Strong Political Party and Its Social Basis: The Mechanism Analysis of the Chinese Communist Party Taking Root in Beijin
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Strong Political Party and Its Social Basis: The Mechanism Analysis of the Chinese Communist Party Taking Root in Beijing, 1949–1952 Huangfeng Tang1 · Hao Wang2 Received: 20 October 2019 / Accepted: 18 June 2020 © Fudan University 2020
Abstract Based on the archival research, the authors take the experience of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in urban governance (1949–1952) as the subject of research and select the city of Beijing as its case study. Focusing on the process of the CCP taking root in Beijing, the authors attempt to answer the following question: how the CCP achieved effective governance and orderly construction in the urban society where its power foundation was very weak at that time? The historical archives indicate that the CCP’s process of taking root in the city from 1949 to 1952 encompasses three mechanisms: (1) the Growing and Infiltrating Mechanism; (2) the Movement Embedding Mechanism; (3) the Interest Integrating Mechanism. Based on the analysis of those mechanisms and utilizing a Party-center perspective, this article draws inspiration from historical archives and argues that the CCP is a Strong Political Party. And the authors conclude that the sufficient condition for a Strong Political Party lies in three facets: (1) strong organizational network; (2) strong social mobilization; (3) strong social support. Investigating the CCP’s process of taking root in Beijing from 1949 to 1952 can help us to re-examine the governing logic of the CCP and reflect its uniqueness—maintaining independent superpower and gaining a consolidated social basis. This paper may provide a new interpretation of how the CCP could take root in Beijing, which may enrich our understanding of the CCP’s nature. Keywords Chinese Communist Party · Taking root · City · Mechanism · Strong political party · Social basis
* Hao Wang [email protected] 1
School of Marxism, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
2
Department of Government and Public Administration, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR, China
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Chinese Political Science Review
1 Introduction Whenever a major historical juncture comes, studying the founding of one’s own country often awakens people’s precious memories of the great traditions and strengthens citizens’ political identity. By examining the founding history of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) carefully, we have a more profound understanding of the essential attribute of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After that the three major battles (Liaoshen, Pingjin, and Huaihai) between the CPP and Kuomintang officially ended on January 31, 1949—namely, the CCP won a decisive military victory, taking root in cities becomes “the dilemma of victory” for the CCP (Brown and Pickowicz 2007). Briefly, after the decisive military victory, the CCP has to resolve the “dilemma of victory” nationally and strategically. Hence, in March 1949, Mao Zedong pointed out that “the center of gravity of the Party’s work has shifted from the village to the city” (Mao 1961: 363). As a p
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