History has it that what we have today as political parties first started as factional or interest groups in the late 1600’s among the ancient Greeks who were pioneers in developing democracy and later extended to the Romans and Americans, and other part of the world. Among the Romans for example, a semblance of political parties was noticed in the senate of the ancient Romans where they had two groups that represented people with different interests — the Patricians and the Plebeians.
It was said that the Patricians represented noble families, while the Plebeians represented the wealthy merchants and the middle class. And in 1678, the first formal political party, the Popish Plot was established in England.For the Chinese society, political parties came on board in the political system following the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. This development saw a number of parties appearing to compete for the National Assembly elections and these parties were the Nationalist Party representing revolutionaries, the Republic Party representing militarists, the Unity Party representing the gentry, and the Democratic Party representing former constitutional monarchists.
The Communist Party of China(CPC) on the other hand, which has now come to be the largest political party in the world was founded in the year 1921 July 1 in Shanghai, China and it also became the state party following the defeat of the Nationalist and the formation of the People’s Republic of China(PRC) in 1949. Since the time the CCP was founded in 1921 and became the single ruling party with the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the number of its members has been increasing constantly over the years.
In 1949, CPC membership was about 4.5 million, but that has increased to 91.91 million in 2019, representing around 6.6 percent of the total Chinese population. Interestingly, as the sole governing political party in China, it has permeated all parts of the Chinese society. Structurally, CPC is made up of the National Party Congress which has 2,980 members and meets at least once annually; the Central Committee which elects a Political Bureau (Politburo) of about 20–25 full members; the Secretariat which is responsible for the day-to-day administrative affairs of the CCP. Similarly, as captured in the Britannica, the CCP has basic-level party organizations in cities, towns, villages, neighborhoods, major workplaces, schools, among others.The one important question to ask at this juncture is that, as the CPC marks One Hundred Years of its existence this year, what remarkable achievements has it made? True to fact, there is no way the success story of China, (a nation once regarded as the sick man of Asia) will be told without paying glowing tribute to the CPC as it has been in the vanguard of the development and transformation of China. I will substantiate this shortly. Firstly, the CPC has done well for strongly and firmly sticking to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which is an “overriding objective of the founding fathers of the People’s Republic(PRC).To be sure the CPC has also spear headed China’s search for different ways of development and at the end, this saw the country making giant stride in industry, military power and became highly independent. It was in recognition of these achievements that Hu Xijin in his article titled, CPC Leadership Propels China to Stardom, state, that China leveraging on its size, has already become the world’s second largest economy, just after the US thanks to the CPC.
This development therefore ranks China first in the world in mobile phone and automobile sales as the nation now has large internationally competitive corporations such as Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent and controls the global financial system and internet system and is also the world’s biggest consumer market.In addition to the foregoing, it is instructive to note that with its strong organisational structure especially its Central Committee and strong party principles, the CPC has been of serious help to the Chines society especially at critical moments and this has gone a long way in uplifting the confidence of the people. Of such critical moments, and show of resilience, is the 40 years period of reform and opening-up which is regarded or known in the West as the Opening of China the program of economic reforms termed” Socialism with Chinese characteristics” and “socialist market economy” which started on December 18, 1978 and led by Deng Xiaoping. The birth of the reform was at the close of CPC gathering that lasted over a month where the Chinese leader of the time, Deng Xiaoping delivered a speech that the overall dream and vision of China and this meeting of party elites continued five days later in paywall hotel where it is said that about 300 party faithful and strong worth accepted the proposal.
Similarly, the commemoration of the centenary of the CPC must also go with a special mention of its ability to improve people’s lives. And for me the 100-year history of the CPC is a history about eradicating poverty and backwardness, and leading people’s fight for a better life. It is said that before the formation of the CPC and throughout the periods before the reforms of 1978, Chinese nation was plagued by poverty at a scale and a level of severity which were rarely seen anywhere else in the world but the purposeful and commitment on the leadership of the CPC ( which has always taken the happiness of the people and rejuvenation of the nation as its aspiration), the world’s largest developing country has achieved a complete eradication of extreme poverty, raising more than 800 million poor people from poverty. As at end of 2020, the final 98.99 million impoverished rural residents in China had all been lifted out of poverty, and all 832 impoverished counties and 128,000 villages had been removed from the poverty list. What is clear from the foregoing therefore is that, the strategy of targeted poverty alleviation is China’s strongest “weapon” in its final battle against poverty, and a major innovation in the theory and practice of poverty reduction. Furthermore, the CPC has also catalysed, inspired and promoted national development social equity, by providing a strong political cohesion for the country with large regional differences, multiple ethnic groups, and vast territory. As argued by Hu, China is a country with a large population and vast territory like the Chinese characters, Confucian culture, and great rivers with frequent floods which have all contributed to the cohesion of the Chinese nation and the pursuit of grand unification has undoubtedly been the main theme of the Chinese civilization for thousands of years. The point is that through the instrument of the CPC a common vision that truly belongs to the entire Chinese nation has been built.Special mention of the CPC capability of the Belt and Road (BRI) which provides the world with two important examples of how to build a community of shared future. The takeaway from the BRI are that it shows that technologies across national boundaries which can benefit all and the joining of other nations in the Belt and Road will help to meet global challenges that face us all.
The mobilisation of the country by the CPC, as a whole in terms of human and material resources in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic must; fFor me this is legendry. Apart from this, the CPC also deserves commendation for the way they have embraced globalization by adopting open policy toward the rest of the world, and the reform policy, which allows foreign companies to invest in China and encourages trade with China, but at the same time protects Chinese property rights and ability to control its own affairs. Among other things the CPC has been able to achieve in the 100 years of her existence also is the breaking of barrier of Chinese inability to travel and study abroad. It is noteworthy that studying abroad was a dream out of reach for most Chinese families but now it is possible for majority of China’s middle-class families. All such changes in ordinary people’s lives are reflections of China’s development. I therefore use this medium to say some big congratulations to the CPC and the Chinese society at large for doing the unthinkable. And I believe this will throw a big challenge to other nations of the world that nothing is an impossibility.
Dr. Agaba writes from the Department of Political Science & International Relations, University of Abuja via [email protected]
