It was Mao Zedong who decided that July 1st 1921 was the day of the party’s founding.
The actual date, July 23rd, had been forgotten by the time he seized on its significance
while the party was holed up in caves in north-western China in the late 1930s, a decade
before it took control of the country. In the build-up to the anniversary, one of the
world’s largest political parties has been instructing its 90m members to brush up on
their knowledge of the party’s past—not necessarily that particular detail (though it
acknowledges the mix-up about dates), but the broad sweep of events relating to its rise
and more than seven decades in power.
Officials call it the “four histories”—of the party, of Communist rule in China, of “reform
and opening”, and of the development of socialism. By ensuring that all party members
have the same understanding of these histories, the party hopes to keep them in
ideological line with Xi Jinping, the country’s leader.
Mr Xi worries about what he calls “historical nihilism”: a tendency that was once
evident among China’s liberals (though few dare raise their heads these days) to dwell
on negative aspects of the party’s history, especially during Mao’s brutal rule. Study of
the four histories is intended to ensure that no such nihilism mars the party’s birthday.
Instead, the idea is that only one lesson can be drawn from the party’s past century, and
that is an uplifting one.
There is an app to help, called “Study the Great Nation”. Since 2019 the party has been
using it to ensure ideological conformity, requiring all officials to log on frequently,
study its articles on Xi Jinping Thought and answer questions about them (slackers
beware: usage time is monitored). The four histories have become part of its output. In
Shanghai students and bureaucrats have been taking part in reading “marathons”:
competitions to digest as many works as possible on party history over days, weeks or
months.
Amnesia also helps. Mr Xi is in no mood to revive the atmosphere of 1981 in the build-
up to the party’s 60th birthday—the first big celebration of the party’s founding since
the death of Mao in 1976 and Deng Xiaoping’s launch of reform and opening two years
after. Far from avoiding the horrors of Mao’s rule, the party confronted some of them
head-on.
On July 1st that year the party’s mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, published a lengthy
speech by the party chief, Hu Yaobang, marking the anniversary. It also published the
text of a resolution by the party on “certain questions” relating to its own history. Both
were laced with criticisms of Mao and particularly of the “serious mistake” he had made
by launching the decade-long Cultural Revolution.
Any discussion of the horrors of that period is now all but banned. Soon after he came to
power Mr Xi said that the achievements of the reform era could not be used as a way of
negating what had come before. In 2021 it is unlikely that, during all the hoopla
surrounding the anniversary, the party will recall Mr Hu’s warning in his speech 40
years ago that the reason the Cultural Revolution continued for so long was Mao’s
arrogation of absolute power (“the destruction of collective leadership”, as Mr Hu put it).