Few would have predicted the CCP’s triumph. Now it guards its power ruthlessly
One hundred years ago, 13 young Chinese men and two Comintern representatives met secretly in Shanghai’s French Concession. Fearing discovery by police, they soon fled to nearby Jiaxing, where they had to conclude discussions on a pleasure boat.
From these unpromising beginnings sprang the world’s largest and most powerful political movement: the Chinese Communist party, now 92 million strong. Within 30 years, it would control the country. A century on, it has grown into a behemoth that controls a fifth of the world’s population and its second-largest economy, and is shaking the confidence of its superpower, the US. To detractors, as well as supporters, its feat looks truly incredible. Three decades after its patron and rival, the Soviet Union, collapsed, the CCP is looking ahead: “We must march forward towards the second centenary goal,” its leader, Xi Jinping, said as celebrations of Thursday’s official anniversary gathered pace.
