Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 4, 2023

 

The Early Practice of the Sinicization of Democratic Centralism

(Abstract)

 

Wang Jianhua

 

Lenin’s theoretical interpretation and practical development of the principle of democratic centralism was the logical starting point for the Communist Party of China to construct its own organizational principles. In the context of the revolutionary war, the Party practiced the principle in a zigzag developmental process from centralization to Bolshevization and thence to innovative Sinicization in a way that profoundly demonstrated the historical process of the Sinicization of Marxist organizational principles and marked the Party’s maturity at the political, ideological and organizational level. Based on the unique and complex characteristics of the Chinese revolution, an in-depth study of the conference documents from the first to the seventh national congresses of the CPC provides solid evidence of the historical logic and practical characteristics that have enabled the Party to unceasingly eliminate the major problems facing intra-Party political life and Party system construction while striving to enrich the theoretical and practical achievements of democratic centralism, thus ceaselessly leading the Chinese revolution to victory. The Party’s early practice of promoting the Sinicization of democratic centralism has generated a huge and far-reaching influence on the construction of the theoretical and practical logic under which the Party has established Comrade Xi Jinping’s core position on the Party Central Committee and in the Party as a whole and defined the guiding role of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.