The 1st National Congress

Date: July 23-31, 1921

Place: first in Shanghai and later moved on board a boat on Lake Nanhu in Jiaxing County, Zhejiang Province

Number of delegates: 12

Party membership: over 50

After the October Socialist Revolution in Soviet Union led by Lenin was victorious in 1917, Marxism spread to China. Some advanced Chinese intellectuals realized that Marxism was the true way of guiding the revolution to victory. In 1919, the May 4th Movement against imperialism and feudalism broke out in China. It awoke the Chinese people in an unprecedented way. After the movement, the Chinese working class, as an independent political force, entered the historical arena. A large number of revolutionary intellectuals who believed in Marxism including Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong set up communist groups across the country to spread Marxism and organize workers' movements.

Marxism was thus integrated with the Chinese workers' movements, laying a foundation for the establishment of the CPC. Between July 23 and 31, 1921, Mao Zedong, He Shuheng, Dong Biwu, Chen Tanqiu, Wang Jinmei, Deng Enming, Li Da, Li Hanjun, Zhang Guotao, Liu Renjing, Chen Gongbo and Zhou Fohai, representing 50-odd members of various communist groups, held the first National Congress of the CPC, and the Communist Party of China was therefore officially founded.

The central task of the 1st National Congress was to discuss the question of officially establishing the Chinese Communist Party. The congress adopted the first Party program and decided on the name of the Party as the Communist Party of China. It decided on the objectives of the Party as follows: to overthrow the bourgeoisie by means of the revolutionary army of the proletariat, to rebuild the country by the laboring classes and to work for the ultimate elimination of class distinction; to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat in order to attain the objective of class struggle, that is, the elimination of classes; and to abolish ownership by capitalists and establish ownership by the entire society through confiscating all the means of production. The congress also adopted the Resolution on the Present Tasks, according to which the central task of the Party after its founding was to get the working class organized and to provide guidance to the workers' movement.

The congress elected Chen Duxiu, Zhang Guotao and Li Da to form the Central Bureau with Chen serving as its secretary.