Chinese Communist Party

The Chinese Communist Party is the political party of China, founded in July 1921 by revolutionaries including Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu who emerged from the reformist May Fourth Movement and turned to Marxism after the 1917 Russian Revolution. After a prolonged civil war with the Nationalist Party, the CCP won power in 1949 and established the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong, who led the party until his death in 1976. The Great Leap Forward, a rapid collectivization campaign from 1958 to 1960, produced economic disaster and mass famine, and the Cultural Revolution Mao launched in 1966 brought a decade of political turmoil and purges of party leaders. Since 1949 the CCP has held sole control of China's government with no legal political opposition, and with more than 85 million members it is one of the largest political parties in the world. Under Xi Jinping, general secretary since 2012, the party has pursued increased centralization of power and an expanded international role for China.