The 105-Year History of the CPC Is a History of Class Struggle
By Hao Guisheng. Written February 27, 2021; republished on Utopia (Wuyou zhi Xiang), July 3, 2026. Translated by Vero Publishing.
Without class struggle, there is no "Communist Party" in the true sense. The Manifesto says so in the clearest possible terms. This is the first criterion of whether a party is a "Communist Party" in fact as well as in name.
Author's note. To commemorate the Party's birthday, we must correctly understand the essential character of the more than one hundred years of struggle since the founding of the Communist Party of China. At present some people, consciously or not, treat the Marxist theory of class struggle and the method of class analysis as a monster to be feared by Chinese Communists, and do their utmost to avoid and criticize them. I consider this wrong. Lenin said that Marxism provides us with a guiding thread for understanding history and reality, and that thread is class struggle and the method of class analysis. The founding and development of the Communist Party of China are the product of Chinese Communists, represented by Mao Zedong, integrating the theory of class struggle and the idea of "abolishing private property" in the Communist Manifesto with the practice of class struggle in China. In 2021, on the Party's centenary, I wrote "The 100-Year History of the Communist Party of China Is a History of Class Struggle." I republish it now in commemoration!
July 3, 2026
This year marks the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The Party Central Committee has decided to commemorate it on a grand scale and has stressed the study of Party history throughout the Party. As an old Communist, I support this with both hands raised. The first chapter of the Communist Manifesto begins by stating that all history since the dissolution of primitive society has been the history of class struggles. Chairman Mao also said: "Class struggle, some classes triumph, others are eliminated. Such is history; such is the history of civilization for thousands of years. To interpret history from this viewpoint is historical materialism; standing in opposition to this viewpoint is historical idealism." Chairman Mao said of his reading of the Communist Manifesto that he held fast to the two words "class struggle," but that the books did not speak of class struggle in China, so he set out to study it. In this sense, the history of the Communist Party of China is the process by which Mao Zedong applied the Marxist viewpoint of class struggle to guide the practice of the Chinese revolution. I therefore hold that the Party's hundred years of struggle are a history of class struggle.
I. The Class Character of the Communist Party of China and Its Original Aspiration Determine That Its History Must Be a History of Class Struggle
First, we must understand this from the proletarian class character of the Communist Party of China. Marxism holds that political parties have not always existed in human society; they are a product of class society. They also differ from the state. The state, as an instrument of class oppression, came into being once class antagonisms arose. Political parties are political groups that emerged at a certain stage of class society, as feudal society disintegrated and capitalism replaced feudalism, to wage political struggle for state power. The first parties to appear were the Tories, who represented the interests of the feudal aristocracy, and the Whigs, who represented the interests of the bourgeoisie. In the course of the bourgeoisie's struggle against the feudal aristocracy, the proletariat began to enter the historical stage as a political force, and parties of a proletarian character representing its interests appeared, first the Chartists in England and the League of the Just in France and Germany. The defining attribute of a political party is its class character, and its function and central task is class struggle. Marx and Engels formed the Communist League, that is, the Communist Party, by reorganizing the League of the Just. The Communist Manifesto states plainly that the class character of the Communist Party is that of a party representing the fundamental and long-term interests of the vast exploited and oppressed proletariat, a political group that fights for those interests. The first and foremost attribute of a Communist Party is its proletarian class character; the Manifesto makes this perfectly clear. Being a political organization representing the fundamental interests of the proletariat, it must wage unceasing and permanent struggle against the bourgeoisie and the system of exploitation that oppress, exploit and harm those interests; only then is it a "Communist Party" in fact as well as in name. The Communist Party of China took the words "Communist Party" from the Communist Manifesto. From the moment of its founding, therefore, it was a party of the Chinese proletariat, or the Chinese working class, and it must struggle for the fundamental interests of the Chinese proletariat and the broadest masses of exploited and oppressed working people. Without class struggle, there is no "Communist Party" in the true sense.
Second, we must understand this from the Party's "original aspiration" and "mission" at its founding. The program and the means of realizing it that the Communist Party of China adopted at its founding were based on the Communist Manifesto. The most important idea, the core, of the Manifesto and related works is the seizure of power, the "abolition of private property," the "two most radical ruptures,"[1] and the dictatorship of the proletariat. "The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property." "The Communist revolution is the most radical rupture with traditional property relations; no wonder that its development involves the most radical rupture with traditional ideas." "The class struggle necessarily leads to the dictatorship of the proletariat; this dictatorship itself only constitutes the transition to the abolition of all classes and to a classless society." Accordingly, the Party program adopted at the Party's founding stated clearly: "Our Party's program is as follows: (1) The revolutionary army must, together with the proletariat, overthrow the political power of the capitalist class, and must support the working class until class distinctions in society are eliminated; (2) the dictatorship of the proletariat is recognized until the end of class struggle, that is, until class distinctions in society are abolished; (3) the private ownership of capital is abolished, and all means of production, such as machines, land, buildings and semi-finished goods, are confiscated; (4) the Party unites with the Third International."[2] These four points are, in their basic content, an extremely concise summary of the ideas of the Communist Manifesto: the abolition of private property, proletarian class struggle, the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the union of the proletarians. The Party's "original aspiration" can thus be summed up in three points: first, the clear banner of Marxism-Leninism; second, the ideal and goal of abolishing private property and realizing communism; third, the class struggle of the masses and the proletarian character of the Party. To sum up the Party's "original aspiration" in one sentence: under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, to lead the proletariat and the masses, through the practice of class struggle, to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally to abolish private property and realize the emancipation of the proletariat and the ideal of communism. More simply still: to struggle all one's life for the cause of communism. "Striving" for this "original aspiration" determines that the history of the Communist Party of China must be a history of class struggle.
II. The Party's Hundred Years Are a History of Consciously Applying the Theory of Class Struggle to Guide Practice
Marxism holds that the history of human society since the rise of classes is the history of class struggles. This is said from the standpoint of the objective laws of class struggle. The history of class struggle of the Communist Party of China is both an objective historical process and the process by which Chinese Communists consciously applied the Marxist theory of class struggle to lead the proletariat and working people in actively waging class struggle, driving history forward through this struggle and striving to fulfill and realize the Party's "original aspiration."
1. The history of the new-democratic revolution is a history of class struggle
Soon after its founding in 1921, the Communist Party of China joined with the Kuomintang led by Sun Yat-sen in the struggle to overthrow the warlords at home and defeat imperialism abroad. In 1927, facing the Kuomintang reactionaries' betrayal of the revolution and their frenzied massacre of Communists in the April 12 counter-revolutionary coup, the Chinese Communists buried the bodies of their comrades, wiped the blood from their own bodies, and launched the Nanchang Uprising and the Autumn Harvest Uprising. They took up armed revolution against armed counter-revolution, established the Jinggangshan revolutionary base, and successfully smashed four counter-revolutionary encirclement campaigns by the Kuomintang reactionaries. After the defeat in the fifth counter-encirclement campaign, they led the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red Army on the world-famous 25,000-li Long March. The Zunyi Conference established Comrade Mao Zedong's leading position in the whole Party and army, and in effect established a correct ideological and political line integrating Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution, establishing the guiding role of Mao Zedong Thought in the Chinese revolution. When Japan's war of aggression against China broke out and the national contradiction rose to become the principal contradiction, the Chinese Communists formed a second united front with the Kuomintang, while always adhering to the line of independence and waging struggle against the die-hard forces in the Kuomintang "on just grounds, to our advantage, and with restraint."[3] At last, after fourteen years of bloody fighting, they led the Chinese people and all progressive forces to great victory in the War of Resistance against Japan. After three more years of the War of Liberation, they drove the Kuomintang reactionaries led by Chiang Kai-shek onto a small island, liberated all of China, and founded the People's Republic of China. The Communist Party of China won the great victory of the new-democratic revolution, and from then on the Chinese people stood up. This is a history of class struggle, an objective fact no one can deny.
2. The history of socialist revolution and construction is a history of class struggle
After seizing power, the Communist Party of China began to lead the Chinese people in great socialist construction. But after the victory of the democratic revolution, was class struggle still needed? Was the revolution to continue? Comrade Mao Zedong answered clearly: after the enemies with guns have been wiped out, there will still be enemies without guns. The victory of the democratic revolution was only the first step in a ten-thousand-li long march; the road ahead would be longer, harder and greater; the revolution must continue and be carried through to the end! The corruption case of Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, who were executed in 1952, was a concrete expression of class struggle after the victory of the revolution. The great War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea that followed was not simply a struggle to defend the homeland; it was a sharp and fierce international class struggle between the two opposing camps of socialism and capitalism, in defense of the great cause of socialism. The "Three Antis" and "Five Antis" campaigns, the criticism of the film The Life of Wu Xun, the cooperative movement and the Anti-Rightist struggle that followed were all prominent manifestations of class struggle in the historical stage of socialism. In 1957, in "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People" and "Speech at the Chinese Communist Party's National Conference on Propaganda Work," Chairman Mao explained repeatedly that although the large-scale, turbulent class struggles of the masses were over, class struggle in the ideological field still existed, and the question of which would win out, socialism or capitalism, had not yet been fundamentally resolved. In 1962, against the mistaken tendency within the Party and in society to deny the objective existence of class struggle, Mao issued to the whole Party at the Tenth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee the great call: "Never forget class struggle." He pointed out at the same time that socialism is a fairly long historical stage, throughout which there are classes and class struggle, the danger of capitalist restoration, and struggle between two classes, two roads and two lines. Class struggle must be talked about every year, every month, every day. Meanwhile, after the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party, Khrushchev's renegade clique began to pursue internationally a line of capitulation to imperialism, the "three peacefuls and one less," while at home it launched a great campaign against Stalin and pursued a revisionist line across the board, taking the capitalist road. The Chinese Communists published the Nine Commentaries and other texts, opening the great struggle against modern revisionism. The Socialist Education Movement launched at home in 1963, and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution begun in 1966, were the great continuation of class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat.
After Chairman Mao's death in 1976, although his theory of taking class struggle as the key link and of continuing revolution was thoroughly repudiated, the struggle between socialism and capitalism, between the broad masses and the capitalist-roaders in power, the struggle between two classes, two roads and two lines, never ceased; it has even become fiercer. The broad masses of Communist Party members and people who genuinely uphold Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought have waged unceasing struggle against every kind of capitalist-road behavior carried out in the name of "reform and opening up," against the spread of exploiting-class ideology, and against the extremely serious corruption and revisionism it has produced. They have resolutely resisted and fought imperialism's peaceful evolution, economic aggression and cultural infiltration against China. The spiritual legacy and accumulated strength of the Chinese Communists of the Mao Zedong era are still being carried forward in China today. They are not only the fundamental reason for the great achievements of socialist modernization but also the inner factor behind the Chinese people's great victory in the fight against the pandemic.
3. Line struggles within the Party are the reflection of class struggle within the Party
In both the democratic revolution and the historical stage of socialism, there has always been struggle within the Party between correct and incorrect lines. This struggle has epistemological causes, of course, but in the final analysis it is the reflection within the Party of class struggle in society. The struggle to uphold the correct line against incorrect lines is in essence also the upholding of the Marxist theory and practice of class struggle.
4. The spirits the Party has nurtured over a hundred years are in essence the spirit of class struggle
In its hundred years of history, our Party has nurtured the spirit of the Red Boat, of Jinggangshan, of the Long March, of Yan'an, of the War of Resistance, of Xibaipo, of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, of Lei Feng, of Daqing, of Dazhai, of the "Two Bombs and One Satellite," of Jiao Yulu, and more. The red thread, the main line, the core running through all these spirits is the spirit of class struggle. Apart from class struggle, the essence of none of these spirits can be clearly explained. The Party's practice of class struggle gave birth to the great spirit of class struggle.
5. The process of integrating Marxism-Leninism with the practice of the Chinese revolution is itself a process of class struggle
The Party's hundred years of history can also be called the history of the Sinicization of Marxism, of its integration with Chinese revolution and construction. This process of integration was the integration of Marxist theory, with class struggle at its core, with the practice of class struggle in China. In the practice of class struggle through which this integration took place, the ever-victorious Mao Zedong Thought took shape, constantly enriching and developing Marxism-Leninism and becoming the third milestone in its development. Without the practice of class struggle, there could have been no development of Marxism and no formation of Mao Zedong Thought.
The Party's hundred years of history can also be called a history of serving the people completely and thoroughly, a history of struggle for the fundamental interests and the complete emancipation of the broadest masses of the Chinese people. And the starting point and the destination of the history of class struggle are precisely the fundamental interests and the fundamental emancipation of the people. Apart from the practice of class struggle, there can be no talk of realizing the people's fundamental interests or achieving their fundamental emancipation.
To explain the hundred-year history of the Communist Party of China from the standpoint of class struggle is historical materialism; to do otherwise is historical idealism.
III. Only by Continuing to Uphold the Marxist Theory of Class Struggle as the Guide to the Party's Practice Can the Great Goal of Communism Be Achieved
To study the Party's hundred-year history, we must first acknowledge that it is a history of class struggle. Only by acknowledging this most basic objective fact can we, on that basis, sum up and draw out more concrete experiences and lessons, carry out the study of Party history in the true sense, and climb to a higher level on the foundation of the Party's enormous achievements over a hundred years. How, then, should we further uphold the Marxist theory of class struggle in future practice and continue to let it guide the Party's activity? I offer a few preliminary proposals.
1. We must be truly clear about the place of the theory of class struggle in the whole body of Marxist doctrine
Every Party congress has stated clearly that Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought are the guiding ideology of Chinese Communists. What, then, is the essence and core of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought? I have stated clearly in many articles that Marxism is the open and developing scientific system, founded by Marx and Engels on the theoretical basis of historical materialism, concerning the opposition and struggle between socialism and capitalism, the ultimate victory over capitalism and the realization of communism, through which the proletariat emancipates itself. Its basic or core content is the communist doctrine, guided by historical materialism, of the opposition between socialism and capitalism, and of the final victory over capitalism through the practice of class struggle, by which the proletariat emancipates itself. In this sense Marxism is the theory of how socialism defeats and abolishes capitalism and every system of exploitation; it is the theory of class struggle. Without the theory of class struggle, the essential character of Marxism cannot be explained at all, and Marxism-Leninism cannot truly be upheld and developed. Some in China's intellectual and theoretical circles today flatly deny that class struggle is part of Marxism, let alone its core, and even follow at the heels of imperialism and every bourgeois thinker in viciously attacking and denigrating the Marxist theory of class struggle. However hoarsely such people shout "uphold Marxism," they are certainly not Marxists; there is not a trace of Marxism about them.
2. To uphold the Marxist theory of class struggle, we must be clear about what socialism is, what capitalism is, and why socialism must replace capitalism
Any theory's analysis of reality must explain what in real life is true and what is false, what is advanced and what is backward. Marxism is a theory for changing the world, but it also has the function of explaining the world. Its greatest function is to explain what socialism is and what capitalism is, why socialism is the most progressive and advanced element of humanity today, and why socialism must replace capitalism. Only by being clear about these questions can we truly uphold socialism, criticize and abolish capitalism, and realize communism. All the works of Marxism, and above all its chief works, the Communist Manifesto and Capital, give the most scientific account and exposure of the nature of socialism and capitalism, and demonstrate the historical necessity of socialism replacing capitalism. The writings of Marx and Engels make it perfectly clear: capitalism is private ownership; it is the bourgeoisie using its ownership of the means of production to appropriate in the end the surplus value created by the workers. These relations of production played a progressive role when feudalism was disintegrating and capitalism rising, but as the productive forces developed they began to fetter them, and so they must be replaced by new relations of production, socialism. Socialism grows up within capitalism as the negation of capitalist private ownership. Its first feature is public ownership of the means of production, and its corresponding political feature is the dictatorship of the proletariat. As the negating element of capitalism, it represents the progressive direction and trend of historical development. On the basis of this objective law of historical development, Communists, through the practice of class struggle, gradually abolish private property, carry out the two radical ruptures, abolish classes, and realize a communist society without exploitation or oppression. It was on the basis of this fundamental Marxist idea that the Communist Party of China guided its revolutionary practice and achieved its extremely great achievements, which have drawn the world's attention. Practice has proved that socialism has incomparably great advantages over capitalism.
Yet today this scientific theory is being distorted and repudiated to varying degrees. People distort Marx's "two will-nevers"[4] and claim that the productive forces of capitalism have not yet been fully developed, that capitalism has not yet reached the point of extinction and abolition, and that the Manifesto's conclusion about "abolishing private property" was wrong. So, they say, today's Communist Party should not "abolish private property" but support and develop it; or else "public ownership" and "private ownership" should "combine two into one," in mixed reform and mixed development, with socialism and capitalism "sharing a common destiny" in win-win cooperation. Can such talk truly uphold Marxism and scientific socialism?
3. To uphold the Marxist theory of class struggle, we must learn to use it to analyze and understand every social phenomenon in China and the world today
Class struggle is not only a theory but a stand, a viewpoint and a method. Lenin said that Marxism has given us a guiding thread that enables us to discover the laws governing what seems a labyrinth and a chaos, and that thread is the theory of class struggle. Chairman Mao said that the purpose of mastering Marxism lies entirely in applying it: if you can use the Marxist viewpoint to explain one or two practical problems, you have made some achievement, and the more problems you explain, the greater your achievement. Chairman Mao was the model and exemplar of using the Marxist viewpoint, and especially the viewpoint of class struggle, to analyze and understand China's reality. As we commemorate the Party's centenary today and recognize its history as a history of class struggle, the best commemoration is to strive to learn to apply the viewpoint of class struggle to every social phenomenon in China and the world today.
Take the ever-worsening corruption of officials. Some always explain it with the Western theory of checks on power, and always lump our country's corruption together with corruption in ancient China and in Western countries. This is wrong. In an earlier article on corruption and anti-corruption, I wrote that the essence of corruption is: "first, a living and acute expression of the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie; second, the corrupt have degenerated and changed color, utterly betraying the Communists' fundamental purpose of serving the people, their world outlook thoroughly transformed into that of the exploiting classes; third, corrupt officials are the agents within the Party of the vested interest groups that have grown rich in China today, capitalist-roaders in the Party; fourth, a concentrated expression of the complete inversion of right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, good and evil in China today." I summed up the essence of anti-corruption likewise in four sentences: "first, a sharp and fierce class struggle against capitalist restoration under the leadership of the Communist Party of China; second, a practice in which the masses actively participate, exercising their democratic rights and acting as masters of society; third, anti-corruption includes the prevention of corruption, a struggle to root out the soil and conditions that produce corruption in China today; fourth, a campaign to educate, remold and rescue people, especially leading cadres at every level."
Or take China's problems of education, healthcare and housing, which ordinary people call the "new three great mountains." What is their essence? In my view, they are in essence two fundamentally opposed lines of reform, and the essence of the line is whether one proceeds from the fundamental interests of the masses or of a minority. To push these three fields wholly onto the market is to guide China's reform by Adam Smith's idea of the "invisible hand," which Marx and Engels criticized. And the essence of the "invisible hand" is the bourgeois "theory that human nature is selfish," a theoretical weapon for defending the eternity of capitalism. Is this not a sharp and fierce class struggle in the ideological field? Is it not a typical expression of class struggle in the economic field?
Or again, in a recent article commenting on a piece by the president of Xi'an Jiaotong University, "Why Not Use Marxist Educational Thought to Understand Contemporary Chinese Education?", I pointed out that today's university presidents, though Communist Party members, do not use Marxist thought to guide China's educational reform, but consciously or not analyze and measure China's educational reform against Western educational theories and models. Is the use of two fundamentally different theories of education to guide educational reform not a concrete expression of class struggle in the field of education?
The same is true of the international situation. In recent years many officials have understood the trade war the United States launched against China merely as "trade friction" between national interests, rather than analyzing it from the standpoint of the imperialist nature of the United States. All these phenomena show that many of our officials and comrades do not yet understand, or simply cannot use, the Marxist viewpoint of class struggle to analyze and explain problems. How, then, can they uphold "Marxism" and "socialism"?
Moreover, there are many differing and even opposing views within the Party and in society on many major historical events and figures of the Mao Zedong era and the decades since. In my view, they can be correctly understood only by using the Marxist stand, viewpoint and method, and especially the viewpoint and method of class struggle. I hope that the Party Central Committee will give full play to democracy, refrain from wielding clubs and pinning on labels, and, in a spirit of open debate and discussion, will surely be able to give a scientific account and explanation.
4. Uphold the Marxist "philosophy of struggle" and wage resolute and unceasing struggle against capitalist, feudal and other exploiting-class ideologies
In the scientific Marxist understanding of "class struggle," class struggle is the all-round struggle between opposed classes, in the economic, political and cultural spheres, over economic interests. This theory of class struggle has the law of the unity of opposites as its philosophical basis. The struggle of opposites is absolute and unconditional; their identity is relative and conditional. The combination of conditional, relative identity with unconditional, absolute struggle makes up the movement of contradiction in all things. But after Mao Zedong's theory of taking class struggle as the key link was repudiated, some people inverted the relationship between the absoluteness of struggle and the relativity of identity, turning the absoluteness of struggle into relativity and the relativity of identity into absoluteness. They distorted Mao Zedong's inseparable relationship between struggle and identity into a so-called "philosophy of struggle" that admits no identity at all. This is a complete distortion of the materialist-dialectical theory of contradiction, meant to provide a philosophical basis for their repudiation of Mao Zedong's theory of class struggle. Today, in upholding the Marxist theory of class struggle, we must also uphold the basic principle of materialist dialectics on the relationship between the absoluteness of struggle and the relativity of identity.
While stressing the decisive role of the unity of opposites in the development of things, Lenin especially stressed that development is "the struggle of opposites." It was in this sense that Mao Zedong said the philosophy of Communists is the "philosophy of struggle." In 2019, at an important meeting, Comrade Xi Jinping also stressed that Communists must carry forward the "fighting spirit."[5] Struggle against whom? Clearly against capitalism, against imperialism, against feudalism, and against every hostile force and mistaken current of thought that obstructs the progress of history. The first spirit and character of a true Communist, grounded in communist ideals and convictions, is the courage to wage sustained struggle against every hostile force. Struggle is a basic element of a Communist's life. Without struggle there is no development, no progress, and no true Communist. The most precious spiritual quality of the countless revolutionary martyrs and revolutionary forerunners who heroically sacrificed themselves and made outstanding contributions to the founding, construction and development of New China was their spirit of struggle and sacrifice. On the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the best commemoration is forever to carry on and carry forward the heroic spirit of struggle and sacrifice of the revolutionary martyrs and forerunners, and to "struggle" to the end for our common great goal of communism!
Translator's Notes
1. The "two most radical ruptures" (两个决裂). From the Communist Manifesto: the Communist revolution is "the most radical rupture with traditional property relations" and with "traditional ideas."
2. The First Program of the CPC (1921). No Chinese original survives; the text is known from Russian and English versions, and the wording quoted here follows the standard Chinese retranslation.
3. "On just grounds, to our advantage, and with restraint" (有理、有利、有节). Mao's 1940 formula for dealing with the Kuomintang die-hards during the anti-Japanese united front.
4. The "two will-nevers" (两个决不会). From Marx's 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy: "No social order ever perishes before all the productive forces for which there is room in it have developed; and new, higher relations of production never appear before the material conditions of their existence have matured in the womb of the old society itself."
5. "Fighting spirit" (斗争精神). In a September 2019 speech at the Central Party School, Xi Jinping called on young cadres to "carry forward the fighting spirit and strengthen their ability to struggle."