and wood without roots.

1. The Party’s leadership and the socialist cause are intrinsically unified

The Communist Party regards the realization of socialism as its phased goal and the realization of communism as its highest ideal. Marx and Engels repeatedly expounded a truth in the Communist Manifesto: socialized large-scale production will inevitably lead to the transformation of the means of production into social ownership, laying the material foundation for the advent of socialism, and at the same time inevitably lead the proletariat to form its own party organization. The Communist Party, which provided the political guarantee for the advent of socialism. The proletarian party is not only the product of socialized large-scale production, but also a political tool for realizing the social appropriation of the means of production. “At all stages of development of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the Communists always represent the interests of the movement as a whole.”1 In other words, socialism is the noble cause of the Communist Party, and the establishment, improvement and consolidation of the socialist system cannot be separated from the Communist Party. To establish the Communist Party is to establish and consolidate the socialist system and uphold and develop socialism. Specific to China, socialism can only be led by the Communist Party of China, and the cause led by the Communist Party of China can only be a socialist cause. Upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of China and upholding socialism are organically unified and mutually reinforcing. Without the leadership of the Communist Party, the socialist cause will lose the necessary political, organizational, and ideological guarantees; without socialism, the Communist Party will not be able to practice its original aspiration and mission.

The intrinsic unity of the Communist Party and socialism has been repeatedly proved by the history of socialism in the world. The success of the October Revolution in Russia marked that socialism as an institutional form under the leadership of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party first broke through the weak links of imperialism and changed from theory to reality. After the Second World War, socialism expanded from one country to many countries, and the Communist Party became the ruling party of these countries, writing a glorious chapter in the history of human civilization. In the eighties and nineties of the 20th century, Eastern Europe underwent drastic changes, the Soviet Union collapsed, the Communist Party lost power, and the socialist system was subverted in these countries.

In sharp contrast, in the course of reform and opening up, China has always adhered to and strengthened the party’s leadership and always held high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, so that scientific socialism has radiated strong vitality in China. Practice shows that the stronger and more effective the leadership of the Communist Party is, the more steadily the socialist cause will advance in the correct direction; the more prosperous the socialist cause is, the more indestructible the leadership of the Communist Party will be.

This logic of governance and history is particularly fully reflected in China. Chinese and foreign history shows that the key to what kind of doctrine a country practices and what kind of road it takes depends on whether this doctrine and this road can solve the historical issues facing the country; whether this doctrine or this road is good or bad depends on the historical role it plays, depends on its actual results, and is judged by the people.

After the Opium War, the human invasion of the Western powers brought China to the brink of extinction, and China was trapped in a dark situation of broken people, frequent wars, internal and external troubles, and Chinese the people fell into the deep suffering of the people. In order to save the country from peril and realize national rejuvenation, countless people with lofty ideals have designed various political propositions, attracted many “isms”, established various political parties, and put forward various national salvation plans, but none of them can fundamentally solve China’s problems. The Taiping Rebellion failed; the peasant class was not the representative of the advanced productive forces, could not put forward a system and program that represented the requirements for the development of the advanced productive forces, and the old-style peasant revolution could not defeat the feudal dynasty; the foreign affairs movement failed, the self-help movement of the feudal clique could not resist the Western powers, and the establishment of “foreign affairs” could not revive China; the reform of the law failed, the bourgeois reformists could not defeat the feudal diehards, and the restoration and reform of the law could not save China; the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the rule of the Qing dynasty. After the Xinhai Revolution, the Chinese ruling clique tried the presidential system and parliamentary system, but they did not work, and finally fell under the KMT-Party dictatorship, and the national rejuvenation still did not know where the road was. History calls for truly qualified mission bearers. In the repeated comparisons of history, in the repeated weighing of various propositions and roads, in the repeated contests of various political forces, in the fierce struggle of the Chinese people against feudal rule and foreign aggression, and in the process of combining Marxism-Leninism with the Chinese workers’ movement, the Chinese people finally chose the Communist Party of China and, under the leadership of the Party, finally chose socialism.

From the Chinese Communists with Comrade Mao Zedong as the main representative exploring the socialist road and laying the institutional foundation for socialism, to the Chinese Communists with Comrade Deng Xiaoping as the main representative successfully opening up the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics, to the Chinese Communists with Comrade Jiang Zemin as the main representative successfully pushing socialism with Chinese characteristics into the 21st century, to the Chinese Communists mainly represented by Hu Jintao successfully adhering to and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics at a new historical starting point, the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics has become more and more extensive under the leadership of the Communist Party of China.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core has united and led the whole party and the people of all ethnic groups throughout the country to comprehensively examine the new international and domestic situations, and by summarizing practice and looking forward to the future, has profoundly answered the major topic of the times of “what kind of socialism with Chinese characteristics to adhere to and develop in the new era, how to adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics”, and founded Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, promoting the Party and the country’s cause to achieve historic achievements. Historic changes have taken place, and socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era. It is precisely by relying on the relay struggle of generations of Chinese Communists that China has made great strides along the socialist road to catch up with the times, and the Chinese nation has ushered in a great leap from standing up, getting rich to becoming strong, and ushered in an unprecedented bright prospect of great rejuvenation. In this way, the leadership of the Communist Party of China is closely related to the creation, development and improvement of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and the leadership of the Communist Party of China determines the fate and future of socialism with Chinese characteristics.