Special Issue Commemorating the 105th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China | The Long Wind Wraps the Battle Flag, the Red Star Forever Faces the Party
The Long Wind Wraps the Battle Flag, the Red Star Forever Faces the Party
■ Wang Qiang
Today, the Communist Party of China celebrates its 105th anniversary.
105 years of red flags unfurling like a painting, 105 years of extraordinary history like a song. The great Communist Party of China has forged ahead through every hardship, uniting and leading the people to achieve the earth-shattering founding of the Party, the world-transforming establishment of New China, the heaven-and-earth-overturning Reform and Opening Up, and in particular the "China Miracle" of the new era that has astonished the world, propelling the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation into an irreversible historical process.
The long wind wraps the battle flag; the red star forever faces the Party.
We will not forget: amid the flames and smoke of war, the bright crimson flag atop the city of Nanchang, the deafening crack of gunfire — with bold and vivid strokes, with stirring and impassioned notes, piercing the sky of history and crossing ten thousand mountains and rivers, along the rainbow-like journey sweeping across the Chinese land, they speak of the people's army's boundless loyalty to the Party, and with irrefutable facts confirm: the Party's leadership is the fundamental guarantee that the people's army has always maintained its powerful cohesion, centripetal force, creativity, and combat effectiveness.
At the rally commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, Chairman Xi pointed out: "The People's Liberation Army has always been a heroic force in which the Party and the people can place complete trust."
On the new journey, we must advance the building of the military through political work (政治建军) without pause for a single moment, conduct in-depth ideological rectification (思想整风), continuously deepen political consolidation training (政治整训), use political strength — the most fundamental form of strength — to lead the way in winning hard battles, unite hearts and minds to steadily advance the modernization of national defense and the armed forces, and strive to write a new chapter of building a strong military and revitalizing the armed forces that is worthy of our revolutionary forebears, worthy of the century-old foundation, and worthy of this great era.
I
Patriotic at heart, forged of steel in body.
Throughout its journey, the people's army has always taken the Party's banner as its own banner, the Party's direction as its own direction, and the Party's will as its own will, telling the world through one qualified answer sheet after another a simple and enduring truth: firmly upholding the Party's absolute leadership over the military is the people's army's "military soul that can never change, the lifeline (命根子) that can never be abandoned." The term "lifeline" identifies the vital point of the people's army and profoundly demonstrates the important status and great role of the Party's absolute leadership over the military.
"History contains laws; to reveal those laws one must see through history."
The fundamental principle and system of the Party's absolute leadership over the military did not arise from nothing — it was won at the cost of blood and even life, and is a great creation forged through arduous exploration.
In old China, "whoever had guns had power, and whoever had more guns had more power." Comrade Mao Zedong, in summing up historical lessons, pointed out that Communist Party members do not contend for personal military power, "but must contend for the Party's military power, must contend for the people's military power," emphasizing that "our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party."
"Not a single bullet may be deployed without going through the Party — they are under absolute Party leadership."
In a letter in the June 1929 issue of the Fourth Red Army's Front Committee Bulletin (前委通讯), Comrade Mao Zedong, addressing the internal disagreement within the Fourth Red Army over the question of who held command authority over the military, stressed that the military was to be under the Party's control.
As early as the period of the First United Front between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, our Party established Party organizations within the armed forces. The Nanchang Uprising stressed that "Party organization is the root of all organization." The Sanwan Reorganization pioneered the practice of "establishing Party branches at the company level (支部建在连上)." The Gutian Conference explicitly required that Party committees at all levels of the Red Army become "the leading nerve center." The broad ranks of officers and soldiers firmly believed: as long as we follow the Party, we will surely achieve victory.
The river of history surges onward; the test papers of the era are ever new.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, Chairman Xi has seized on the fundamental issue of upholding the Party's absolute leadership over the military, profoundly grasped the political logic that governing the country means governing the military, and revealed that "upholding the principle that the Party commands the gun and building our own people's army is an indestructible truth the Party arrived at through struggle in blood and fire." Drawing lessons from the painful experience of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, he has warned the entire military that "if this most fundamental issue cannot be held, the military will change its nature and cannot possibly have combat effectiveness." Analyzing the extreme harm of lingering toxic influences and entrenched malpractices, he has alerted the people's army that "there must absolutely be no one in the military who harbors a divided heart toward the Party, and absolutely no place for corrupt elements to hide." These earnest teachings, resonating like great bells and chimes, have stirred the three armed services and engraved listening to the Party and following the Party into the souls of officers and soldiers.
"The general who subdued the waves only wished to be wrapped in his horse's hide in death; why need the conqueror of distant lands return alive?" This heroic army of ours rose up from pools of blood, awakened through sacrifice, and wrote its military soul through victory in battle.
In 1929, the Red Army reached a turning point of life and death, "like a handful of beans clutched in the hand — loosen the grip and they scatter." The Gutian Conference established the principle of "building the Party through ideology, building the military through politics (思想建党、政治建军)," and from that moment this force had its roots and its soul. Setting out from Gutian, a political party and a military force, through dust and征途, sang one victory song after another. The Party led the people's army from victory to victory, fighting its way to a bright red new China.
Since the new era, Chairman Xi has firmly seized the "lifeline" of the Party's absolute leadership over the military, making major political designs and strategic arrangements.
— In the goal of building a strong military in the new era, obeying the Party's command is the soul, determining the political direction of military development;
— In the strategic layout for building a strong military, building the military through political work is placed first, upholding direction and grasping fundamentals, using political development to lead overall development;
— In the contemporary Chinese Marxist military outlook and methodology, upholding political guidance is the foremost principle;
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This series of combined measures has seized on the principled and fundamental questions of our military's development, clarified the internal logic of "what the military's founding principle stands for and where its foundation lies," answered the fundamental question of "who commands our military and for whom it bears arms," and made the goals and direction of advancing the building of the military through political work on the new journey ever clearer.
II
The wheels of history roll ever forward; the tide of the era surges on.
From history to today, the Party's absolute leadership over the military has formed a complete set of effective principles and systems. With this complete set of systems as guarantee, the Party's leadership operates "as the body commands the arm, as the arm commands the fingers" — the Party and the state "cannot fall into chaos," schemers "cannot stage a reversal," and the military's character "cannot change color."
— Upholding the core and resolutely obeying command is treated as the most fundamental political requirement.
Engels once offered a vivid analogy: on a ship sailing the open sea, "in a moment of danger, whether everyone's life can be saved depends on whether all can immediately and absolutely obey the will of one person." That person is "the outstanding captain with the highest authority."
Xibaipo — a small mountain village deep in the Taihang Mountains — was "the last rural command post of the CPC Central Committee." There, Comrade Mao Zedong and his comrades-in-arms used more than 400 telegrams to maneuver thousands of troops and win the Three Great Campaigns. The "dit-dah, dit-dah" of the telegraph was the voice of the Party Central Committee, the order of the supreme commander; once the order was issued, the entire military moved like the wind and followed in unison.
Entering the new era, our Party established Comrade Xi Jinping's status as the core of the Party Central Committee and the core of the entire Party, and established the guiding status of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. This reflects the common aspiration of the entire Party, the entire military, and the people of all ethnic groups across the country, and is of decisive significance for the development of the Party's and the state's undertakings in the new era and for advancing the historical process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Today's people's army is ideologically steadfast in following, politically absolutely loyal, and unified in action. At any time and under any circumstances, resolutely obeying the command of the Party Central Committee, the Central Military Commission, and Chairman Xi, and achieving absolute loyalty, absolute purity, and absolute reliability, has become the political consciousness, ideological consciousness, and action consciousness of officers and soldiers throughout the military.
— Comprehensively and thoroughly implementing the system of CMC Chairman responsibility (军委主席负责制) is observed as the highest political requirement and upheld as the highest political discipline.
"When you cut open a peach, does it have more than one pit? There is only one." This simple truth was demonstrated to the fullest along the path of the Chinese revolution.
In the early period of the Party's founding, our Party went for a long time without forming a mature Party Central Committee, let alone a core figure enjoying universal confidence, and the revolution repeatedly suffered major setbacks. It was not until after the Zunyi Conference, when Comrade Mao Zedong's leadership position began to be established, that the Chinese revolution turned from danger to safety and continued from victory to victory.
Within the complete institutional system by which the Party leads the people's army, the CMC Chairman responsibility system concerns the supreme leadership and command authority of our military, occupies the highest level and holds the overarching position, and is the fundamental form through which the Party commands the gun. The 19th National Congress of the Party enshrined in the Party Constitution the system under which the Central Military Commission operates under Chairman responsibility; deepening the reform of national defense and the armed forces formed a new pattern in which the CMC exercises overall management, theater commands focus on warfighting, and the services focus on force building, better concentrating the supreme leadership and command authority of the military in the Party Central Committee and the Central Military Commission; establishing and improving three mechanisms — requests for instructions and reporting, supervision and inspection, and information services — and issuing opinions and regulations on major matters for requesting instructions and reporting, supervising the implementation of instructions and directives, accountability and oversight, and study and education planning, driving the CMC Chairman responsibility system to be implemented across all areas and throughout the entire process of national defense and military development.
The CMC Chairman responsibility system is the institutional "leading dragon head (龙头)" of the Party's absolute leadership over the people's army. With this "stabilizing pillar (定海神针)," the people's army can face any storm without fear and advance steadily and far.
— Holding firm to ideals and convictions and steadfastly pursuing spiritual aspirations is treated as the fundamental basis for one's existence and mission.
Revolutionary ideals are higher than the heavens. On the eve of setting out to resist Japanese aggression, Red Army soldiers tearfully removed their eight-cornered caps bearing the red five-pointed star and put on the military caps and cap insignia of the Nationalist Army. "These cap insignia are white, but our hearts are forever red." In the flames of the War of Resistance Against Japan, this army fought most resolutely and sacrificed most fearlessly. Yang Jingyu, Zuo Quan, Peng Xuefeng… one glorious name after another — in their hearts they always carried Marxism, always carried the struggle and liberation of the entire Chinese nation. Looking back along the road traveled, lofty and steadfast ideals and convictions are the red genes the Party has endowed upon the people's army, and also the spiritual cipher of our invincibility.
Since the new era, the people's army has firmly established Xi Jinping's Thought on Strengthening the Military (习近平强军思想) as the fundamental guiding principle, guiding officers and soldiers to consolidate their foundations and cultivate their roots, continuously solidifying the foundation of faith, replenishing the calcium of the spirit (补足精神之钙), and steadying the helm of thought, striving to cultivate "Four-Haves (四有)" revolutionary servicemembers and forge "Four-Irons (四铁)" elite forces, ensuring that the barrel of the gun is always held in the hands of those who are loyal and reliable to the Party.
III
The Party's strength comes from organization; when organization is strong, the military is strong.
When attending the plenary session of the delegation of the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force at the Fourth Session of the 14th National People's Congress, Chairman Xi stressed that accomplishing the goals and tasks for national defense and military modernization during the 15th Five-Year Plan period ultimately depends on Party organizations at all levels to lead and advance.
During one inspection of troops, Chairman Xi spoke with deep feeling about a story from the early days of the Red Army that took place in Yongxin, Jiangxi: "There is a famous 'Red First Company.' During the 'Sanwan Reorganization' in September 1927, Comrade Mao Zedong personally established a Party branch in this company and developed six new Party members, pioneering our military's practice of 'establishing Party branches at the company level.'"
From the Party's First National Congress to the Twentieth, the Party has always attached great importance to improving and perfecting the organizational system, and every revision of the Party Constitution has given clear provisions for the organizational setup at all levels from the center to the localities. Since the 18th National Congress of the Party, a series of regulations and systems have been successively issued, including the Regulations on the Building of the Party in the Military of the Communist Party of China, the Regulations on the Work of Military Party Committees (Branches) of the Communist Party of China, and the Regulations on the Responsibility of Military Party Committees for Comprehensively and Strictly Governing the Party; the Regulations on Political Work in the Military have been revised; and the institutional framework for Party building in the military has been systematically constructed. This series of major measures and improvements in institutional implementation has made the Party's leadership and Party building in our military stronger and more powerful, with the Party's leadership capacity, organizational capacity, and execution capacity continuously strengthened, radiating new and powerful vitality.
"The enemy has more steel but less spirit; we have less steel but more spirit."
During the Battle of Triangle Hill (上甘岭), the 8th Company, 3rd Battalion, 134th Regiment, 45th Division of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army established a "temporary tunnel Party branch (坑道临时党支部)," bringing together officers and soldiers from 16 different units and holding out for 14 days and nights in tunnels cut off from water and food. Some of these soldiers had their hands or legs shot off; some had their midsections struck by shell fragments with their intestines spilling out. But in their eyes, they sought nothing but victory, and in the end they planted a battle flag bearing 381 bullet holes on the main peak of Triangle Hill.
"Pure love, only for China."
The Karakoram Mountains bear witness to these warriors who feared no sacrifice: regimental commander Qi Fabao, born in the 1970s; battalion commander Chen Hongjun, born in the 1980s; sergeants Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran, born in the 1990s; soldier Chen Xiangrong, born after 2000… The strength of a military comes from individual brave soldiers, and even more from the powerful cohesion and combat effectiveness formed under the guidance of a strong organization.
History is silent, yet it is deafening: without political indestructibility, there can be no military invincibility.
Chairman Xi has profoundly pointed out that "our military is a people's army under the absolute leadership of the Party, with a rigorous Party organizational system — this is a unique political advantage of our military and also the magic weapon (法宝) with which our military has overcome countless hardships and defeated enemies," emphasizing the need to "transform the Party's political advantages and organizational advantages into advantages for winning."
Throughout its journey, the people's army has relied precisely on a powerful organizational system to turn so many impossibilities into possibilities, so many "can'ts" into "cans," and so many question marks into exclamation points. It is precisely by giving full play to the guiding role of the Party's political direction, the leading core role of Party committees, the role of Party branches as fighting fortresses, and the vanguard and exemplary role of Party member cadres, that the people's army has been able to share the same aspirations from top to bottom, unite like steel, and thus be invincible and unconquerable.
IV
Problems are the voice of the era and the drumbeat of advance.
More than 80 years ago, in response to Huang Yanpei's question about the "historical cycle (历史周期率)," Comrade Mao Zedong gave the first answer: "Let the people supervise the government." Entering the new era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core gave the second answer in the great practice of comprehensively and strictly governing the Party: self-revolution (自我革命).
As the people's army approaches the centenary of its founding, facing the complex and profound changes in the world situation, national conditions, Party conditions, and military conditions, how can it continuously strengthen its political advantages and stride toward world-class status?
— Continuously deepen political consolidation training (政治整训).
In the deep autumn of 1927, while leading the remnants of the Nanchang Uprising forces during their transfer, Comrade Zhu De carried out three successive consolidations — the Tianxinxu Consolidation, the Dayu Reorganization, and the Shangbao Consolidation Training — collectively known in history as the "Three Consolidations in Southern Jiangxi (赣南三整)." Through this consolidation training, the ideological, organizational, and military problems most urgently needing resolution at the time were addressed, and the precious spark of the Nanchang Uprising tenaciously survived in desperate circumstances, bursting forth with new vitality.
Gutian in western Fujian is where the new-type people's army took definitive shape. At the All-Military Political Work Conference held there in 2014, Chairman Xi made deployments for building the military through political work in the new era, advancing political consolidation training with the spirit of rectification (整风精神) and leading the people's army to set out anew with renewed purpose.
Yan'an in northern Shaanxi is the sacred land of the Chinese revolution and the birthplace of the Rectification Movement. At the CMC Political Work Conference held there in 2024, Chairman Xi distilled and summarized the connotations and essential meaning of the "Ten Clarifications (十个明确)" of the new-era strategy for building the military through political work, emphasizing the need to "carry forward the spirit of thorough self-revolution and continuously deepen political consolidation training."
The Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Party incorporated "continuously deepening political consolidation training" into the Recommendations of the CPC Central Committee for Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development.
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These important statements and major measures have provided the scientific "bridge and boat (桥和船)" for deepening political consolidation training on the new journey.
— Deeply advance the struggle against corruption.
The people's army tolerates no corruption; a powerful and civilized force tolerates no stain. In 1932, the "first shot" against corruption rang out in Ruijin: Xie Busheng was sentenced to death, and Comrade Mao Zedong specifically pointed out: "If corruption is not eliminated, the Soviet banner cannot be carried forward, and the Communist Party will lose its prestige and the hearts of the people! Struggling against corruption is the sacred duty of us Communists — no one can stop it!"
In the period before the 18th National Congress of the Party, problems appeared in the military for a time, including weakening of Party leadership, deficiencies in Party building, and inadequate comprehensive and strict governance of the Party. This once-invincible mighty force had arrived at a life-or-death crossroads.
"Corruption is the greatest threat facing our Party; the struggle against corruption is the most thorough form of self-revolution." "Corruption is the greatest malignant tumor harming the Party's vitality and combat effectiveness." … Since the new era, Chairman Xi has steered the entire military in deeply advancing the building of the military through political work, solidly conducting political consolidation training, resolutely and forcefully eliminating chronic ailments, purging toxic influences, punishing corruption, and removing entrenched malpractices, resolutely fighting unhealthy tendencies to the end, driving the people's army's unique political advantages to become ever more pronounced and its overall appearance to be completely renewed.
— Continuously consolidate the purity and glory of the people's army.
Having passed through the smoke and fire of war and approaching the centenary of the military's founding, the Party has led the people's army to forge ahead through every hardship — overcoming difficulties and defeating powerful enemies in bloody battle, reforming malpractices and establishing new foundations in the crucible of fire — continuously consolidating the purity and glory of the people's army.
At that time, to ensure that the CPC Central Committee and the main force of the Central Red Army could cross the Xiang River and shatter the enemy's vain dream of annihilating the Red Army east of the Xiang River, tens of thousands of Red Army soldiers dyed both banks of the Xiang River with their blood. In April 2021, Chairman Xi made a special trip to Quanzhou, Guangxi, to pay his respects at the Memorial Park for the Xiang River Campaign of the Red Army's Long March. He said with deep emotion: once the fire of ideals and convictions is lit, it produces a tremendous spiritual force; we must cherish the memory of revolutionary martyrs, carry forward the spiritual bloodline of Communists, hold firm to ideals and convictions, and temper revolutionary will.
Not long ago, Chairman Xi wrote back to Zhang Liansheng, a 102-year-old Party member of Xinhua News Agency, stressing that "Communists of the new era must carry forward the red genes, never forget the original aspiration and keep the mission firmly in mind, fulfill duties and responsibilities, work hard and take on responsibilities, and write outstanding answer sheets on the new journey."
Under the new historical conditions, can the glorious traditions and fine conduct cultivated and formed by our Party and our military over long years of practice be passed down from generation to generation? Facing this test of the era, the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, with the determination and perseverance to fight a hard battle and a protracted battle, has moved from strictly prohibiting unauthorized drinking and comprehensively halting paid services, to rectifying "five excesses (五多)" and "micro-corruption (微腐败)," to standardizing the treatment, social interactions, and commercial activities of leading cadres' family members and children, and rectifying problems in key sectors and at the civil-military interface (军地结合部)… allowing the red genes to be passed down from generation to generation and a new, upright atmosphere to become ever more prevalent.
The new journey is a long march full of glory and dreams, and also an examination ground that tests loyalty and responsibility.
On the road ahead, we must continuously deepen political consolidation training, with emphasis on rectifying the source politically (政治上的正本清源) and moving forward with renewed purpose in action, resolving the fundamental issues of the Party's absolute leadership over the military, passing on the red genes well, and continuing the red bloodline well — with unified thinking, unified ranks, and unified steps — ensuring absolute loyalty, absolute purity, and absolute reliability.
We must plant deep in our minds the seeds of preparing for war and fighting, and ignite the beacon fires of planning for and studying war, with a spirit of seizing every moment, the courage to cut to the bone to cure the disease (刮骨疗毒), and the conduct of leaving footprints on stone (踏石留印) — establishing the thinking of a combat force, implementing the standard of combat effectiveness, and strengthening the identity of the combatant — ensuring that when the Party and the people need us, we can be mobilized at any time, go into action, and win.
We must continuously recognize change, actively adapt to change, and proactively seek change, comprehensively strengthen military governance, deeply advance governing the military according to law, drive quality transformation, efficiency transformation, and driving-force transformation in our military's development, and use high-level governance to advance our military's high-quality development.
Seeking dreams across mountains and seas, the distance does not feel far; the road ahead is long, but we stride forward. We must work hard, unite in struggle, and strive without cease — forging an even stronger heroic military under the Party's banner, and continuously brightening the color of loyalty through new victories won one after another.
Layout design: Fang Han, Yang Lei