The Red Century

100 years of the Chinese Communists

- Matt Roper

It was 100 years ago this month when 13 young activists met in secret in a house in Shanghai, and decided they would make China great again.

One of the oldest civilisations in history, which invented so many things including paper and porcelain, was on its knees, with civil unrest and millions in poverty.

Militarily weak, many thought the nation would soon be a puppet state of Japan, especially after Shandong territory in eastern China was handed to the Japanese after the First World War.

The crushing move convinced the group, which included a young library assistant called Mao Tsetung, it was time to take action.

Fearing discovery by the police after a mystery man interrupted their meeting, the would-be revolutionaries fled 100 miles to a lake in Jiaxing, where they concluded their discussions on a boat.

It was from these unlikely beginnings the world’s most powerful political movement was born, the Chinese Communist Party.

Within 30 years, it would take control of the country. It now has 93 million members. It has a tighter grip on the reins than ever, controlling a fifth of the world’s population and ruling over an economic superpower. Yesterday, as China’s president Xi Jinping presided over the 100-year celebrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, he hailed his party for “achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation”.

Rana Mitter, a Chinese history professor at Oxford University, believes the men who attended the party’s first meeting on July 23, 1921, would be proud.