100 years of the Chinese Communist Party
It is interesting, if not ironic, that the first 12 members of what was to become China’s Communist Party faced persecution and violence.
It was on July 1, 1921, that the small group of people met in Shanghai’s French Concession for the First National Party Congress, hoping that their illegal meeting would not be noticed in an enclave of the French Empire.
It was not to be. They were discovered and had to continue their gathering on a boat out in rural Zhejiang province.
These were the humble beginnings of what today, 100 years later, is a powerful player on the world’s stage. An article in ChinaSource explores how China’s Communist Party grew through violent struggle, the challenges in 1921 were only the beginning, and by being ideologically flexible. For example, by adapting Communist ideas to the Chinese context, creating an economic model called ‘State Capitalism’ and through flexible policy decisions in responding to an online world.
The writer calls on readers to move away from a simplistic way of looking at China, by solely looking for stories about control and repression.
“If we really want to understand what has enabled the Party not simply to subsist but thrive over the past one hundred years, we must look beyond our preferred narratives and “seek truth from facts”, the writer says.
“The Party has forged a path of wealth and power for China in the modern world by leaning heavily on both muscular wartime narratives of struggle and on being flexible enough to deal with contextual challenges. At various times hard and rigid, at other times, soft and flexible, the Party will continue to adapt its policy responses to modern challenges faced by the Party and the People of China”.
Religious freedom restrictions
As for its dealings with Christians and other religious minorities, in 2021 the Party appears to be moving away from ‘soft and flexible’ to be more ‘hard and rigid’. Reports by two religious freedom organizations published earlier this year, warned of further religious freedom restrictions.
They noted an increase in cases in which Christians had been charged with “harming national security,” as well as increasing surveillance of churches. Also, in ramping up the “sinicization” of religion campaign religions with perceived foreign connections such as Christianity and Islam, were particularly targeted.
