The 7th National Congress

Date: April 23-June 11, 1945

Place: Yan'an

Number of delegates: 544 full delegates and 208 alternate delegates

Party membership: 1.21 million

In 1931, the Japanese imperialists staged the September 18th Incident in an attempt to turn China into its colony. The CPC was the first to hold up the banner of armed resistance against Japan. It called on people of the whole country to fight the Japanese for the salvation of the motherland. As the revolution was resuming its momentum, Wang Ming pursued an erroneous line of "Left" dogmatism, which brought yet another serious loss to the Party. Due to the failure of the struggle against the fifth "encirclement and suppression" campaign, the Red Army was forced to undertake a strategic transfer by going on the Long March.

The Party learned its lessons from the victories and failures of the great revolution and the agrarian revolution. During the Long March, it convened a meeting in Zunyi at which it corrected the "Left" mistakes within the Party and established the leading position of the Marxist line represented by Mao Zedong. The Zunyi Meeting proved to be a critical turning point in the history of the Party. It indicated that the Party had grown out of its infancy. After the meeting, the Party led the Red Army to defeat the enemy's encirclement, pursuing and blocking tactics, and with extraordinary willpower, overcame all sorts of precarious situations.

As a result, the Red Army achieved the great victory of the Long March. In the meantime, the Party adopted the new policy of establishing a national united front against Japan. It played an active role in the peaceful settlement of the Xi'an Incident and the realization of a second time of Kuomintang-Communist cooperation, thus paving the way for the nationwide War of Resistance Against Japan.

At the 7th National Congress, April 23-June 11, 1945, Mao Zedong delivered the political report On the Coalition Government; Liu Shaoqi made the report On the Revision of the Party Constitution; Zhu De delivered the military report On the Battlefield in the Liberated Areas; and Zhou Enlai made an important speech On the United Front. The congress worked out the Party's political line which was to "boldly mobilize the masses and expand the people's forces so that, under the leadership of our Party, they will defeat the Japanese aggressors, liberate the whole people and build a new-democratic China". The new Party Constitution adopted at the congress stipulates that "the Communist Party of China takes the Mao Zedong Thought that integrated Marxist-Leninist theory with the practice of the Chinese revolution as the guideline for all its work". This helped the Party get consolidated and united in an unprecedented way, laying a foundation for the full victory against Japanese aggressors and later the nationwide victory of the people's democratic revolution.

The congress elected a new Central Committee composed of 44 members and 33 alternate members. At the First Plenary Session of the Seventh CPC Central Committee, Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai, Ren Bishi, Chen Yun, Kang Sheng, Gao Gang, Peng Zhen, Dong Biwu, Lin Boqu, Zhang Wentian and Peng Dehuai were elected to the Political Bureau of the Central Committee. Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Ren Bishi were elected members of the Secretariat, and Mao Zedong was elected chairman of the Central Committee.