the Communist Party of China which was born in a tourist boat

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is today one of the political formations with the most affiliates in the world, but its foundation, a hundred years ago, was marked by the secrecy of a first Congress which ended up being held in a small boat leisure, now elevated to the rank of founding myth.

Currently, the CCP has almost 92 million membersBut in 1920, in its embryonic phase, there were only 58 young people, all well-educated, well-off and from wealthy families.

A year later, pushed by representatives of the Communist International, the I Party Congress, to which they went 13 representatives from seven different regions of the country, including Mao Tse Tung, then 28, who would eventually become the founder and first ruler of the People’s Republic of China.

However, Mao, the most famous figure internationally, was not elected general secretary, a post which passed into the hands of Chen Duxiu, who was unable to attend the meeting. Of the 13 representatives, only Mao and Dong Biwu were present at the proclamation of the People’s Republic in 1949.

The legend of the “red boat”

Congress began on July 23, 1921 in one of ‘shikumen’ (low stone houses) of Shanghai, located in the now popular commercial and tourist area of ​​Xintiandi.

It was scheduled to last six sessions, and at the last session, on the 30th, Dutchman Henk Sneevliet (whose pseudonym was Maring) gave a speech which was to precede the vote on the Party’s first political program.

However, a stranger broke into the headquarters and representatives decided to suspend the meeting for fear of reprisals from the police. Xu Lianlin, an expert on the history of the founding of the CCP, says that at the time, trying to found a party was life threatening.

Then, the wife of Li Da, one of the emissaries, offered to move them to their hometown of Jiaxing, a well-known tourist town now located about half an hour by high-speed train from Shanghai. There, the representatives, dressed as tourists, rented a small pleasure boat on which the On August 3, 1921 formally formed the CCP and they approved their first political project.

One of the curiosities of this story is the date: if the Party was founded on August 3, why is the anniversary of its commemoration on July 1?

Xu explains that during the civil war against nationalists (1927-1949) Mao’s lieutenants offered to celebrate the anniversary of the CCP, but neither he nor Dong remembered the exact dates of the First Congress.

They were discovered years later in Soviet archives, but Mao – who only remembered July – personally made the decision to celebrate it on July 1, an official anniversary since 1941.

Although the original boat not kept, since 1959 there is a replica 16 meters long and 3 wide which has become one of the main attractions of the city, to which more than 40 million tourists arrived in 2018 after the visit of the current president , Xi Jinping.

China ready for the centenary

Known in China as “Red boat” It is a milestone in the history of the Party and also a cause for celebration for Xi, who published an article extolling the values ​​of “innovation, hard work and dedication” in the history of the foundation during his tenure. Governor of Zhejiang Province (2002-2007), where Jiaxing is located.

Over the past few weeks, China adorns itself to commemorate the centenary of the CCP, with major propaganda campaigns and museum openings on its history.

Huge museums have been opened in Jiaxing and Shanghai touting the Party’s successes – for example, China’s first atomic bomb, tested in 1964 – and dark episodes are left out like the Great Leap Forward or the Cultural Revolution.

In Shanghai, located a few meters from the ‘shikumen’ where the First Congress began, much of the exposure to the situation prior to the founding of the CCP is reserved, in which it is used. harsh rhetoric against Western powers and its occupation of parts of the country at the beginning of the 20th century.

There, hundreds of Party members take group photos with the Communist flag and aloud take the oath that each member must take when joining the CCP.

Part of him recites: “I will protect Party secrets, I will be loyal to the Party, I will fight and fight for communism all my life, I will always be ready to sacrifice everything for the Party and for the people, and I will never betray the party.”

The author is a journalist for EFE

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