How does the Chinese Communist Party govern the country?

Chapter 5

Zhao Qi, former director of the Information Office of the State Council of China, was having a conversation with futurists John Naisbitt and Doris Naisbitt when he was asked a question: Can the Chinese social system be described in the same way as Western societies? As simple as the system?Zhao Qizheng admits that it is indeed necessary to use more words to describe China's social system, but with the development of China's economy and society, when things in China become familiar to the world, it is possible to use more concise language to describe them.Indeed, the most basic and reliable way to understand China’s fundamental political system, which embodies that all power belongs to the people—the People’s Congress system, is to trace the evolution of the origin of this system.

As we all know, the establishment and revolution of the Communist Party of China were deeply influenced by Lenin and the Russian October Revolution led by Lenin, and the Soviet regime system established by Soviet Russia during the revolution also had a great influence on the Communist Party of China. During the Russian Revolution in 1905, there was a kind of representative meeting organized by striking workers as a strike committee, which was simply called a "Soviet".Because it has the dual nature of a workers' uprising organ and a workers' self-government, it is very suitable for the Communists to use it to lead the workers' struggle against the government, and use it as a synonym for the highest authority of the government after the victory of the revolution, so as to implement the intention of class dictatorship .

During the establishment of the Communist Party of China, the term "Soviet" was gradually accepted. In August and September 1920, Cai Hesen, who was working as a part-time student in France, clearly pointed out in two letters to Mao Zedong that the Soviet was "a political organization after the proletarian revolution" and that class struggle "is to break down the middle class machine (the congress government ), and build the machine of the proletariat - the Soviets".

In the first party program established and adopted by the Communist Party of China in July 1921, it clearly stated that "the party recognizes the Soviet management system and organizes workers, peasants, laborers and soldiers."

After the KMT and the Communist Party first split in 1927, marked by the Autumn Harvest Uprising led by Mao Zedong and the march to Jinggangshan, the Chinese revolution created a road different from the Soviet-Russian revolutionary road of encircling cities from the countryside and seizing power by armed forces.By June 1930, the CCP had successively established more than a dozen base areas, distributed in Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian and other provinces.The township, district, and county Soviet regimes successively established in these places were supported by the masses of workers and peasants.

Because the Chinese Communists at that time generally did not understand Russian and could not really understand the meaning of "Soviet", they used "Congress of Soviets", "Soviet Workers' and Peasants' Republic", "People's Republic of Soviets", "Sovietism", "Soviet Union" for a long time. activist" etc.

In November 1931, the First National Congress of the Chinese Soviet was held in Ruijin, Jiangxi.The Congress passed the "Constitution Outline of the Chinese Soviet Republic", which clearly stipulates: "The Chinese Soviet regime established a state of democratic dictatorship of workers and peasants. The entire Soviet power belongs to workers, peasants, Red Army soldiers and all toiling people. In the Soviet Union Under the regime, all workers, peasants, Red Army soldiers and all toiling people have the right to select representatives to control the administration of power.” “The supreme power of the Chinese Soviet Republic is the General Assembly of the National Workers, Peasants and Soldiers Conference (Soviet)”.The congress declared the establishment of the Chinese Soviet Republic and elected Mao Zedong as its chairman. In January 11, the Second National Congress of the Chinese Soviet was held, but due to the failure of the fifth counter-campaign against "encirclement and suppression", the Central Soviet Area and other southern Soviet areas were lost one after another, and the Red Army was forced to go on a long march.Later, after the Red Army arrived in northern Shaanxi, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region became the central area of ​​the Chinese Soviet Republic.

In order to meet the needs of the Anti-Japanese War, the Communist Party of China continued to explore the organizational form of the regime, absorbed the enlightened gentry, the national bourgeoisie and other classes, established the "three-three system" anti-Japanese democratic regime, and implemented the council system in the border areas.The Senate is not only an organ of public opinion, consultation, and deliberation, but also the highest legislative, power, and supervisory organ in the border region.Xu Teli pointed out: "Parliament in history was just an organ of speech... Our Senate is elected by the people and replaced by the people, and the Senate becomes the real representative of the people." Based on the experience of political power construction during this period, The CCP put forward the preliminary idea of ​​establishing the people's congress system.

In January 1940, Mao Zedong pointed out in "On New Democracy" that the so-called "regime" issue, "China can now adopt the National People's Congress, the Provincial People's Congress, the County People's Congress, the District People's Congress to the Township People's Representative a system of congresses, and the election of the government by the congresses at all levels". In April 1, Mao Zedong reaffirmed in his article "On the Coalition Government": "The political organization of New Democracy should adopt democratic centralism, and the people's congresses at all levels decide on major policies and elect the government. Centralized, that is to say, centralization on the basis of democracy, democracy under centralized guidance. Only this system can not only express a wide range of democracy, but also enable the people's congresses at all levels to have a higher degree of power; So that governments at all levels can centrally handle all the affairs entrusted by the people's congresses at all levels, and guarantee all necessary democratic activities of the people." After discussion and consideration, in September 1945, the border region council and the government decided to first transfer the township council It was changed to the Township People's Representative Conference.

With the smooth progress of the Liberation War, in order to welcome the birth of the new regime, Mao Zedong pointed out in January 1948: "In the present period...we should convene the people's congresses of the county, city, province or border area to elect the governments at all levels. In the future, after the victory of the revolution throughout the country, the central and local governments at all levels should be elected by the people's congresses at all levels." In September 1, Mao Zedong specifically expounded the issue of establishing the system of people's congresses, and criticized the copying and copying of the past The practice of the Soviet Union, he said: "Does the system of our regime adopt a parliamentary system or a democratic centralism? In the past we called the Soviet Congress system, and the Soviet was the representative meeting. We also called 'Soviet' and 'Congress'. 'Congress of Soviets' became 'Congress of Representatives Congress'. This is a dead foreign term. Now we use the term 'Congress of People's Representatives'. We adopt democratic centralism, not bourgeois parliamentarism. Parliamentary system, Yuan Shikai and Cao Kun have both done it, and it is already stink. It is very appropriate to adopt democratic centralism in China.

We proposed to hold a people's congress, and Sun Yat-sen's will also stated that a national assembly should be held, and the Kuomintang recited the will every day, and they could not object.The foreign bourgeoisie could not object either, and they did not object to Chiang Kai-shek's opening of the 'National Congress' twice. ... I think we can decide in this way that there is no need for bourgeois parliamentarism and the separation of powers. In March 1949, when Mao Zedong made a summary at the Second Plenary Session of the Seventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, he once again compared the people's representative conference system with the bourgeois parliamentary system, pointing out that the bourgeois parliamentary system is not suitable for China's national conditions.

The core content of the people's congress system is to convene a people's congress to form a government, and the CCP initially designed the nation-building procedure based on this path. On April 1948, 4, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued a slogan to commemorate the "May 30st" Labor Day: "All democratic parties, all people's organizations, and all social leaders quickly convene a political consultation meeting to discuss and realize the convening of the People's Congress and the establishment of a democratic society. Coalition government." However, in the case of civil war with the Kuomintang, it is impossible to convene a people's congress that has been fully elected by universal suffrage. In view of this, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the democratic parties have the same idea: it is possible to go directly to the Political Consultative Conference without going through the people's congress A provisional central government emerges.Therefore, on June 1949, 6, Mao Zedong officially announced at the preparatory meeting for the new CPPCC: quickly convene a new political consultative conference, establish a democratic coalition government, in order to lead the people of the whole country, eliminate the remnants of the Kuomintang reactionaries at the fastest speed, and unify across China.

In September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference elected the Central People's Government with Mao Zedong as the chairman, and adopted the "Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference" with the nature of a provisional constitution. The Common Program stipulates that the state power of the People's Republic of China belongs to the people.The organs through which the people exercise state power are the people's congresses and people's governments at all levels.This preliminarily established the political and legal status of the people's congress system in China.

(End of this chapter)